Gaines officials have stood up for town laws

Editor:

This is in response to Ed Urbanik who believes elected officials should not pursue litigation and forensic audits because they are too costly.

There is a reason for laws and regulations in a town. They are made to protect from damage or injury. In the case of Gaines, town officials could not sit back and allow laws and regulations to not be followed. The courts did rule in our favor and sent a clear message that no matter what your political position or status in the community is, you are not exempt from following our laws.

As for the final appeal which allowed the agricultural turbine to stay in its present location, the town again stepped forward with a resolution to protect its tax payers if, God forbid, anyone is injured from an unfortunate accident because of the location of the ag turbine.

Let’s be clear, if our laws and regulations were followed to begin with there never would have been a lawsuit.

The Forensic Audit was necessary because, once again, rules were not followed and specific qualified professionals were needed to help determine where the problems were stemming from, and what needed to change, in order to protect the town.

It was much more then finding a “mere mismark of a day off” or a charge of extra 10 miles of travel in the case of an elected official. The fact that no audit had been completed in 7 years and there were problems with the existing accounting firm led to the necessity of forensic auditors. Procedures and extra securities were put in place that needed to be updated.

The real issue here is not elected officials using judgment when entering litigation but elected officials standing up against those who are not being honest and following our rules and laws they took an oath in office to honor.

Ray Burke
Town of Gaines ZBA member