Bull blames board for auditors’ finds
The Daily Mail
July 13, 2009

Former Coxsackie Village Mayor John Bull blames the Village Board for obstructing his plans to fix financial and procedural problems cited by a recent audit of the village.

The audit report released by the Office of the State Comptroller last week stated that the Village Board “did not provide sufficient oversight” of village finances.

The State Comptroller’s Office suggested that the Village Board and the treasurer exercise stronger controls over spending.

Current Coxsackie Village Mayor Mark Evans said in a statement Tuesday he was not surprised by the auditors’ report and that previous administrations had not done a good job monitoring and controlling village finances.

Evans said Sunday that he had no one specifically in mind.

But Bull defended his record as mayor saying the board and department heads refused to comply with procedures and blocked his attempts to fix certain financial issues.

Bull said he asked department heads to spend money on items or services pre-approved by the board. He said department heads were supposed to present the board with packing slips and other delivery documentation for review.

“None of that was happening. We were approving what was almost already a paid bill,” he said.

He cited $10,000 promised by a department head for work on a skateboard park as one example of the backwards practices.

Bull said department heads stated that expenditures were carried out in the same way they had been for years.

The treasurer resisted the change, too, he said, adding, “It was very inconvenient for everybody.”

Bull said the Village Board did not support the changes he wanted to make until late into his term when a policy regarding unauthorized expenditures was adopted.

Bull also said he attempted in May 2007 to hire a “uniquely qualified” person with a knowledge of the auditing process among other qualifications he believed necessary to the position of clerk/treasurer.

The village trustees, he said, would not let him bring that nomination, and others, to a vote.

He said Clerk Valerie Murphy and Treasurer Deborah Daost were appointed after he was presented with petitions.

“They made me out to be the mean mayor,” he said.

The audit report stated that money from the water fund had been transferred to the general fund.

Bull said that during the time period at which auditors looked, this transfer had occurred but that for the five or so years previous, money from the general fund had been used to cover expenses incurred to the water fund.

What auditors saw, he said, were repayments.

Bull said water rates had not been raised in several years although the costs of providing water services had increased. The failure to pay a total of roughly $100,000 to the water department by Coxsackie residents compounded the situation, he said.

Bull said he made progress toward balancing the water fund and general fund. Roughly $150,000 had been raised to replenish the general fund which, he said, at one time had a nearly $300,000 shortfall.