March 29, 2024
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SAD 40, public scrutinize auditor

WARREN – SAD 40 directors continued trying to find their way out of the district’s deep financial crisis Monday as they wrestled with hiring someone to dig them out.

While considering employing RHR Smith & Co., the firm that has performed the district’s audits for the past five years, board sentiment was mixed as to whether to vote for auditor Ron Smith to help fix the district’s financial problems.

Smith has assured the district that his company can get SAD 40 back on track, which would begin with assessing exactly where the district finances now stand.

At Monday’s meeting, Smith said the fiscal year 2002 budget deficit could be as much as $1 million. In recent weeks, the board learned that the FY ’02 budget was overspent by $476,854, a fact that had been withheld by Superintendent William Doughty since July 2002.

Director Wes Richardson of Warren made a motion to not hire Smith and to authorize the finance committee to hire a different auditor-consultant.

“We have a kill-the-messenger attitude,” Director Catherine Trueman of Waldoboro said.

Backing up his wife, Director Larry Trueman said that to hire a different auditor would be “opening up a can of worms.”

Larry Trueman said in hiring Smith’s firm that the district would have someone with accountability, a history with the district, knowledge of the district and confidence.

“We need a fresh start,” Les Murray of Warren said.

Murray, chairman of the finance committee, reasoned that Smith should have been more emphatic about the district’s financial woes after working with the district for several years. Murray stressed that he had no idea that the money problems have been ongoing.

At the start of the meeting, Jeffrey Evangelos, who was SAD 40’s business manager for 15 years, said budget deficits are making headlines on the national and local levels, so SAD 40’s problems are nothing new.

The financial mess was not the result of fraud or placing the money in the wrong account, he said. “The money’s been spent.”

Evangelos called for the auditor and superintendent to stand down and let the school board deal with finding a solution.

The most important factor is the issue of trust, he said, and Doughty’s early silence about the budget deficit was “a breach of trust.”

Under pressure from the board and public, Doughty tendered his resignation last month, effective June 30.

“The district is making its biggest mistake” if it does not hire Smith, said Paula Collard, a former SAD 40 finance office employee. “Time is crucial.”

Collard indicated there have been problems with overspending for years. “The flags have been there,” she said. At press time, the board had not voted on hiring Smith.


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