LINCOLN, Maine – A premature release of information about the town’s recent budgeting errors led to a $575,000 overstatement of the errors’ impact, interim Town Manager Bill Lawrence says.
In a weekly memo to residents called the Town of Lincoln Weekly News, Lawrence implicitly criticized former probationary Town Manager Bill Reed for releasing to the media information about the errors prior to the completion of an independent audit of town books by Mindy Cyr of Maine Municipal Audit Services. He also disclosed for the first time that problems with a mathematical formula used in town financial spreadsheets caused errors in the original 2012-13 budget.
In Friday’s edition, Lawrence restated two of the three errors Reed said had been discovered: a $200,000 overbudgeting of revenue due to the double-booking of Homestead Tax Exemption funds and what Reed described as an $809,000 underestimation of projected expenses in the town’s Tax Increment Financing accounts. Both errors occurred in the 2011-12 budget. That fiscal year ended June 30.
“We can only make decisions and take action after all the facts and evidence are gathered,” Lawrence wrote in Friday’s Weekly News. “We cannot work on rumors and newspaper reporting. Our decisions may not be popular, but they will be made.”
“Our budget issues were reported to the media before the auditor’s report was released, and thus incorrect information was reported because of the premature release,” Lawrence added.
During an informal newsconference also attended by Treasurer Gilberte Mayo and Assessor Ruth Birtz, Reed — whose name was not mentioned in Lawrence’s report — announced on Oct. 2 the two errors, which he said were found in the 2011-12 budget.
He, Birtz and Mayo also discussed a third — a $575,000 overestimation of projected revenues in the town’s four Tax Increment Financing accounts listed in the budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year, which will end June 30, 2013.
Cyr’s audit report was dated Oct. 9 and only addressed the 2011-12 fiscal year.
The Town Council voted 6-0 on Oct. 18 to fire Reed about 1½ before the end of his probationary period. He has since not responded to requests for comment.
Town officials, Lawrence said, also did not transfer about $1 million from the town’s undesignated fund balance to cover the errors, as Reed said on Oct. 2.
In his report, Lawrence disclosed the discovery of a new issue — a problem with the mathematical formula within the Excel Spreadsheet program “where the budget preparation was done.”
“This has resulted in errors that needed to be corrected to keep the mill rate the same as what was voted on by the [Town] Council in June 2012” as part of the passage of the budget for the 2012-13 budget year, which began July 1.
Lawrence’s report does not discuss the errors. The town’s new budget will not increase the town’s 19.86 mill rate, officials have said.
Keep up the good work Chief Lawrence, with your honesty and integrity this will get worked out for the town.
Something smells and this time its not the paper mill. Sounds like Chief Lawrence may be covering for past incompetence.
This sounds like a Baseball teams woes, “Fire the Manager” Dont dig into the roots.
How much time have you spent going to meetings and listening? I have spent a lot of time asking questions and listening to the answers. Grow up, you have no idea what is going in. Nick is half the problem. He cannot get a story right if it was written for him.
“a problem with the mathematical formula within the Excel Spreadsheet program”
Make sure it sounds like a “glitch” in the software, not an error, crime, or incompetence inputting data.
Have you ever worked with a spreadsheet? It is very easy to reference a wrong cell that could throw numbers off. The people in the town office are honest, hardworking and dedicated people. People like you always think there is an angle being worked so someone can get away with something. Maybe you should apply for the job and show us all how to get through our work days without ever making a mistake or missing an error in a formula. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of eyes to see what a tired set can’t.
Thank you. I don’t have a personal interest in this particular situation but it nice to see that someone knows the ropes. I have made that mistake (formula error) myself and they’re not that easy to spot.
GREAT JOB
honest ????
I certainly have worked extensively in Excel. Instead of admitting someone made a mistake, they make is sound as if it was a problem with the software. Much like a truck driver blaming a load shift for an accident.
Get over yourself. People need to someday take responsibility for their own actions. Although we will likely never see it in the public sector.
small town good ole boy network alive and well
Right on truth
Right on truth from someone named junko9? You and caproundtree need to seek help to deal with the people that bullied you as kids. I amazed by the number of perfect people there are on this site.
the guy that uncovered the problem got fired, the people who at least partially caused the problem are still working, not even an official reprimand.
I can understand why you think that. The auditor found the problem. At one of the meetings the auditor was there on conference call. One of the councilors asked who found the mistake. She was dumbfounded that that was even a question. I know how it looks but I have spent the time to look into this and have asked questions.
so… he got fired for making taxpayers aware of the problem? there is supposed to be transparency in government
I don’t know all the answers. I can tell you I was with a councilor when he found out about the whole thing. It was from a newspaper. I am all for transparency, you are absolutely correct. The council should at least be given a heads up before the media. It sounds like there was a lot of things that happened that were wrong, even before the story came out. I don’t know everything. That happened. I am hoping the truth does come out.
I don’t think the spreadsheet was the problem!
Heres to the hard work, good sense, dedication, and good judgement of town councils in both Veazie and Lincoln.
When you use spread sheets there is always the element that the wrong data can be input. There needs to be checks and balances when compiling the data and what it is input to the equation. don’t always rely on ones abilities as gospel someone always needs to be following up. These mistakes are costly and unfortunately got past those that should have caught it.
Mistakes do happen and we all make them. That being said blaming a large scale mismanagement of taxpayer money on a “formula error” in a spreadsheet is not an excuse that will be easily taken by the taxpayers of Lincoln.
Perhaps the Town of Lincoln (and other municipalities) could be well served in the future by hiring a licensed accounting firm to create the financial spreadsheets that they use. In this situation that service would have more than paid for itself.
Disclaimer: I’m not an accountant nor do I work for an accounting firm. I do believe, however, that most of the time these things (finances & accounting) are best left to the professionals.