Uncommon Sense: Dominos

Written by Jeff Morris
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 23:00

This year’s town election all comes down to one document, which I presented here back on Feb. 19: The cover letter, or Supplemental Memo, to the audit of the town of Lewisboro’s financial records for 2007, submitted by Joseph A. DeMilia Jr., certified public accountant of the firm DeMilia & Honigman, LLP, which conducted all of the town’s audits for seven years. The letter states that the condition of the 2007 financial records was as follows:

1. Initial reports presented for audit did not balance.

2. Bank reconciliations for many bank accounts for many months, were not prepared. On occasion, bank accounts were overdrawn.

3. On at least one occasion, a required payment against an issued debt was not paid timely.

4. In several instances, control schedules did not reconcile to the amounts reported in the general ledger.

5. Checks received for deposit were often deposited with no account code applied due to lack of experience with the town’s budget by the accounting staff.

6. Monthly financial reports to the Town Board were not prepared.

7. The annual town budget as adopted for the calendar year 2007 was not timely and accurately input into the general ledger.

Just to be clear, those were the conditions left by the Republican team of Ed Mahoney, Peter DeLucia and Al Perruzza — the very same guys who are now blasting Town Supervisor Edward Brancati for supposedly mismanaging the town’s finances (when they’re not also blasting him for voting along with them in favor of their own budget). This year’s entire Republican campaign is built on a single idea: that the only way to right the financial ship is to bring back the Republicans’ “professional” financial management. But every one of the assertions they’ve based on that idea fall like dominos when you go back to the auditor’s memo.

As Mr. DeMilia, the outside auditor, added, “Ms. Rose Sickenius re-posted most of the entire year and presented revised financial records for audit. Her efforts were exemplary and extremely professional. However, such an undertaking was not completed until the final general ledger was presented on December 20, 2008.” Understand this in context: When Mr. Brancati took over as supervisor in January 2008, he discovered that the Republicans’ finance director had failed to make a bond payment in December 2007 — which could have destroyed the town’s bond rating — and had moved $3 million from the general and highway operating funds to pay for upgrades to the Oakridge sewage treatment plant that were supposed to have been financed by issuing bonds. That alone would have bankrupted the town. Mr. Brancati immediately fired the Republicans’ finance director, hired Ms. Sickenius, issued the appropriate bonds and payments and moved funds back to where they were supposed to be, and worked with Ms. Sickenius for the entire year to reconstruct the books so they could be audited. During the year, Ms. Sickenius was offered a job in another town that meant a 62% pay increase. Rather than leave right away, she stayed on until the task of helping Mr. Brancati reconstruct the Republicans’ unauditable books was completed.

This is a simple (though disheartening) story, yet it has been distorted beyond recognition by the Republican spin machine. They complain about how disappointed they are in Mr. Brancati for “blaming everybody but himself” for the state of the town’s finances. Well, excuse me, but are we supposed to ignore the auditor because they choose to? They now proclaim, “The books weren’t unauditable. Look — the audit is posted on the town Web site!” Indeed it is, but only because Mr. Brancati spent a year repairing the damage so the audit could be completed. They insist they did not decimate the town’s fund balance — conveniently ignoring the fact that the results were restated after Mr. Brancati did them a big favor by moving funds back into it. At The Ledger debate, Charlie Duffy, their latest “professional” candidate for supervisor, scoffed at the idea that any books could be unauditable, and joined the rest of the Republican team in opposing both tax increases and spending cuts to try to fill the gap caused by a catastrophic drop in real estate sales tax revenue. (He also scoffed at the idea that the current economic downturn was any worse than numerous others.) Their answer? Rent cabanas at the town pool, and sell lifetime pool memberships to cash-strapped families. Hearing that nearly made me topple like a domino.

I’m endorsing Mr. Brancati for supervisor, with Maureen Maguire (a true financial professional) and write-in candidate Bob Goett (a true consensus builder) for Town Board.

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