Town Supervisor Earle Reed Tuesday acknowledged he had “dropped the ball” when it came to town finances and won’t be running for a second term this fall.
He also said he wants to hire a comptroller to help get the town’s finances back on track.
The move came after an Observer-Dispatch report that showed that the town’s main rainy day fund had diminished from $2.8 million to just $250,000 since he took office in 2006.
Reed said he takes full responsibility for any financial problems the town developed during his three and a half years at the helm.
“It was under my watch, and I feel I dropped the ball,” he said Tuesday.
During Reed’s tenure, he has led the town through the aftermath of the fatal shooting of New Hartford police Officer Joseph Corr in 2006, the resulting state investigation into the fact that Corr was not wearing a protective vest and the creation of the New Hartford Business Park.
As recently as Wednesday, May 13, Reed had said he intended to run for the office. On Monday, he sent an e-mail to Town Board members and other officials alerting them of his decision.
The O-D story was published Thursday, and Reed said a subsequent editorial in Saturday’s paper about the situation “brought tears to my eyes.”
“I thought I’d let the town down,” he said.
Town board member Christine Krupa, who is overseeing the search for a comptroller, said there is reason to be concerned about the town’s finances, but the situation isn’t bad as it might appear.
“We recognize the immediate attention the drop in the fund balance needs, and we are giving that attention,” she said. “We are working expeditiously, but not in haste.”
Asked if there was an explanation for the financial problems, Krupa said town officials are studying the situation and when more was known, it would be made public.
“That’s still part of what we are trying to determine,” she said. “There is nothing to hide here.”
Town councilmen David Reynolds, Robert Payne III and Rich Woodland did not return calls Tuesday.
A comptroller?
Reed, who earns $14,795 as supervisor, said the town likely will hire a part-time comptroller “to help us get through the waters.”
Krupa is planning to interview candidates Thursday, Reed said.
Krupa said she believes the town needs a comptroller, though it’s not clear if the job should be full- or part-time, or whether an outside firm should do the job on a contractual basis.
New Hartford hasn’t had a comptroller since 2002, when Ralph Humphreys took office as supervisor.
From 1998 through 2001, Patrick Tyksinski had served as comptroller, but Humphreys said he believed monitoring the town’s finances was the supervisor’s job.
Reed, conversely, has long advocated for the town to hire some sort of financial officer, given the complexity of the growing town’s budget.
In 2007, New Hartford began contracting with FJ Basile CPAs for financial services, and in 2008, the firm was paid a total of $122,149. The town had budgeted $40,000 for Basile that year.
The town budgeted $100,000 for the firm’s services for 2009, but later decided not to use it. Some of those funds could be used to hire a comptroller, Krupa said.
Krupa said firm owner Frank Basile had not been called in for interviews.
“That doesn’t rule him out,” she said. “It just means we are looking for different ideas than we have used in the past.”
The town board would have to pass a resolution to allow the hire, she said.
Reaction
Humphreys said it sounded as if hiring a comptroller might be necessary under the circumstances.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he said. “If things are all that bad and you can’t get them straightened out, you gotta go for help.”
Catherine Lawrence of the citizens group Concerned Citizens for Honest & Open Government said Reed should resign now, and called the financial situation “a fiasco we will feel for many years.”
But former town councilman Don Backman, who has also been critical of Reed in the past, said he was “sorry he got beat up so bad.”
“I think he went in with all the right motives,” he said. “But government can be overwhelming. It’s really easy to lose sight of spending early on.”
Reed, a Republican, is founder of the Utica Boilermaker Road Race and a past vice chairman of Utica-based ECR International.
He said after his term expires he might pursue other options, but he would not elaborate on those.
