Dear Editor,
It’s been some time since I last wrote. I’ve been waiting for answers to my questions. The question seems to be simple: why does the town of Killington have two sets of books for financials? I’ve asked our town manager in the beginning of this barrage of letters to the editor, his first and only response (as usual) was a press release with no answers to the questions. Then the chair of the Select Board Mrs. McGrath tried to attempt answers by putting excuses and blame toward me, stating that I was one of the Selectmen that voted to use undesignated funds, which in her mind put us into this financial shortfall.
The fact is that back in November of 2011, the board I sat on was advised by legal council of VLCT that Vermont does not even consider a town to have undesignated funds. VLCT went on to state that the statutes of Vermont do not allow a town to hold onto these undesignated funds. VLCT advised us that we needed to disperse these funds and we did. Why these boards after my term decided not to follow legal council’s instructions could be another question, but we probably wouldn’t get an answer anyway.
This board continues to overlook the existing essential priorities of the town and put more effort into newer projects, while not disclosing our existing financial situation.
At the last informational town meeting the night before voting, a voter asked a question to our independent auditor about our finances. The auditor’s response was: “There are two sets of books.” Based on that answer, I then asked: “What do you mean we have two sets of books?” The auditor then back tracked and stated “I meant to say there are chapters not included yet.” I then asked “What do you mean by chapters? How many?” His response was “Many. More than one.”
Now with Seth Webb notifying us of his resignation, I hope that Seth and this board will have enough time to add these chapters before Dec. 31 of this year when Seth plans to leave, so we as a town will see where this administration has left us financially.
Jim Haff, Killington
