To the editor:
News flash: A cat is out of the bag! It was reported to the Common Council at their meeting Monday, March 16, that Clintonville owes $1 million in unfunded retirement benefits. Acting City Administrator Chuck Kell made this announcement that our city is near the top of the list of delinquents.
What is worse is the interest charges are adding thousands of dollars to the debt, with the state charging 7 percent interest. Also, the city Finance Committee chairperson, Mark Doornick, stated that he was unaware of the unpaid benefits! How in the world could this happen?
Did the auditors, Schenck, not make anyone in the city aware of this? Council member Mary Beth Kuester asked the administration if anything had been done on the council vote to hire a new auditor. The response was not yet.
After this being brought to our attention, later in the meeting, would you believe our Common Council voted to re-hire the same firm, Schenck, to prepare a rate case to be sent to the Public Service Commission? Only two council members — Mary Beth Kuester and James Krause — voted against re-hiring Schenck to do additional work for the city.
I feel this issue calls for continued investigation. Chuck Kell has done an outstanding job of finding problem areas as well as finding solutions.
We need to know if anyone in the city was aware of this overdue pension funding. Mayor Magee said she knew about it but the bill received by the city stated that payment was not due at this time.
Did the auditors point this out to the former administrator? If so, just why wasn’t the council and the finance committee informed? Answers, please!
Rochelle Laude,
Clintonville
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