Those Other Sidney Warriors

Another town board meeting last night and another exciting episode in the continuing saga of So, why did Bob run?

I can’t tell you how sorry I was to miss last month’s meeting. After chasing down the issue of the amazing, mysteriously disappearing $50,000 and fixing the matter — which involved simply making sure the bookkeepers know which account the money for the hospital is supposed to come from — he spent a few minutes gently schooling the Supervisor on his fiduciary responsibilities.

For some reason, our Supervisor seems to think that he doesn’t have any fiduciary responsibility.

So, last night he was pleased to note that he (um … that is to say, the Town of Sidney) will “make money” on the East Sidney Dam recreational area this year. He wanted to take the “profit” and use it to set up a computer-enabled camera system at the entrance to the park that would capture cars and their license plates, so that campers could be easily identified “if necessary.”

The Town Board, in an instance of what I think is lax checks and balances, essentially gave Mr. McCarthy a $5,000 blank check to spend on this system. It would have been better if he’d done the research and presented a detailed proposal of what he wanted to buy and how much it would cost, so that the Town Board would know that he isn’t wasting money.

Of course, nobody should have to worry about Mr. McCarthy wasting money, since he is so insistent on saving taxpayer dollars. But it would have been the right way to go about it.

Then again, for all that he talks about transparency, McCarthy does not appear to much care for accountability.

Since the town government was authorized to take on a few million dollars in debt, they are required to provide regular reports to the Comptroller’s officer, the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, along with a few other folks (as well as copies to all members of the Board).

Sidney has not filed it’s first quarter report. As of the end of this month, another reporting period will close and another report will be due at the end of July. There are sure to be fines (wasting taxpayer dollars by not complying with your paperwork there, Bob).

Town Clerk Lisa French told our Supervisor frankly, “If we don’t get something to them soon, the Attorney General’s office will get involved.”

McCarthy acknowledged that the matter needed to be taken care of but he did not appear to believe anybody would do anything to him. He is trying to talk Deb Stickler into taking on the bookkeeping, because the folks doing it now don’t want to. That may be why they keep appearing on the agenda but never showing up to give a report at the town board meetings.

Deb doesn’t really want to either because she is unfamiliar with the law and the legal requirements and doesn’t really feel qualified.

Lack of a reasonably competent bookkeeper is causing problems for Sidney. It is Mr. McCarthy’s responsibility to deal with that problem, even if it means doing the books himself until he can find somebody to handle this for him.

It’ll be interesting to see whether McCarthy manages to get his administrative ducks in a row fast enough to keep both the Comptroller and the Attorney General off his case.

Stay tuned.