PROSPECT — After months of questioning how certain transactions were made, the Town Council got its answer on Monday — human error.
The questions centered on seven transactions totaling about $45,000 that were made from the budget for public works employees’ salary to pay five outside vendors and two non-public works employees. The transactions were made a few years back, and council members wanted to know why the payments were made through the public works salary account rather than being transferred to the appropriate accounts.
“These weren’t questions that came up yesterday or the day before. They go back to the budget process for the year 2014-2015 that raised some questions,” said Town Council Chairman Tom Galvin during a special meeting on Monday.
Treasurer David Young, who is elected, came before the council on Jan. 3 to discuss the process for how invoices are paid and verifying invoices. However, when the council asked him to come back to another meeting to explain exactly how the seven transactions occurred, he declined to attend.
Earlier this month, the council voted to open an investigation into the matter.
Mayor Robert Chatfield presented the invoices for the five outside vendors to the council on Monday. The invoices showed the mistakes had been caused by human error.
On one invoice, which was for maintenance work done on a snow plow, Chatfield pointed out how he wrote the wrong line item on the invoice.
“When I put this down I put down ice and snow labor. I didn’t put maintenance,” Chatfield said. “So I can see right there where that mistake has been made.”
The other four invoices had similar mistakes.
Council member Jeff Slapikas pointed out the stamp on the invoice that asks for the specific line item number the money is withdrawn from was never filled out. He said ensuring that was filled out would have helped eliminate this problem.
“I think some of the stuff is vague and that’s why it got put into the wrong account,” Slapikas said. “I think if the action is in place now to fill out the whole stamp, account number and everything, we aren’t going to have this problem again.”
Chatfield said the two non-public works employees were paid out of the public works account because they worked in public works sectors, such as the town’s transfer station. Since they worked those positions, their salaries were wrapped up in the public works salaries.
Their salaries have since been put into the correct budget line item and will not be drawn from public works anymore, Chatfield said.
Since the mistakes were brought to light, Chatfield said, Young has been required to examine and sign off on every page of an invoice.
“I am delighted that, whatever this council has done, we have actually affected that change going forward,” Galvin said.
The council also requested that Chatfield present the council with a written procedure on how the mayor and treasurer handle invoices going forward.
For some council members, the bigger question was why it was difficult to get answers in the first place.
“My question from day one has been, why are we unable to get answers. Why wouldn’t you come to our meetings so that we could ask you this and get answers to these questions. There were only seven items we were questioning,” Geary asked Young, who attended Monday’s meeting.
Young said he was unable to dedicate time to the council’s questions because he was dealing with personal and medical issues.
“It didn’t afford me the time ability, energy or the ability to go to the vaults here and dig up papers from two fiscal years earlier and provide an answer,” Young said.
Geary said the main problem was a lack of communication between Young and the council.
“One of the greatest things about being a human being is our ability to communicate with one another. And certainly what has broken down here is the communication,” Geary said.
Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to end the investigation.
In a prepared statement issued after the meeting, Galvin said the council was pleased with the explanation that it was “human error” that caused the discrepancies.
Galvin said the council was right to look into this issue on behalf of the taxpayers, but extended an apology to Young for any trouble it may have caused him.
“Lastly, knowing him both personally and professionally for several decades, and believing that he takes his responsibilities every bit as seriously as I take mine, on behalf of the Town Council, and I personally apologize for any angst this process may have caused him and his family,” Galvin said in the statement.
Below is a press release issued by Prospect Town Council Chairman Tom Galvin:
“[Monday] at 4 p.m. in the Prospect Town Hall the Town Council had the opportunity to meet with both Mayor (Robert) Chatfield and Town Treasurer David Young to discuss a number of long outstanding questions involving the process and procedures used by the Town to pay its bills. Mayor Chatfield presented series of requested vendor invoices that apparently had been posted to incorrect accounts. The discussion indicated that there likely was some confusion as to the how the terms ‘Salary Expense’ versus ‘Labor Costs’ were assigned and then interpreted, which probably led to the incorrect posting of these invoices. The Mayor acknowledged that ‘human error’ was the cause, and that certain financial procedures should be strengthened so that if such errors were to occur again that improved ‘checks and balances’ would identify them earlier in the process.
The Town Council accepted both this explanation of events and the commitment of Mayor Chatfield and Town Treasurer David Young to work together to quickly define and implement whatever mechanical and procedural changes are needed to improve the accuracy of the process. It was noted that had the information provided today been made available to the Town Council when initially requested that all of the recent publicity surrounding this topic would have been avoided. Council Chairman Galvin noted that while there was never any [allegations] of illegal activity by anyone involved, when dealing with taxpayer money every elected official has a sworn duty to make sure the process is as close to 100 percent as possible. Today, all of Prospect’s elected officials took an important step to making sure that will be the case going forward; which I acknowledge was the Council intent throughout the process.
Given the ambiguity in the language contained in the Connecticut General Statutes, the actual responsibilities of a Town Treasurer apparently vary significantly from town to town. Based on our enhanced understanding of how that role should function in Prospect, I believe Mr. Young, a career financial professional with an impeccable reputation has fulfilled every aspect of his position. Lastly, knowing him both personally and professionally for several decades, and believing that he takes his responsibilities every bit as seriously as I take mine, on behalf of the Town Council, and I personally apologize for any angst this process may have caused him and his family.”
