Dave’s Thoughts on “Citizen Audit Committees” and Dr. Fusco’s Presentation
During my opening comments prior to introducing Dr. Fusco, I noted my belief that “How money is spent” is more important than “How much money is spent” and I believe that this aligns well with much of Dr. Fusco’s presentation.
In laying the foundation for his justification of citizen audit committees, Dr. Fusco pointed out that the role of the board of education in our public education system is akin to that of a board of directors in a publicly held corporation where they are not directly responsible for day to day operations but are responsible for oversight and assuring that the stockholders best interests are being met. In a similar way the board of education is responsible for oversight of the operation of our public education system and for assuring that the best interests of both the students and the taxpayers (the owners/stockholders) are being met. Our Board of Education makes no mention of obligations to taxpayers, or of efficiencies or effectiveness in either their mission statement or their list of functions and responsibilities, which may explain a lot. They do however have as one of their goals “Encourage community ownership of the Woodstock Public Schools”.
The two main thrusts of Dr. Fusco’s presentation and concepts for Citizen Audit Committees would seem to align very well with the BOE’s stated goal for community ownership: first, the main purpose of these audit committees are “providing public oversight to assure economy, efficiency and effectiveness of school resources” and supporting this is his second thrust of developing a “culture of accountability, transparency, and participation”. If their public statements regarding wanting greater public participation and their stated goal of encouraging public ownership are serious, perhaps the BOE will embrace some of Dr. Fusco’s concepts and recognize that citizen audits committees, in addition to being inevitable, may, in fact, be quite useful in not only improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness as well as increasing accountability and transparency but also in helping them meet their stated goal. There were two members of the board present for Dr. Fusco’s presentation and perhaps they will take some of these concepts back the rest of the board.
On the issues of transparency and accountability, over the last two weeks I have received copies of the last four year’s accounts payable check registers and expenditures by account number for the 2007-8 fiscal year. A quick review was enlightening. After stripping away Woodstock Academy charges, I noted quite a “bounce” in June spending this year.
Now you would expect the usual end of the year cleanup, so to speak, but this year the bounce was over $545,000. Even May showed a bounce of over $140,000. These numbers are compared to a base spending rate of ~$250,000 per month in 2007-8. Combined this is more than twice what was seen for the “June Bounce” in 2004-5 and 2005-6.
Where did it go? Well, a good part went to computer hardware, media equipment and office equipment where for 2007-8 expenditures exceeded the budget (of $38,435) by $135,079 – the bulk spent in June. Oh, by the way, the previous year’s spending in this same account was $172,358 against a budget of $11,525. Now, much of this spending and more, took place while the BOE was trying to convince the BOF and the public that they were being starved for funding and that the proposed budget was a “bare bones maintenance budget”. Spending on the last day of June 2008, June 30th, was over $296,000. I’m not sure how you encourage participation and ownership when this kind of sleight of hand is going on. I will be very interested to see the asset inventory and how it compares to some of this recent spending – hopefully they match up well.
Finally, during a conversation with a small group after Dr. Fusco’s presentation someone pointed out to me that only in government are there incentives for waste and excess spending: “the more you spend the more you get”.
Are audit committees a good idea? You decide.
If you are interested in receiving training and participating in the audit committee effort send your name and contact information to the administrator of this site at: woodstocktruth@charter.net
Dave Richardson
Editor’s note: If you would like a copy of the 4 year check register and/or the 4 year budget comparison in Excel, drop me a line at: woodstocktruth@charter.net
Dear Dave,
I would like to submit a bit of BOE history, which I hope all sides might take part in. Starting in 1994, John Krewer initiated, along with the BOE approval, the Commuity Budget Review Committee. It was done away with in 2000 by the then Chairman of the BOE, Charlie Snow, because of seeming lack of interest on the part of the community. The lack of interest existed because of its success in ensuring a certain level of trust on the part of the community (look at how easily most budgets passed after 2003 in Woodstock). I think this was a mistake.
This committee should be re-activated to the benefit of all sides. If I were back in Woodstock, I would gladly volunteer to be on the committee, but for the time being I am still in the strange role of an administrator in France, where I dream of having to deal with the same concepts of democracy on the daily level, which Americans either are ignorant of or take for granted. Whenever Europe is held up as an example contrasted to the US, all I can say is that most Americans only know Europe as rich tourists in an unartificial Disneyland and not from the perspective of living there everyday with a cocoon-like naiveté.
Yours truly,
J. Livernois
Excellent article Mr. Richardson.
Dave, Thank you for all you do and have done for Woodstock. I only wish you and the others like you would run for public office. Help make Woodstock a safe place to raise a family and be able to retire in someday.
Mr. Richardson is far more effective on the "outside" as a leader. When Mrs. Wholean was First Selectman, Mr. Richardson brought up the "budget line item misaccounting" to her, and she did nothing. She had the authority, inside knowledge, and job description, yet did nothing but ignore him. So, Maggie, in this town, being on the "inside" and "knowing people on the inside" got him nowhere. But being on the outside and being forthright, intelligent and persistent is getting him somewhere.
Leadership, is all about the common goal of the people, and Mr. Richardson is already a town leader.
Nora Valentine
Once again, great, succinct article, Mr. Richardon. Thank you.
I do believe our BofE and our BofS/town check registers should be up on-line and available for all townspeople to view, and to understand. I also believe that P.O.'s should be electronic in order to track the progress and to understand the process. After all, it is "our" money and we should see how and where it is being spent, in its final form, the "check transaction".
Being well-informed leads to the best decisions.
Thank you for keeping on top of this and for being a great civic journalist.
Sincerely,
Nora Valentine