In a sometimes testy exchange at the January 23 town-board meeting, Woodstock council member Bennet Ratcliff once again took issue with the reappointment of Gordon Wemp as ZBA chair. Ratcliff criticized Wemp’s online conduct.
Ratcliff also challenged the audits of the tax collector and supervisor’s office, which those responsible for the functions heatedly denied.
Citizen Marcel Nagele filed a formal complaint against Wemp’s conduct, citing comments he made on social media. In a November discussion challenging zoning changes to encourage more affordable housing, Nagele had called Wemp “a loyal McKenna puppet.” Wemp had replied, “Hey, Marcel! Fuck you.”
According to an email from town supervisor Bill McKenna to Nagele, prior to Wemp’s reappointment there’d be an investigation into “actions and/or comments that can be classified as unprofessional behavior in the workplace and as such, the town will address these and other related matters …”
Ratcliff claimed the reappointment had already occurred. He pointed to the ZBA page on the town website which showed Wemp as chair for 2024.
“I believe this website is not a mistake. I believe that supervisor McKenna has installed a chair of the ZBA without the town board’s approval,” Ratcliff said.
In fact, the ZBA did vote to appoint Wemp chair at its January 11 meeting, but only for the remainder of that meeting. Ratcliff insisted Wemp’s name on the website constituted an illegal appointment.
Council member Anula Courtis asked whether the complaint was addressed with Wemp. McKenna said it had been.
Ratcliff noted the town board had not received copies of any findings. Council member Laura Ricci said that after a conversation with McKenna she felt comfortable with the findings.
Courtis and Ricci approved appointing Wemp. Ratcliff and Maria-Elena Conte said they voted no because they had not received details of the investigation.
At the beginning of each year, the town board in Woodstock conducts audits of several departments. This year, for the first time, Ratcliff objected to the audits of the tax collector and the town supervisor.
“When asked is the bank account reconciled after bank statements are received, the tax-collecting officer, Michelle Sehwerert, replied, ‘Yes. My mother does it,’” Ratcliff said. “At this point, the town clerk interrupted. ‘No. I do.’ I found this exchange to be troubling.”
Tax collector and town clerk Jackie Earley asked in what way it was it troubling. “I just want to make a public statement that I find that very insulting,” Earley said.
“And hostile, yes,” McKenna added.
“I’ve been tell clerk for 20 years, and there’s never been an issue. So once again, Bennet, you make fool of yourself,” Earley said.
“We saw the record,” Ricci chimed in. “I’d like to thank the others that we audited. I want to thank the tax collector’s office for all the work done.”
Ratcliff raised a similar objection to the supervisor’s audit.
“When asked, ‘Is the bank reconciliation performed by a person whose job duties do not include maintaining either the cash receipts or disbursement journals or receiving or dispersing cash,’ the bookkeeper Pam Boyle’s response was that she did the reconciliation,” Ratcliff said. “This indicated that the same person did the reconciliation and the disbursements.”
Ratcliff continued in the same vein. “The supervisor claimed that town-board members did the reconciliation during voucher signings. When two town-board members pointed out that the town board does not have responsibility for reconciliation of the books, the supervisor replied, ‘Oh, then I did the reconciliation.’ I found this exchange to be troubling.”
Ricci defended Boyle’s work.
“She is fabulous. She does a ton of work for us. We crawl through the records. We crawl through the vouchers. She provides us bank statements. We crawl through everything. So I’m confident that everything is well under control,” Ricci said.
“I will also point out that long before Bennet was on the board, the board was given the duties of reviewing the reconciliations. And if he’s not doing his job, shame on him,” McKenna said.
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