Riga board votes to terminate contract with financial advisor

Riga board votes to terminate
contract with financial advisor

Riga Supervisor Pamela Moore said the resolution made by Councilman Jim Fodge at the December 19 town board meeting took her by surprise and violated protocol. "We (the board) agreed early on that resolutions would be submitted in writing prior to presentation in a public forum, and that the town attorney would be asked to review the resolution, before it was presented for discussion," Moore said in a telephone conversation last week.

Fodge asked the board to approve the dismissal of Fiscal Advisors of Syracuse, the town's contractor for budget preparation. The company also serves the Village of Churchville in fiscal affairs.

Riga's budget preparation for the coming year was long and arduous. Moore said the town had several areas where improvement was needed. "We need to be more robust in our financial affairs," she said. "Change is difficult," she said, adding that she felt the idea of having a consultant wasn't embraced by some members of the board.

Once the budget was done, "We didn't have the kind of discussion we should have as a board about the budget preparation," Moore said. "We've never done that kind of analysis (of town finances) before. … It did take a long time to reach agreement on salary items," she said, adding that some salaries needed to increase to keep them competitive. In the end, the vote to approve the budget was unanimous, she noted.

Moore said the board should have discussed the process before taking any action on the use of the contractor. She asked board members to table the discussion but members refused. Moore said she tried to have the board go to executive session to discuss an employee and the budget process, but no other board member would second the motion. Therefore, she said, some personnel issues were raised in the public forum as part of the discussion about this year's budget processes.

The measure passed three to one (Fodge, Ottley, Dave Smith in favor, Moore voting against). Councilman Ken Kuter was absent.

Ottley stated in an email regarding the meeting and the contract termination that "the real reason for Fiscal Advisors not performing up to expectations was due to the lack of leadership exhibited by the supervisor. No direction was given to the department heads prior to them submitting their budgets and therefore requests came in all across the board. This raised expectations in some cases and those hopes were dashed when reality was recognized by the board. This caused major changes during the budget process and without a representative from Fiscal Advisors present at our meetings the communication trail was difficult."

In other business, Councilman Dave Smith made the motion to name Bob Ottley co-editor of the Riga Newsletter. Smith, Fodge and Ottley voted in favor, Moore abstained. Moore has edited the newsletter since taking office last January. She wrote in an email: “I abstained and asked that the record reflect the reason that I was abstaining was due to the third whereas clause which reads as follows: WHEREAS, the newsletter with only one editor may be perceived as political advertising for the supervisor. … In my opinion, the resolution, as drafted, was political in nature and that is why I abstained.”