No Easy Solutions

No Easy Solutions

Clearing up Winchendon's financial debacle

To The Editor: 10/1/2014
To The Editor:

On the 25th of September, I received an email from Ms. Naponen which was also addressed to Beth Hunt. In the email she stated that she had not sent it to any others.

Ms. Naponen asked for a sit down meeting after which she said she would prepare a statement and read it to the full Board of Selectmen (BOS) of the Town of Winchendon.

Within days I was called by The Gardner News and told they had a copy of the email. A day later in reading the article TGN wrote they mentioned Selectman Robert O’Keefe also had the email.

I have no idea how a private email between Ms. Naponen and Ms. Hunt and I became so public, but I feel free to express and opinion now that it has appeared in the newspapers.

The Town Accountant has a direct line to the Board of Selectmen and, I believe, a dotted line to the Town Manager. In her email, she essentially admits she was concerned over certain matters and to her concerns to the Town Manager and the state Department of Revenue (DOR) and the Auditors.

She did not bring her concerns to the Board of Selectmen, which would have been the proper channel of communication.

That being said, it is fair to fault her for not following the route but I would not be quick to absolve the Town Manager, the DOR and the auditors to have ignored her, if they did.

One small part of her email included the following:

“At various times, I told Jim that the Health Insurance Fund needs to be addressed. Rates need to be raised and more money appropriated for our share.  The auditors also told him that he needs to have his consultant review the amount of money being taken in versus what we are spending.  Also our DOR rep told me and I relayed to him that DOR would let the deficit not be counted as needed to be raised in FY2012 but he had to take care of it in FY2013.  Which he did not do.”

Accordingly, it would seem the appropriate next steps would be to ask Ms. Napponen what evidence she has to back up her charges and to bring such evidence to the next meeting of the Board of Selectmen so we can clear the air on all of this.

It was not proper for the accountant not to tell the BOS.

But if she told the Town Manager it was not proper for him not to tell the BOS.

And certainly if she raised the issue with the DOR or the auditors, it was not proper for them not to tell the BOS.

If she has evidence of making these communications then all those mentioned above need to answer to the BOS as well as Ms. Naponen.

If she does not have evidence to support her claim, then an apology is due the Town Manager, DOR and auditors for her remarks.

At the outset, on first learning about these financial problems I publicly stated — as advised by the DOR — that from that moment forward, everything we did needed to be transparent to the people of Winchendon, regardless of where the chips might fall.

I have taken that approach and continue to believe it is the only way forward.

If Ms. Naponen is willing to appear before the Winchendon Board of Selectmen at our next meeting, I am willing to put her on the agenda and to ensure she will be treated fairly and with respect. In the absence of proof of her accusations, such an appearance would be not recommended.

I am speaking here not as a member of the Select Board but rather as an individual, a resident of Winchendon, who received a private message that was leaked to the press and received wide coverage.

Jackson Blair
Winchendon

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Winchendon woes

John Vincent
Newspapers in Education coordinator

 

As Winchendon comes to terms with the recently discovered $2.3 million budget deficit, residents and town officials need to remember that the key thing to keep in mind is how to solve the problem.

Several ideas have been floated — including instituting a budget freeze, making potential cuts, taking money out of the town’s stabilization account and possibly voting for a Proposition 2 1/2 override.

Whatever the eventual solution is, it’s important for town officials to work together without too much acrimony in order to get the job done and be able to continue to move forward in the best interest of Winchendon.

That can be difficult when the problem rises to the level of the Board of Selectmen taking a vote asking for the resignation of Town Manager James Kreidler — as well as selectmen Chairman C. Jackson Blair saying that he would be willing to resign.

Winchendon has already taken the first important step in solving the problem, which is to switch to traditional insurance rather than the odd self-insurance system that evidently led to some confusion over whether the bills were being properly paid or not.

There has been much talk that this all came up under the watch of former Town Accountant Charlotte Gallant, although she says she told everyone about this already — which everyone denied.

Then there’s the whole question about who was ultimately responsible for oversight? The town accountant reports directly to the selectmen, but with the town manager also being expected to be on top of all nuances with the budget, who’s to blame?

These are some important questions that need to be examined, so Winchendon can make sure people are accountable for their actions and to make sure nothing like this happens again.

But with people examining the whole situation and thinking out loud about what went wrong, it should be expected that there will be criticism. There needs to be some criticism because everyone involved let a major mistake slip through the cracks.

Should someone be fired? Should town officials resign or be voted out? Those are all good, fair questions.

But with recent volleys of he-said, she-said in the press — the blame game seems to be cranking up and that isn’t really going to help the situation.

If there’s criticism to be made, make it, but don’t kick ‘em while they’re down.

Let’s keep it clean and hopefully everyone will be able to continue to work together without excessive name-calling, blame-shifting and unsubstantiated accusations.

Sometimes, making decisions can be difficult, especially for small towns with high hopes that everyone hired or elected will be able to figure out all the nuances of local government.

In this case, one of those nuances — paying the total bill for the town’s insurance — was botched.

Let’s continue the conversation, get to the bottom of it, but do so with enough decorum that will allow Winchendon to actually solve the problem instead of breaking down into internal bickering.

In the end, this looks like a big mistake, not a case of anyone intentionally doing anything wrong. It’s doubtful any town official or employee sets out to work with plans to mess up the town’s finances.

So, when we get down to the nitty gritty and figure this out, let’s just do it with enough respect for the people involved. We can have a civil conversation about it, and avoid the rhetoric and histrionics that would only make a bad situation worse.