Residents cannot rely on town government officials to tell the truth
(Franklin Square, NY) Last November, New York State Comptroller DiNapoli released the results of an audit of the Hempstead Animal Shelter. The audit proved that the Hempstead Animal Shelter was a case study in mismanagement, poor record keeping, and budgetary incompetence.
Open government advocate and Hempstead Town Supervisor Candidate Felix Procacci was well aware of the mismanagement before the audit, and says that Town officials are still misleading residents.
Since the release of the audit, Procacci has discovered similar problems in other departments within the Town. One example is in the department of the Town Supervisor, where $1.3 million of its $2 million dollar budget is allocated to the parks department as an administrative charge. When Procacci asked the Town Comptroller Kevin Conroy what this money was used for, he received no answer.
“In response to criticism about the animal shelter’s finances, Supervisor Murray has told residents and the press that the shelter budget has been reduced by over 3 million dollars – the fact is the administrative charge portion of the animal shelter has simply been removed and no actual cuts have been made,” states Procacci.
Supervisor Murray reports that the Town is providing the exact same services with a $4 million dollar budget as it did with a $7.5 million dollar budget. However, Procacci says this doesn’t make any sense. “What business can cut 40% of its budget and provide exactly the same level of services?”
When Procacci contacted Ira McCracken, the Chief Examiner for the Office of the State Comptroller Division of Local Government and School Accountability last December, he wrote (in an email to Procacci dated December 21,2012):
“I don’t have any more information to clarify the situation. As I discussed with you, we were never given any documentation to substantiate the charges. As stated in our report, they use percentages and head counts to calculate the charges. However, there is no documentation to show the “true” services rendered to the departments.”
Procacci argues that meaningful transparency legislation is required to ensure taxpayers are informed of how their money is being spent.
For the past three years Procacci has attended every Hempstead Town Board meeting (over 60 consecutive meetings), numerous school board meetings, and seminars on local government reform.
Procacci says “Residents cannot rely on politicians and local government officials to tell the truth or to give comprehensive answers to their questions. Residents need to have an easy way to verify if their elected officials are being honest. They need Transparency Legislation that will give them the information needed to hold government officials accountable, to make an informed choice”.
Felix Procacci is the Democratic candidate for Hempstead Town Supervisor. A 15 year Franklin Square resident, Felix is running to create a transparent and accountable Town government. His immediate goals are to have all Town Board meetings, settled contracts and their cost to the taxpayers, all budget data including midyear budget changes, and the voting records of all Town Board members put online.
Felix believes that providing accurate and timely information to residents is the first step in putting political power where it belongs, in the hands of the people.
Felix Procacci is a computer programmer, open government advocate, husband, and father of two children (Katherine 12 & Kenneth 9). Felix can be reached on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/
