Grafton Town Board Action – New Assessor Appointed; State Audit Completed

by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board went into Executive Session in the middle of their Town Board meeting on September 9 to deliberate about who to appoint as the Town Assessor. They were in that session for about an hour and a half, and when they came out they voted 4-1 to appoint David J. Galarneau of Au Sable Forks, NY, as the Town’s Assessor.
[private]He was appointed for a six year term which will begin October 1, 2013.
Barbara Messenger made the motion to appoint Galarneau, seconded by Supervisor Frank Higgins. They were joined voting in favor of the appointment by Marie Claus and Rick Ungaro. Mike Crandall voted “nay.” He said he felt Galarneau and current Assessor Craig Surprise are equally qualified, and he would rather go with “the hometown guy.”
In response to a question during public comment time, Supervisor Frank Higgins said that Galarneau’s salary for 2014 will be $19,000. The Assessor’s salary for 2013 is $23,000.
Galarneau has been an assessor for 17 years. He holds a Masters degree. He has been the Sole Assessor for three towns up the Northway, near the west bank of Lake Champlain – Willsboro, Elizabethtown and Westport. Grafton is about two and a quarter hours drive one way from the nearest of those towns.
Comptroller’s Audit Shows Phantom Cell Phone Charges
The Comptroller’s office has released its findings from the audit of the Town of Grafton’s finances. The auditors found shortcomings in the Town’s claims auditing practices. Many bills were paid late during the period under study, which was from January 2011 through October 2012. They also found that the Town continued to pay for a cell phone for about three years after it was no longer in service, from 2009 until some time in 2012. The Town made 38 payments totaling about $1,400 after the phone was no longer in service.
Because they found weaknesses in the claims auditing during the period they were looking at, the auditors went back and looked at an additional 30 claims during the period from October to December of 2012 to see if improvements had been made. These claims “were paid timely and contained adequate supporting documentation.”
The auditors’ recommendations were to adopt methods and procedures to ensure that claims are thoroughly examined and paid in a timely manner and to seek to recoup funds paid to the cell phone vendor for services that were not provided.
Corrective Action
The Town’s response was included in the document, which specified claims auditing policies and procedures to be used by the Town from now on. These became the “Corrective Action Plan” adopted by the Board by a resolution passed at the September 9 Town Board meeting.
These measures include claims auditing training for newly elected Town officials, Department Head review and signature on all claims to verify the goods and services were provided and the amount claimed by the vendor is correct. Approved claims are to be presented to the Town Board with an abstract of all claims and which accounts they will be charged to. These policies and procedures are specified in great detail in the Town’s three page response.
Audit Available Online
The complete report is available at www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/.   At the top of that page is a heading called “Quick Links,” and the first item in that list is “Audits of Local Governments.” If you click that, it is easy to find Grafton’s audit from that page.
Supervisor Higgins said he was disappointed by the Comptroller’s audit. He noted that the report contains only about two pages of analysis and recommendations about Grafton’s finances, and confines itself to comments about claims auditing. He said this seems like a very meagre output considering all the time that was put into it. He notes that “while they were here they looked into all financial aspects of the Town functions – Clerk’s office, Assessor’s office, Highway, Justice Court, etc.” yet they made no comment whatsoever about any of these things. While the Claims auditing comments were accurate and useful, many of those problems had already been fixed by the time the report was released, and comments on other things the auditors looked at would have been useful. He felt it was wasteful of State funds to spend so much time doing this and produce so little that was useful to the Town. But he recognized that the State has its ways and he wasn’t about to try to change them. “They do what they do, and we can only dance to their tune,” said Higgins.
Time Warner
Supervisor Higgins said Time Warner Cable’s design and mapping are just about done, and they are now formulating a construction plan. A waiver required before giving them a cable TV franchise is on the Public Service Commission’s agenda for their October meeting. If granted, that would clear the way for Time Warner to begin stringing cable.
Nancy LaRocque asked if they would be offering cable service to everyone in town or only in the more populated areas. Higgins replied that he believed that was the whole point of the design and mapping project, to determine which areas have enough customers to justify installation of cable. He said he expects those on a road with very few houses will probably not be offered cable TV service.
Travel Trailers
Rick Ungaro proposed an amendment to the Town’s 1970s era law which prohibits travel trailers to be occupied on private land in Grafton. His amendment proposed that a maximum of two occupied travel trailers could be parked on private land in Grafton from April through October, as long as they have a holding tank and the contents of such tank are emptied in a legal and environmentally sound manner. November through March trailers could only be occupied for 10 consecutive days and only with prior Town Board approval.
Barbara Messenger said she couldn’t act on the proposed amendment since she had only received it “three minutes before the meeting.” The Town Board seemed to agree that they needed a workshop meeting to discuss an amendment of the travel trailer law, and they scheduled one for 6 pm on September 23. The Town Board seemed to agree that restrictions on occupied travel trailers on private land need to be loosened, but it is not clear that they agree on how much to allow.
Beach Road
Supervisor Higgins read a rather strongly worded letter from the Town Attorney, Sal Ferlazzo, urging the Town to do something “to remedy the unsafe condition” in the part of Beach Road near the beach. Emergency vehicles have occasionally found the road blocked by parked cars. Ferlazzo said he is very concerned about it, because once the problem has been presented to the Board, they could be considered negligent if they do nothing. He noted that the Town’s insurance provider would be very unhappy if they found that this problem had been put before the Town Board and they did nothing. “I strongly urge prompt action,” said Ferlazzo.
In response to this appeal, the Board unanimously passed a resolution adding Beach Road to the list in Local Law #225. Higgins said they would make the entire road a Fire Lane but only the area near the beach would be posted for no parking.
Ethics Committee
Supervisor Higgins said he had searched and found the Town resolution  which formed the Ethics Committee. The members were to be Mike Crandall, Mike Rizzo and Sister Kenan. Mike Crandall agreed to serve, but Sister Kenan has passed away and the Town needs to ask Mike Rizzo if he is still willing to serve on the Ethics Committee. Higgins said he will be working towards reconstituting the Committee.
Budget Workshops
The Board scheduled Budget Workshops for September 23 and September 30 at 7 pm to go over the 2014 Town budget.[/private]