Clerk responds: U-town turns out for hot budget hearing

Uniontown passed a slashed 2011 budget Monday night in the wake of a month of staff resignations. A crowded city hall watched as the five-member council passed the budget and made a plan for a private audit of the town’s finances.

The town’s current expense budget is $297,894 for 2011. The overall budget, including water, sewer, reserves and capital improvement funds totals $997,699.

The town currently has no police and no full-time city clerk.

In the midst of a heated struggle over balancing the 2011 budget, city clerk/treasurer Cheryl Waller and temporary deputy clerk Patty Kelly both resigned. Long-time Uniontown police officer David Lehmitz resigned Nov. 30.

The town’s other part-time police officer can no longer serve after failing a Police Academy test.

Mayor Joyce Mayer and Councilman Len Zeoli have both forfeited their salaries for the year to bolster the budget.

The 2011 budget holds steep pay cuts for staff positions. Those cuts were factored into the budget by deputy clerk Kelly after Waller and Lehmitz resigned. After drafting the budget, Kelly also resigned, but she has returned to work several days a week at the invitation of the council.

The 2011 budget cuts the town police department to one part-time officer who is limited to 20 hours a week.

The budget cuts the full-time clerk treasurer position to 20 hours a week and creates a position for a deputy clerk at six hours a week.

Members of the audience were skeptical the job of clerk/treasurer could suddenly be done in 20 hours a week compared to the former 40 hours it took.

In a separate interview with the Gazette Monday, Waller pointed out several instances in which she believes the council disregarded state regulations in the past three months.

Waller said she used to regularly attend sessions of the town’s finance committee which was formed last August by the mayor. The mayor, council member Brad Jordan and Lynn Smith sat on that committee.

As the months ticked by to work on the 2011 budget, Waller said the finance committee began holding meetings to which she was not invited. Waller started writing up the town’s budget in September. Committee members began disagreeing with her budget and showing her pieces of a budget she hadn’t seen. That budget included measures not in line with state regulations, she said.

Mayer told the Gazette the finance committee did meet without Waller who was not technically part of the committee.

Waller said the council tried to have her write in actual figures in the budget. A normal municipal budget for the next year generally includes inflated estimate figures for line items, Waller told the Gazette.

For example, the council wanted her to include only $500 for gas for the town police officers for the whole year. Setting that figure at $1,000 is far wiser, she said.

Budget items are intentionally logged as inflated over cost estimates to give the town leeway in case the actual amount spent is exceeded, Waller said.

Mayer said the council didn’t want to write in excess funding to account for emergency spending. They tried to keep their estimates as close to the actual spending record as possible in order to keep their budget in the black, she said. Even with these measures, the entire budget was only $422 in the black when they finished, Mayer said.

Waller felt the council was questioning her integrity and this too was insulting.

“They questioned my integrity. And the mayor quit talking to me,” she said, pointing out the mayor didn’t talk to her for three weeks after she turned in her letter of resignation.

Kathy Stilwell, former Uniontown resident, called the Gazette specifically this week to vouch for Waller.

“She’s as honest as they come. She’s very smart and does due diligence for everything she does,” Stilwell said.

Stilwell is a long-time friend of Waller. The two worked at a credit company in California for eight years in the 1980s and 1990s.

Stilwell owned the Churchyard Inn before selling it to Waller, who now runs it with her husband.

“It’s sad, because she was probably the best thing that ever happened to them. She had a mess when she got there. She cleaned it all up,” Stilwell said.

Stilwell said she was concerned the council questions Waller’s integrity. She noted the former clerk has the proper state training for working as a clerk.