Editor, The Ocean Star:
We, your new mayor and council, are discovering problem after problem left from the previous administration — problems that are costing the taxpayers.
Many are already aware of our latest discovery — the borough’s bookkeeping for at least the last four months of 2010, and possibly longer, was essentially non-existent. The general ledger of our previous chief financial officer [CFO] is a rat’s nest of cross-outs, white-outs, entries in pencil — unacceptable for a Little League fundraiser, much less for a multi-million-dollar municipality.
Handling taxpayers’ money is a public trust, which requires both careful spending and responsible record-keeping. It is hard to determine our current position, because the record keeping is so sloppy it’s hard to believe it’s not deliberate. We have been handed a situation in which it is impossible to know our exact financial position — fixing the damage has already cost the taxpayers $45,000, and we are not yet done.
As part of the newly elected majority, we are fixing the problem. We are implementing a system of checks and balances to insure that all financial transactions are documented, approved and accounted for.
An accounting firm is carefully reconstructing the financial records from previous years, and our new auditor will carefully examine their work. We will bring in independent reviewers, including state agencies, if, when and where appropriate. Finally, we will hire a new, qualified CFO to replace the CFO from the previous administration.
It’s hard to believe the previous administration would let this happen. But, we are getting this under control. You have my word that as long as I am mayor, and as long as I have leaders like Jack McHugh, Chris Leitner and Chris Goss working with me, it will not happen again.
WILLIAM SCHROEDER, MAYOR OF POINT PLEASANT
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