Former Hurley town supervisor John Perry blasted present supervisor Melinda McKnight at the June 20 meeting of the town board for what he called several illegal transfers of more than $7 million in the past year. She claimed the finances were never in danger.
“This violates town law and ethics law. This caused general funds to go into negative of over $61,000, costing taxpayer money to pay for these [overdraft] fees,” Perry said. He said the transfers were without the approval of the town board.
Perry said he brought this to the attention of ethics board chair Peter McKnight and member Bruce Ginsburg. Ginsberg denies ever receiving any communication from Perry regarding Hurley town funds transfers.
Perry requested to be appointed to the ethics board. “I do know where the money went, but it still was illegal transactions,” he said.
Perry said his Freedom of Information requests for bank records have gone unanswered for four months.
McKnight said the situation occurred because she was attending to her husband, who had broken his back.
“In February of 2022, there was a situation that arose where the checking account did for a very short time go negative. The situation arose because all of the special districts were paid in February, and all of those checks happened to clear on the same day,” she said. “So the town did not experience any fines. There were no late fees.”
McKnight said she has a letter from the bank saying everything was fine.
“All of the charges were either paid or their bank fees were reversed. That situation arose because my husband had broken his back and was in the hospital, and I was trying to do everything. And so on that one day there was an issue. The town didn’t suffer anything,” McKnight said. “In fact, if anyone wants to talk to the banker, I’ll give you their phone number. It was an emergency situation. and I can guarantee you no one is perfect.”
McKnight later clarified the situation. She said the bank paid all the checks for the special district because it could see the funds were in the town savings account.
“Mr. Perry knew about this since last fall, but chose to wait until now to raise the issue to try to sway the election. I felt terrible when it happened, and it has not happened since,” she said.
Perry being denied information is the latest in a string of accusations the McKnight administration is withholding records. Recently, supervisor candidate Mike Boms and town council candidate Diana Cline demanded records from town clerk Annie Reed, leaving her frightened and shaken. “They just showed up and tried to bully her, and it was very unpleasant,” McKnight said.
Boms said he was not threatening at all.
“Seven weeks ago I asked the town clerk for a copy of all of the vouchers pertaining to the leachate field since January 2022 to the present day,” Boms said. “So I went into town hall yesterday, on Friday [June 9]. And I walked into the office there and walked into the town clerk, and I asked to see the documents… and all sudden, I could see in her eyes that she was so overwhelmed with the job she has. She was just appointed.”
McKnight said the town is in the middle of a transition between an outside accounting firm and an in-house bookkeeper, posing new challenges. This, combined with Reed’s increased workload taking over the clerk’s office, has caused delays in availability of some records, McKnight said.
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