WHAT IS UP NEXT FOR THE VILLAGE - BUDGET TIME

     We are on a high, and rightfully so, as we defeated the Wi Fi issue, decisively and loudly. And no, to the poster on the other blog, a roll call would not have had you win. It simply would have been a voiced by number defeat of the Wi Fi, although roll call is the way to go, not the asinine way we have been doing it, rife with errors, accidental and on purpose.
     But what is immediately next, though not alone, is the issue of the budget. I am not an expert with numbers. I am not a CPA nor even a plain old accountant. However, I have worked with budgets both in my personal and professional life, and NEVER have I ever come across a budget that was so fickle, so changeable, that it changes every couple of days or so and not by a little. Oh, no! It changes by hundreds of thousands of dollars and not just once.
     This cannot be. A budget can change by smaller amounts as importance and need or real anticipated expenditures are evaluated and prepared for, but not by that amount! Unless someone can show me a devoted and wealthy philanthropist who donated that hundreds of thousands of dollars that suddenly became available, then I believe that there is something definitely off here, something rotten in the state of the Village.
     Whether it is because we suddenly have shifted monies into fewer reserve or designated funds - NOT a good idea - or we fiddled the numbers somehow, or we plain lied or whatever the reason and cause - THIS BUDGET IS NOT TO BE APPROVED. In fact, NO budget should be approved until we get some answers and then we need a forensic audit. I have been saying this too for months.
     We were lucky that we had Dorothy when we did for she saved us from bankruptcy. We were lucky we had George when we did, for as president and an accountant, he had a sharp eye on things. During those years we saved a half million dollars a year for the roadwork and then in one fell swoop GONE, just gone, under the "leadership" of David Israel and Ed Black. Over $2 million dollars just signed over on a blank piece of paper, no delegate approval, no proper contract, no oversight, no common or business sense and on and on.
     If you think this type of irresponsible fiscal behavior is over and done with _ WRONG, SO WRONG. Our contracts are not written nor signed with the residents benefit in mind. Even now, with the security contract that they ballyhoo about - tell me the final cost? Tell me the placement of cameras around the Village and where it is written in the contract? And no, that is supposedly for the gatehouses, UCO building and WPRF facilities. We saved ourselves grief with the defeat of Wi Fi for now, millions of dollars, but let us save more with the budget - a review, an overhaul and an accounting by a team of people from within and without the Village and NOT NOT NOT only by David Israel's minions.
     In the meanwhile, this "blended" contract and its raise in fees should be defeated. We never approved a higher fee, only to extend the contract. This is illustrative and symptomatic of what is going on here in the Village.
     I still say, time for a motion for a vote of no confidence in this administration and then recall or resignation. we still have our future to prepare for. Let us do it properly and begin with the budget.