Inside Buffalo Was Wrong!
Yes Sir! Yes Ma’am! Inside Buffalo Magazine and website were wrong. No doubt about it. I, as editor, accept the blame. I was wrong.
Inside Buffalo first reported about improper pay increases by elected officials in Buffalo on January 26, 2009 – Here:
We then wrote an updated article Here:
At last night’s Town Board meeting, the auditor, who we alluded to in the second article where we said:
”To assist with the calculations, a voluntary, external audit by a state approved auditor has been discussed by Town officials and management.,”
was present to bring the facts to light.
Mr. White, the auditor, was hired by the Town to conduct an internal audit. Mr. White found, and here’s where we were wrong, that the Town of Buffalo did not have funds misappropriated, for very long... they were misappropriated as we wrote about - they just weren't misappropriated for too long a time period. OOPS, tee-hee, Maybe we were right after all?
YES – THE TOWN MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS
but it was okay, really it was, it was only for a short period a couple of times in the late 90’s.
In a court of law it would go something like this:
“Yes, your honor, Mr. Judge sir, Yes I assaulted that guy, but it was only for a short period of time, so it’s not all that bad a thing is it?
The Judge responds; “No, no big deal, you can go home and we’ll just forget about it.”
Or – You just got pulled over by a police officer and he/she finds 4 tons of cocaine in the back of your 18 wheeler – your response is: “But officer! I was only driving this truck for a short while. It was only like 4 hours that I’ve been driving it. It’s not that bad a thing - is it?”
The officer responds: “Forget about it!” except it may sound more like the phonetic version: “Nah, FUHGITABOUTIT” – go home to your kids and wife and I’ll look the other way.”
The Town of Buffalo only missapropriated funds for a short time.
The funds were misappropriated for a time between when a raise was voted on and when it could legally go into effect. We're not talking millions of dollars here.
The fact remains, it happened so I guess we weren't wrong after all. You decide.
We were, however, very wrong about the amount...
We were asking in our "HOT NEWS" links...
Buffalo Pay Hike UNCONSTITUTIONAL? - 1-26-09
OVER $14,000.00 MISAPPROPRIATED BY TREASURER?? - 03-17-09
(notice the question marks?) - We were asking whether this occurred. The answer: No, not in the amount we were writing about - it's worse! We used the word misappropriated. We admit we could have used another word - Misapplied, or Mismanaged, botched, or bungled. Whichever word you choose it's still very accurate, as indicated at last night's Town Board meeting. There was a time this occurred. BUT...
WAIT! HERE’S THE KICKER…
The auditor found that:
The TOWN OF BUFFALO TREASURER MISCALCULATED THE CLERK & TREASURER'S OWN PAY BY OVER $16,000.00!
The auditor found that our elected officials, who we rely on to be able to create and utilize a spread sheet, or simply a calculator, failed to properly figure or calculate their own pay correctly. After the misappropriation occurred in the late 90’s, the Treasurer of the time, continuing to the Treasurer at present, didn't calculate their pay and their raises according to their own ordinances and laws.We commented about this fact in the articles referenced above wherein we said: " There are raises, as mentioned at the December 2008 Town Board meeting admittedly not received by the clerk and treasurer, that they may be due and have the opposite effect."
They were underpaid!
Check this out!
Inside Buffalo said in our previous article that the figures we had were assumptions based on what records we were able to get from the Town and it’s obvious that we didn’t get the proper records. The Buffalo Town Clerk, in her own handwriting, gave us figures for payroll Found Here which were wrong, according to the auditor’s report. You'll find numbers on the handwritten document from the Clerk do not coincide with the auditor's report. The auditor had figures, which, according to his verbal report to the city, were calculated based on employee w-2’s. The auditor’s reports were inconsistent with the numbers given Inside Buffalo by the Town Clerk. Who are we to rely on for factual figures? Inside Buffalo relied on the figures given to us and we made the calculations accordingly. The auditor relied on figures, absolutely more accurate, and found many improprieties Inside Buffalo could not find with the numbers we had. AUDIT
We made a sarcastic comment in this article: about how it takes some mathematics to figure pay.
Here’s the exact quote: ”It appears that there was a certain amount of paperwork and mathematics required to figure out the 3 days worth of wages at the old rate for a few employees therefore prompting an agenda entry to address the issue and request that the Board merely pass a motion to make the pay increase retroactive.”
Evidently our elected treasurer is unable to PROPERLY calculate the pay for the Town’s employees and elected officials, such as herself, which could cause the Town of Buffalo to fork out $16,000.00 to pay the clerk and treasurer of Buffalo the money they have coming to them.
The Town's attorney made the comment that it was up to the Clerk and Treasurer to pursue the wages due them by hiring their own counsel.
Give 'em da Money!
That's what we say. They deserve it - give it to them!
Granted, it's their mistakes but, the mistakes, if they were in your favor, you'd want the wages due you! Right? I would!
There's much more to come - and unlike our elected officials and Town employees, we won't shove it under the rug, fake a meeting of CIP committee members and FUHGITABOUTIT! - NO WAY!
There are many more articles to come about the FAUX CIP reports to OEDA, elected officials who can't operate a calculator or write correct figures down on a sheet of paper, a manager who spends more money than he is allowed, claiming 'emergent' circumstances, improper invoicing and a "paperwork shuffle" and many, many more. And we haven't even scraped the surface! What about the alleged "taxpayer's lawsuit"? What of the citizen complaints about the forested cemetery now containing a certified wildlife refuge for rattlesnakes? Yes, we wrote it and you read it - a rattlesnake sanctuary!
Then there's the RUSE put on the taxpaying residents of Buffalo with the juke and jive they gave us residents about the FAKE, FAUX, SHAM, BULLSPIT C.I.P. committee and much, much more.
Look that up in your FUNK and WAGNALL'S Robin Daley, Susan Harper, David Orange, Lewis Carpenter, and Georgeanna Buss.
