But other actions could be taken
By Patricia Bogumil
Editor
No litigation is being contemplated over the $1/year, 99-year lease at the Waterford Town Hall, according to Donna Block, treasurer for the Town of Waterford Sanitary District (WSD), which owns the municipal building.
But WSD commissioners are exploring other strategies – yet to be named – that might be legally available instead of going to court to break the lease, which has been in effect since 1988.
Block’s comments, made this week in an exchange of emails with the Waterford Post, follow a special July 11 WSD meeting that commissioners held in closed – rather than open – session to discuss strategies for litigation in which WSD “is or is likely to become involved, specifically with regards to the lease on the municipal building,” according to the meeting’s posted notice.
“There is no litigation pending or contemplated,” Block said July 24 via email.
The issue of lawsuits and attorney costs arose this week in an email widely circulated by Dan Dickinson, who is challenging WSD Board President Bill Gerard in a special Aug. 14 recall election.
In that email, Dickinson criticizes WSD for incurring $12,000 in attorney fees so far this year, when only $5,000 was budgeted for the whole year.
“I think we can thank WSD’s obsession with a frivolous lawsuit against the Town of Waterford for that,” Dickinson emailed.
Block acknowledged that $12,000 was paid so far this year in attorneys fees, but she challenged Dickinson’s reasoning about the cause.
“Unfortunately, much of the money spent on attorney’s fees was necessary to protect the District from possible legal issues having to do with Open Meetings Laws and records,” Block said.
Dickinson and Block also disagree on other budget matters contained in his email.
Dickinson said recently released figures about WSD revenues and expenses indicate WSD spent nearly $35,000 more than it took in so far this year.
Actually, the real shortfall could be more than double that amount, Dickinson cautioned, if WSD is unable to replenish monies that it has been using from its reserve fund.
Block said Dickinson’s information about expenses and revenues is not correct.
She explained that WSD pays its bills on a monthly basis, but that it bills WSD users in arrears for quarterly service they’ve already received.
So, when the income received from the July 1 quarterly billing comes in, Block said, the WSD budget will look much different than a month earlier.
But Dickinson believes that kind of explanation shows that WSD seriously needs to overhaul its budgeting process.
“Donna (Block) may be right, in a month WSD may have excess cash on hand, but then that’s only one of many ‘snapshots’ for the year,” Dickinson said.
“I will always maintain that WSD needs to modernize its budgeting system, and get control over spending caps and limits.”
Dickinson said he respects Block “for all the good she does,” but said he and Block have agreed to disagree about their understanding of the budget figures.
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