The
Forum:
In response
Mr. Lausell's letter ...
The following letter was sent by Schuyler County Legislature
Chairman Dennis Fagan to The Odessa File in answer to a published
letter from Legislator Michael Lausell critical of several aspects of
county government.
To the Editor on Oct. 7:
I am writing in response to a recent post by Legislator
Michael Lausell that is critical of the Treasurer's office. While I
respect Legislator Lausell's right to state his opinion, I take exception
to a number of misleading or flat-out inaccurate assertions he makes
and would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
In outlining key points to support his position, Mr. Lausell fails to
elaborate on supporting details and selectively presents information
that misleads the reader in furthering his agenda. The following is
my rebuttal, or more appropriately additional information on each of
the points (italicized) he mentions.
"The 2013 yearly independent audit of the Treasurer's
office has recently been posted to the Schuyler County website and it
again identifies material weaknesses in the daily operations of the
treasurer's office." This is absolutely correct. However,
the 2013 audit points out many of the deficiencies that have been continually
identified in audits of the past decade. What Legislator Lausell fails
to mention is that much of the 2013 material weaknesses identified year
after year have finally been corrected in 2014. This is through a combination
of efforts on former Treasurer Whyman's part with those efforts being
continued by current staff. This is further verified by the NYS Comptroller's
review of the office, and we have been told by Comptroller's staff that
they feel that the office "has finally turned the corner"
on the road to improvement. Links to each of these reports:
http://www.schuylercounty.us/DocumentCenter/index/59
http://www.schuylercounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/2678
"At the October 14th legislative session we will
vote to approve the payment of $20,000 to cover significant unanticipated
expenses involving the 2013 audit due to deficiencies in our account
practices that had to be corrected by the auditor." Also true.
However, under the former Treasurer the County has spent in excess of
$150,000 over her term, to pay for accounting services above and beyond
the annual contract with our independent auditors. I am also confident
that given the progress made in 2014, we now have the ability to seriously
expect to lower our independent audit costs moving forward as opposed
to continually supplementing them.
"On September 28th, the New York State Comptroller
added Schuyler County to the list of counties in New York state under
significant fiscal stress." The exclusive reason for Schuyler
County receiving this designation is due to a lower than recommended
fund balance. While this is a cause of great concern for the Legislature,
significant efforts have been made to reverse this trend with the last
two fiscal years ending in small surpluses and a forecast to increase
more substantially in 2014 as well. Mr. Lausell fails to mention that
a contributing factor to this (beyond increased unfunded mandates) was
the inaccurate accounting of reserves by the former Treasurer that resulted
in artificially inflated balances. This is also referenced in the NYS
Comptroller's report which states "As a result, County officials
did not know the true cash or financial position at any point in time
during the fiscal year. In fact, the public accountant (CPA) had to
reconcile cash and all the balance sheet accounts during the annual
financial audits and provide correcting journal entries for the material
errors in the Treasurer's records.'
"In our budget meetings this week we continue
to be hampered in planning for the 2015 budget by inadequate reports
from the Treasurer's office regarding our account balances."
I am at a loss to understand this comment. I attended every budget workshop
and have found the opposite to be true. The County Administrator commented
on several occasions during this process as to the marked improvement
in receiving accurate data from the Treasurer's office. In my entire
tenure on the Legislature, this year has been without question the best
with respect to financial data submitted for budget deliberations.
"To address these issues, we must work together.
The full legislature was not informed that the Comptroller's staff was
coming to the county to discuss the problems in the Treasurer's office.
Only by calling them beforehand was I able to meet with them."
No disagreement on the working together part and I believe that we have
taken a collaborative approach as a Legislature in working with each
Treasurer by offering assistance that up until recently was not accepted.
Regarding Mr. Lausell's allegation that he was not informed of the Comptroller's
meeting, I can only assume that he doesn't read his mail. Each Legislator
personally received correspondence directly from the Comptroller's office
notifying them of upcoming meetings and outlining the process to schedule
a meeting with their staff. Any inference that attempts were made to
exclude attendees is blatantly false.
"We must add funding to the 2015 budget for training
of the treasurer's office staff. The very small amount spent on training
of staff over the last three years only hurts us. They should all attend
the reasonably priced Comptroller Accounting School." Funding
has been included (and utilized) in budgets dating back over a decade.
Every Treasurer has had the opportunity and funding to attend the NYS
Finance Officers training schools every year. All previous Treasurers
have participated in these trainings, by the way. The 2015 budget additionally
reflects a 100% increase in training funds to allow for better utilization
of enterprise accounting systems now that we have staff that is willing
to use them.
"We must work closely with our accounting software
vendor. In early July they suggested a small change that will improve
the efficiency and accuracy of data entry. As of last week, it still
has not been implemented." Legislator Lausell selectively
fails to note that in the past year we have made tremendous strides
in correcting the underutilization of our existing software. With respect
to changes to the daily receipts module, the Legislature has wisely
accepted the recommendation of the current Deputy Treasurer to first
fully implement our existing software to determine if it is even necessary
to spend additional funds for something we in fact already have. Additionally,
given the unexpected departure of the former Treasurer, the office has
more critical immediate priorities to address but still anticipates
the addition of this new module. Mr. Lausell was present and involved
in these discussions yet conveniently neglects to mention this.
It is not my style to use the media as a forum for settling
disagreements and I write this response regretting that I have been
forced to do so owing to the irresponsible comments of a colleague.
My motivation is not political, nor are my words rhetoric. I simply
want to ensure that the Chief Fiscal Officer of the County is qualified
and competent, and I believe most residents of our County share this
desire. Former Treasurer Whyman's unexpected departure could have been
a crippling blow to an already fragile organization. However, numerous
other County staff immediately stepped up to fill the gap and are to
be commended for their commitment and dedication to serving our constituency.
To imply that actions to achieve basic competency in this critical office
are politically motivated is disingenuous and deceptive. A lack of knowledge
on Mr. Lausell's part should not be the basis of deception and distortion
of facts.
Dennis A. Fagan
Schuyler County Legislator, Old District 1
and current Legislature Chairman
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