No Major Problems Seen in Town Finances

The results of the New York State Comptroller's report for the town of Bedford are in and officials seem confident in the results.

The town board briefly discussed the report at its Jan. 17 meeting but no one raised major concerns about the recommendations, which board member Chris Burdick described as nothing "terribly earth-shattering."

In an interview the Journal News, Comptroller Ed Ritter also seemed confident about the results.

“Honestly, after the time that it took for them to do this audit, if this is the worst they can find, then the residents of Bedford can be certain that we are spending money as efficiently as possible,” Ritter told The Journal News. “This proves it.”

The report includes the NYS comptroller's findings on town finances from Jan. 2010 through March 2011, and the town's response. 

Among the state findings:

• The Board has not established policies relating to the billing, collecting and accounting for water district rents. Town officials have not developed procedures to ensure that duties are segregated, customers are properly billed, and that collections are accounted for consistently and properly safeguarded. As a result, unpaid bills totaling $151,809 for 2009 and 2010 were re-levied on property taxes for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, respectively, without any penalties.
• The Board and Justices did not ensure that the internal controls over Court operations were appropriately designed or operating effectively.
• The Town overpaid 11 employees an extra $1,505 from January to March 2011 because they did not use the correct health insurance premium to compute the health insurance buyout incentive. If the calculation error is not corrected, the Town will end up overpaying the 11 employees an additional $6,021 for the remaining nine months of the year.

The town has until April 16 to respond to the comptroller but has already implemented some corrective actions.

In her response to the state comptroller, Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts wrote that the lack of penalties for water bills allowed for a delay in the receipt of invoices and that fees were ultimately collected through individual tax bills. The town has said it will now collect late fees. In addition the town has written to the 11 employees to ask for a return of the insurance overpayment.

For their part, Town Justices Kevin Quaranta and Erik Jacobsen prepared a written response to the the report claiming inaccuracies in bail accounting from cases going back to 1991. Both shared their concerns about a heavy caseload and a reduction in office staffing over the last two years, noting "without appropriate staffing, a risk of error remains."

To read a copy of the report and the town's response, click here.