Sewer Power Play
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Selectmen, Town Administrator and Sewer Department:
from the 2009 financial review from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue:
Centralize the Collection of Taxes, Fees and Other Charges As a matter of sound financial management practice, those responsible for determining payments due the town should not also be charged with collecting those payments. Therefore, we recommend that officials separate responsibility for creating the commitment that authorizes the collection of taxes, fees or other charges due the municipality from the collection function. Presently, the light & water plant and sewer department create a commitment, and, at the same time, are responsible for receiving payments. This approach may require that personnel currently operating elsewhere be reallocated to the collector’s office in order to process the additional customer volume.
Note: No mention of billing, only collecting!
from 2010 Independent Audit report from Melanson Heath & Company:
Improve segregation of duties in Sewer department
The Sewer Dept. is now responsible for collecting customer receipts. Because of the small size of the dept., one clerk is responsible for performing all aspects of customer billing, collections, receipt postings, abatement/adjustment postings, and reconciliations to the Town's general ledger. This results in a lack of segregation of duties and increases the risk of errors or irregularities occurring and going undetected.
We recommend the Town segregate duties by transferring collection responsibilities to the Tax Collector's office. We also recommend the Sewer Dept.'s detail sewer receivables continue to be reconciled with the Town Accountant's general ledger, and that this reconciliation be documented on a form signed by both the Sewer clerk and Town accountant. This will result in an improved segregation of duties and improved documented oversight.
Note: No mention of billing.
Board of Selectmen meeting of April 2, 2018:
Selectmen Brooks asks if the sewer dept. quarterly bill collections were moved to the town collectors office, can the sewer department enterprise fund be billed for that work and could those dollars help the town's general fund budget. Could the current town hall staff handle the additional work?
Selectmen Caplis stated yes to charging sewer dept. enterprise fund for work, yes to those dollars helping town general fund and no to could the current staff handle the extra work.
Town Administrator Terenzini stated he disagreed with selectmen Caplis on staff levels.
Note: This was about moving collections to the collectors office. One other question was regarding to any possible savings to sewer users. Nothing about billing.
On first look, this seems to point out that selectmen do not have control of Sewer dept. and neither does the Town Administrator. If they did, this move would surely have already been completed. There is an elected entity of Sewer Commissioners. Since one of the impasses seem to be concerning pay raises for non-union sewer dept. employees, that do not come from taxation, but rather an enterprise fund, where all costs are paid for from fees, it seems like selectmen should instruct the Town Administrator and town accountant to process and allow these raises to be made and then some progress could be made on the collection front.
The only item involved is moving of collections of quarterly sewer billing to the Town Treasurer/Collector office. There appears no need for any employee reductions at the Sewer dept., nor any other control over sewer issues by the selectmen or town administrator. The retained earnings of the Sewer dept. and Sewer betterment are not funds to be raided by the selectmen to bolster the Town general fund expenditure items. But as selectmen Brooks stated, or asked, can these monies help the general fund budget? It is the money the selectmen are after, not efficiency, not a financial report, not an audit report, just more money.
from the 2009 financial review from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue:
Centralize the Collection of Taxes, Fees and Other Charges As a matter of sound financial management practice, those responsible for determining payments due the town should not also be charged with collecting those payments. Therefore, we recommend that officials separate responsibility for creating the commitment that authorizes the collection of taxes, fees or other charges due the municipality from the collection function. Presently, the light & water plant and sewer department create a commitment, and, at the same time, are responsible for receiving payments. This approach may require that personnel currently operating elsewhere be reallocated to the collector’s office in order to process the additional customer volume.
Note: No mention of billing, only collecting!
from 2010 Independent Audit report from Melanson Heath & Company:
Improve segregation of duties in Sewer department
The Sewer Dept. is now responsible for collecting customer receipts. Because of the small size of the dept., one clerk is responsible for performing all aspects of customer billing, collections, receipt postings, abatement/adjustment postings, and reconciliations to the Town's general ledger. This results in a lack of segregation of duties and increases the risk of errors or irregularities occurring and going undetected.
We recommend the Town segregate duties by transferring collection responsibilities to the Tax Collector's office. We also recommend the Sewer Dept.'s detail sewer receivables continue to be reconciled with the Town Accountant's general ledger, and that this reconciliation be documented on a form signed by both the Sewer clerk and Town accountant. This will result in an improved segregation of duties and improved documented oversight.
Note: No mention of billing.
Board of Selectmen meeting of April 2, 2018:
Selectmen Brooks asks if the sewer dept. quarterly bill collections were moved to the town collectors office, can the sewer department enterprise fund be billed for that work and could those dollars help the town's general fund budget. Could the current town hall staff handle the additional work?
Selectmen Caplis stated yes to charging sewer dept. enterprise fund for work, yes to those dollars helping town general fund and no to could the current staff handle the extra work.
Town Administrator Terenzini stated he disagreed with selectmen Caplis on staff levels.
Note: This was about moving collections to the collectors office. One other question was regarding to any possible savings to sewer users. Nothing about billing.
On first look, this seems to point out that selectmen do not have control of Sewer dept. and neither does the Town Administrator. If they did, this move would surely have already been completed. There is an elected entity of Sewer Commissioners. Since one of the impasses seem to be concerning pay raises for non-union sewer dept. employees, that do not come from taxation, but rather an enterprise fund, where all costs are paid for from fees, it seems like selectmen should instruct the Town Administrator and town accountant to process and allow these raises to be made and then some progress could be made on the collection front.
The only item involved is moving of collections of quarterly sewer billing to the Town Treasurer/Collector office. There appears no need for any employee reductions at the Sewer dept., nor any other control over sewer issues by the selectmen or town administrator. The retained earnings of the Sewer dept. and Sewer betterment are not funds to be raided by the selectmen to bolster the Town general fund expenditure items. But as selectmen Brooks stated, or asked, can these monies help the general fund budget? It is the money the selectmen are after, not efficiency, not a financial report, not an audit report, just more money.
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DeleteThe people in our community should be very worried by the way this town has been run under our current Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator. One should ask them selves why these people continue to withhold the money for raises for the Sewer Department employees. This behavior is bad enough but at the same time these people have put enough pressure on employees in other departments that we have lost a number of employees that under better conditions would have stayed until retirement. People can be replaced, but not their experience and knowledge. As this has been an ongoing problem and it does not seem any of our Town officials are bothered by these people leaving, I question their motives, and so should you. If we do not stand up for our Town employees, then we have failed as residents. These are the people we depend on in some way, every day. That is the best part of living in our small town. Think about that !
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