Woodstock, N.Y., board lacks votes to pay town bills

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. – Municipal bills are not expected to be paid this month after two Town Board members abstained from voting to show their displeasure over the limited time available to review the expenses.

Board members Maria-Elena Conte and Bennet Ratcliff declined to vote during a meeting Tuesday and later said the bills had not been available until just a few hours before the session.

“There is no ordinary routine,” Ratcliff said. “The agenda is supposed to come out days in advance. It’s now coming out at 1 p.m.”

Without Conte and Ratcliff combined with the absence of Councilwoman Laura Ricci the Town Board was one vote short of the majority needed to pay the bills. Supervisor Bill McKenna and Councilman Reginald Earls voted in favor of making the payments.

McKenna said concern over the short period of time for reviewing bills came as a surprise.

“Both of these members have been on the board for a year-and-a-half now and not once have they ever mentioned a need for more time,” he said.

“They’ve been aware since before they took office that the Tuesday after the business meeting has always been, for as long as I’ve been on the board, the day people come in to sign vouchers,” McKenna said. “Nobody has ever requested additional time. So, they failed to do their job.”

McKenna on Thursday said the bills amounted to about $434,000 and will go unpaid until the next Town Board meeting, which is currently scheduled for Aug. 8.

“The town’s credit is likely to be affected,” he said. “The faith and trust in the town is going to be dented … I suspect that if we were not to pay them, that there is interest payments on some of those bills and I’m sure that some of the contractors won’t be doing any work until they’re made whole.”

McKenna said the bills include charges of $180,000 from Callanan Industries for blacktop.

“We have local vendors like Woodstock Hardware and Woodstock Lumber that I’m sure don’t want to go an extra month to get compensated for items that we purchased,” he said.

“We have two different septic pumpers that clean out the septic tanks in the town,” McKenna said. “They spent money on fuel for service that they provided for us and now they will have to wait.”