Thankfully, greater oversight of town government finances by NYS...
The NYS Comptrollers Office was highly critical of neighboring Hamilton's bookkeeping practices -- or lack thereof !!! Here is a link to an interesting article by ALAINA POTRIKUS of the Syracuse Post Standard.
Fortunately, BROOKFIELD has a new,independent accountant (Tackaberry - Hamilton, NY) and we have had the financial information available at each meeting. Granted, there have been errors, but they appear to have been corrected. Here are some highlights from the article and auditor's report:
* Poor financial controls caused Hamilton to accumulate a $1.2 million reserve --that’s larger than the town’s annual budget
* The cash should have been used to benefit taxpayers, by reducing property taxes or paying for one-time expenses
* the town board could not monitor the town’s financial condition because former Supervisor Walt Jaquay did not provide monthly financial reports and failed since 2003 to file annual financial reports with the state.
*Current Supervisor Bob Kuiper said the town has hired an independent accounting firm to provide bookkeeping services, which will produce financial reports for the town’s monthly meetings.
And to think that we actually have better bookkeeping records than Hamilton! We can be proud of that!
LINK: State faults Town of HAMILTON Finances POST STANDARD (Potrikus) 11-24-10
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/state_faults_hamilton_finances.html
