The beginning of last night’s public session of the council meeting was devoted to addressing the news that is, as of now, being described as a bookkeeping error.
Financial transactions, unauthorized by the council, apparently led to the premature payment of a loan. An analogous situation would be paying off your mortgage when your accountant advises better investments for a greater return on your money. Unfortunately, the money lost by Oakland will not be returned.
Mayor Szabo addressed the issue, noting that all proper authorities had been informed, the situation was being dealt with, and the council was working to contain the damage which is estimated to possibly cost Oakland taxpayers an additional $50 a year on top of the projected tax increases. With voters having just rejected a school budget, it was anticipated that this news would not be well received by any of the residents at Wednesday’s council meeting. The error is estimated at 3.8 million dollars, and the council will use existing surpluses to diminish this number to 2.5 million which would be covered over five years.
The situation was brought to light during a regularly scheduled audit, and was referred to the county prosecutor to assure that there was no criminal intent. Mayor Szabo advised those in attendance that he could not comment in depth on specifics at this time, but that the council would provide a full disclosure of how the incident was allowed to happen. Like most towns with part-time lawmakers, the daily functioning of the town is handled by administrators.
Oakland will need to wait to find out all the facts, but the regular contingent of residents who attend the town council meetings will be sure the full story is provided. Residents raised questions of how this error occurred, why the transfer of large sums did not raise red flags, and what steps are being considered to prevent it from happening again. Residents wanted answers, but understood the need to wait until the investigation is completed. It is expected that many of them will be waiting at each council meeting.
I find it incredulous that $3.8 million could just be spent without anyone noticing. I thought we had a CFO/Treasurer who’s job, by definition, is to handle the borough’s finances yet the blame is placed on a bookkeeper. Where are the controls? Where is the oversight? With ever-rising taxes in this town, how is it that a bookkeeper can be given the responsibility and authority over making payments on behalf of the borough? Who, in their right mind, would give their bookkeeper such authority? Why did we pay a CFO/Treasurer over $100k per year if the work is being done by a bookkeeper?
Our Mayor isn’t a business man and it’s obvious he should be removed from office. How do you let your staff hurt the town like this? How do you not know you spent an extra 3.8 million dollars?
But hey, he runs civilized meetings and looks great on TV. This is what the town voted for…..
Whoever was responsible for this “mistake”, I don’t mean the clerk being scape-goated, should have to foot the bill, not the taxpayers. The person who was entrusted with the responsibility of making sure things like this do not happen should re-sign. If he/she does not, they should be fired. It’s time for a change in Oakland. For a change to responsible and controlled fiscal management.