Vernon is a house of cards

“The state of the town is excellent,” according to Vernon’s mayor.

Really?
It’s funny how statements like that are never qualified in writing. In 2012, Councilman Kadish asked the mayor for a report on how the million dollars of emergency bond money was spent. Councilman Kadish was verbally assaulted by the mayor for asking and never received that report, which he is entitled to according to Vernon’s town code. This is just one of many examples of information being withheld, even from sitting council members trying to do the job they were elected to do. In his state of the town address, the mayor presented a power point comparing 2010 to present day. Why didn’t he include the millions of dollars of increased debt? Why didn’t he show that in 2010, Vernon had 105 employees and that number grew to 124 under his watch? Why didn’t he show that salaries have increased well more than $300,000 under his watch? Why didn’t he show the trust fund accounts, which exceeded $600,000 before he came into office, are now almost completely depleted? Why didn’t he show that our overall budget grew by several million dollars? Why didn’t he show the line item in the 2010 budget for compensated absence liability (funds needed for our employees for their absences and sick leave), which had a sum of $679,590 and was completely zeroed out in his first budget in 2012? Let there be no wonder how this mayor accomplishes a flat tax.

An article about the flat tax delivered by this mayor was titled- “How Does He Do It?” Anyone who takes the time to follow the bouncing ball can understand it. Anyone who has been involved in municipal budgets knows how he does it. This mayor is doing exactly what he has done before when he served as mayor in Vernon years ago — increasing debt and misappropriating funds to balance the budget.

On Feb. 3, 2015, when the mayor made his “state of the town address” to the council, he said, “ …the budget that I uh will be actually handing you a draft of this evening at the end of this presentation.” The document handed to the council was called the draft budget by the mayor. On Feb. 8, 2015, I submitted an OPRA request for a copy of that 2015 draft budget. My OPRA request was denied and it was stated that the document was not the draft budget, just worksheets. I resubmitted my request, and referred to the tape whereby the mayor clearly called the document the draft budget. I was again denied. The draft budget was handed to the council at a public meeting. That makes it a public document. In a practice that has become commonplace, public information is deliberately withheld from the public. The budget is comprised of taxpayers’ dollars. The Vernon Taxpayers’ Association will continue to identify, monitor, and report the facts to the public on vernontaxpayersassociation.com.

Sally Rinker
Former Vernon Mayor

Vernon Taxpayers Association President