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General News: Comptroller Report Tough on DPW Process
February 16, 2012
By Charlie B. Scirbona
The construction of the building for the Department of Public Works in 2005-6 was not handled in the best interest of taxpayers in the village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, according to a new report from the New York State Comptroller’s office. The report also found problems with some of the village’s financial operations and IT policies..
The report, released Wednesday, found that in 2005 the village board elected to use the Cornwall-on-Hudson Local Development Corporation to construct the DPW building in order to avoid compliance with state laws. The report explains that under advisement of the previous village attorney, the trustee board used the LDC to get around Wick’s Law, which requires municipalities to use separate contractors for plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning. as well as for a general contractor.
Using the Local Development Corporation, the board was also able to skip the competitive bid process normally required for projects over $35,000. The report also found that the village overpaid for the project by $207,000. The COHLDC had contracted with the builder for $722,000 while the project ultimately cost $929,000.
In the comptroller’s report, which is presented as a resource to help the local government manage itself more efficiently but has no binding power, investigators questioned both the site choice and the construction style of the building. It said that village board at the time did not exercise “due diligence” in testing the site for the proposed building, a former solid waste dump, and questioned the choice of a “pole-barn” style of construction when engineering tests had warned against it.
Since February 2010, when the DPW was closed because of structural inadequacies, subsequent village boards have argued over how to repair tthe building and who to hold accountable for the shortcomings. Only this week did the board agree to fund the first round of repairs on the structure.
Budget Shortcoming Also Described
The Comptroller’s report also found that the village has failed to adopt realistic budgets for the past six years and, as a result, had to borrow money to cover the shortfall. Interest on those loans ran up to $245,000 with $585,000 still owed, according to the report. Despite the borrowing, a $303,000 budget short fall occurred in the 2010-2011 fiscal year and the report predicts a possible budget short fall of up to $515,000 in the current fiscal year.
Several IT issues were also sited in the report, including the fact that the village lacks an IT policy to assess acceptable use, system vulnerability and data recovery. It also noted that four people were allowed remote access to the village computer system without an acceptable use policy in place and that a lack of an IT administrator until July of 2010 resulted in a loss of village records.
The current village board has been working on an acceptable use policy, and as of July 2010 the village has had a contract with New Windsor for IT services.
Mayor Coyne Responds to Report
Mayor Brendan Coyne, who took office in April 2011, called parts of the comptroller’s report “inflammatory and irresponsible," especially when it came to describing how the DPW building was built. In his written comments to the Comptroller, Mayor Coyne says the report misses the fact that a local development corporation is designed to save taxpayers dollars and instead it maligns board members and the village residents who served on the LDC.
Coyne said in an interview Thursday that the Comptroller had made its own procedural mistakes while compiling the report, at one point not sending copies of the draft report to Trustee Andrew Argenio and instead sending it to former Trustee Doug Vatter.
“They could have used different words and gotten the same point across,” said Mayor Coyne.
He contends that the previous board and the LDC were only trying to save the village money.
“Were mistakes made? Yes. Was this done in a criminal fashion? No,” he said.
Comments:
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The comptroller responds to the Mayors statements in appendix B. It is scathing, the mayor is 100% false. Please get it and read it. I requested it be on the village website with no response from the Mayor
posted by Andrew Argenio on 02/16/12 at 5:04 PM
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Thank you to this website for providing it to the public
posted by Andrew Argenio on 02/16/12 at 5:29 PM
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Save the Village money by not putting the job out for a competitive bid.
Right.
posted by Ted Warren on 02/17/12 at 3:35 PM
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