The Village Board’s recent statement regarding the devastating New York State Comptroller’s audit is a textbook attempt to escape accountability. It uses smooth, carefully crafted language to project forward momentum, but beneath the surface, it is a masterclass in dodging responsibility.
The most offensive line in their statement is this: “…we also know that pointing fingers, assigning blame and looking backward is counterproductive.”
How incredibly convenient!
The people telling the taxpayers not to “look backward” or “assign blame” are the exact same sitting board members who were steering the ship while it sank. This audit covers fiscal years 2023, 2024, and 2025. This isn’t an inherited mess from a previous board memnbers. It happened under their watch, on their clock, during their terms in office.
By releasing a statement that essentially says “let’s just move past this,” the current board is attempting to act as the judge and jury in their own trial. In any legitimate system of accountability, the people who ignored the warnings don’t get to write the verdict. Let’s remember the timeline of their personal involvement:
- They Were Formally Warned: In December 2023, the state explicitly told this exact board that their internal financial software was in shambles and cash was unmonitored.
- They Chose Neglect: Over the next two years, these current trustees sat at the meeting table and chose to ignore 11 out of 13 state recommendations.
- They Condoned the Darkness: They sat by month after month without making sure they were given the financial paperwork to oversee village finances. They accepted verbal promises instead of receipts, and allowed millions in public utility cash to be shuffled online without board approval.
Now, after failing to perform their legal duty to audit the books for three straight years, they want us to believe they are the ones who will “move our village forward.”
The Ultimate Conflict of Interest
This attempt to totally escape from accountability is the real reason behind their sudden urgency to dissolve our 109-year-old independent civilian Water Board.
Think about the staggering conflict of interest happening right now. A citizen Water Board Commissioner caught them passing resolutions to transfer $500,000 out of the water fund to plug general budget deficits and demanded the underlying invoices. Instead of producing the paperwork, the Village Board’s response is to permanently eliminate the watchdogs.
They don’t want an independent trial. They don’t want independent audits. They don’t want civilian watchdogs looking at records, and reciepts.. They want to be the sole authorities over the cash, the books, and the narrative.
The Verdict Belongs to the Taxpayers
The Board of Trustees does not get to declare a truce on their own mismanagement. When a board runs a village on pure financial guesswork, ignores the State Comptroller for two years, and votes themselves pay raises while the safety controls collapse, “looking backward” isn’t counterproductive—it is the definition of public oversight.
Cancel the water board takeover hearing.
Hold a public town hall on the audit instead. The board is on trial for gross financial negligence, and the taxpayers of Wappingers Falls are the only jury that matters.