If you read nothing else today read this.
Some interesting revelations from the recent mayor and council meeting. If you looked at the agenda for the Mayor and Council meeting October 3 last week you will have seen that there was an item – Authorization of Employment Agreement – Gene Leporiere. And if you attended the meeting or watched the live stream you will have heard a question by a resident seeking clarification about this. Little was given, except an agreement was reached and nothing further would be said as it was a matter of personal business. But if you want more information you can always OPRA it.
So what was this about?
Gene Leporiere is, or was until recently, the Chief Financial Officer of Upper Saddle River. A mysterious figure who oversees the financial wellness of the borough, who doesn’t attend any meetings and seems missing in action, and basically has brought the borough into a state of poor, if not questionable accounting practices.
Marshall Grupp, the Democratic mayoral candidate, has spent months, if not more, asking lengthy questions about the finances of the borough. Drilling into the books he apparently found issues of concern and had questions, many of them. For many months he got no answers, there was no one at the meeting able to answer them. Head shaking and don’t know were the replies. However, in the September 18th meeting the borough’s auditing firm, Lerch, Vinci & Higgins, were present and Mr. Grupp questioned them at length about item after item. And the results were quite surprising.
Upper Saddle River has less than stellar accounting practices. Accounts aren’t balanced, tax overages have not been refunded, items were purchased without approval and more. And this has been going on since 2017. Read the full account here.
As a result Upper Saddle River is cleaning house and Mr. Leporiere is exiting. However, more questions remain. If Mr. Leporiere was the borough CFO and residents were asking questions – why wasn’t he required by the mayor and council to attend the meetings and clear up any issues? Where is truth and transparency? And despite the fact that he was responsible for finances, the auditing firm indicated that there were numerous inaccuracies, for not one but two years. So why didn’t someone in the administration demand corrections? Demand accountability? Why have months – actually 2 years – gone by without this being taken care of? Why did it take a 30 minute grilling of the auditing company to wake the mayor and council up to the problem? And why on the eve of an election are they cleaning house? Not to mention, exactly how much money has Mr. Leporiere left with after failing to do his job properly all while taking a salary?
Thank the diligent coverage from Upper Saddle River News for getting this information out immediately. With the glacial speed of borough hall the minutes wouldn’t be out until the day before the next mayor and council meeting. Days after the local elections. With the poor attendance at meetings most residents won’t be aware the town is financially messy. Better they know sooner rather than later.
UPDATE
From USR Swift 911 Monday October 7, 2019
Questions were raised at the September council meeting concerning the annual municipal audit. Municipalities are required to undergo an audit on a yearly basis. Recommendations are made. These audits are very thorough and stringent. Each municipality’s audit must be reviewed, posted on the municipality’s website and sent to the Department of Community Affairs for their review. Our auditing firm, Lerch, Vinci and Higgins have completed the Borough’s 2018 audit. It can be found on www.usrtoday.org.
Any financial impropriety, criminal or negligent, would be immediately reported by our independent auditing firm and the Borough notified. Although the auditor has made recommendations, corrective actions have either been made or are underway in collaboration with our auditor. It is typical for municipalities to receive recommendations and to work to correct them. Recommendations range in neighboring towns from zero to almost twenty. By comparison, the Borough of Upper Saddle River received 11 recommendations and, according to our auditor, 8 corrective actions have already been implemented and the remaining 3 are in the process of being implemented with full expectation of this being completed before year end.