Clarksburg Accounting Errors Affecting Free Cash Approval
 Finance Committee members Mark Denault, left, and Lori-Anne Aubin meet with Selectmen Jeffrey Levanos and Chairman Carl McKinney. Also in attendance were Fin Com member Rebecca Buck, Town Administrator Thomas Webb and Town Accountant Christa Marsh. |
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Frustrated town officials have yet to set an annual town meeting as they try to work through discrepancies in the town's financial accounts.
The state Department of Revenue has informed town officials that Monday may be the earliest it can certify the town's free cash because of years of accounting errors.
"I think people in this town will be very unhappy if we delay town meeting to June," said Finance Committee Chairman Mark Denault on Tuesday night.
But it looks like it may be a June date because of a 20-day posting requirement.
The Selectmen two weeks ago authorized the police chief to investigate the discrepancies between the year-end balancing between the treasurer and tax collector's offices going back years. The DOR also is looking at $24,000 in school choice funds placed in the wrong account and possible double entry of the recent Department of Public Works truck loan.
All that's put the amount of free cash available to the town in limbo: It could be $200,000 — or $20,000.
Denault said he was concerned that "an agreement to disagree" on balancing the books between two town offices continued for years without being resolved. Some of the balances were zeroed without explanation, he said, and others carried over.
The DOR is estimating $38,000 is owed out of free cash to balance all those past year-end accounts, said town officials on Tuesday, adding that last year's certification was done with "bad numbers."
Free cash is being counted on for the Senior Center's $9,000 generator, $24,000 to pay back school-choice funds to the school district, the truck payment and the $38,180.19 to close out the past accounts. Officials are hoping that once everything is accounted for, there will be $138,000 left.
"There are people in this building on a daily basis who are accountable for this problem," said Denault. "I don't think it's fair to this committee to take responsibility for what happened before we got there. ... Those numbers could have been fixed before."
Selectmen Chairman Carl McKinney noted the problems had been discovered by the current staff.
"We did sit down, we did hash it out and we did commit ourselves to making sure we fixed them," he said. "It's complicated our finances, it's complicated our budget process, it's complicated our free cash."
The town is also dealing with overlay accounts — set aside for potential tax abatements — that were not closed out properly.
An audit was apparently done in 2010 that pointed to some of the issues in a notation but the Selectmen said they did not see the audit. "We have to clean up these accounts and make the changes public," said McKinney.
Town Administrator Thomas Webb said the town was talking with Scanlon & Associates Certified Public Accountants about doing a new audit, possibly for the past three years. Scanlon did not do the 2010 audit.
Meanwhile, the fiscal 2014 town budget was approved with final numbers on Tuesday.
The Finance Committee and Selectmen are recommending a tight budget of $3.857 million for fiscal 2014, 2.9 percent higher than this year's budget.
The total school budget — for Clarksburg Elementary and the assessment for McCann Technical School — is up $44,000, to $2,655,286. That's 1.7 percent over this year's budget.
The town side is $1.2 million, up $65,000, or 5.7 percent, over this year. The figure includes increases in fuel, insurance and long-term loan payments, step raises and across-the-board raises of 2.5 percent for town employees.
The school stabilization account has about $125,000 and the town stabilization account about $190,000.
"I think this is going to be the best we're going to get," said McKinney. Even though the budget is up, it's increased only half as much as the year before, he said, describing it as "really, really lean."
Denault agreed. "I think the budget is done as accurately as it can be ... there's no slush in it," he said. "I think that's what the people want and expect."
The Finance Committee, all three members of whom were appointed last fall, have been challenging the department heads to defend their budgets. Committee member Lori-Anne Aubin said she felt the numbers were solid and could be explained at town meeting except for the school budget.
"We don't know the detail behind those numbers," she said. "We've met with every manager, we can explain every number, but we can't explain the biggest number."
The two boards also discussed the use of free cash for emergency or large capital expenses. The town is currently waiting for word on the costs of replacing the culvert on Gates Avenue and how it will affect planned roadwork.
Denault was of the opinion that excessive free cash was a failure in budgeting. McKinney said, "if we are not going to fund capital items out of free cash, we need to set up some capital accounts."
Concerns that the state could not certify the town's free cash before the planned May 29 annual town meeting date led to the town meeting and election warrants being separated. Town Clerk Carol Jammalo said that means a second voter registration has to be posted 20 days in advance for town meeting, although the town is checking with legal counsel to confirm.
Normally town meeting is the day after the election but the Clarksburg School's gym was already scheduled to host the annual Holocaust studies program on Wednesday, May 22, beginning at 6 p.m.
Tags: audit, town budget, town meeting 2013, town warrant,
