Village Of Valleyview

Failed To Provide Answers

Ms. White,

You were asked specfically for what pages in the Management Letter for 2000-2001 that presented the information about your statements.

There is NOTHING in the 2000-2001 Management Letter or 2000-2001 Audit that presents anything relating to the claims you have made here. Again I ask where is the information? It appears that you are giving INCORRECT information. The only mention of OWPC concerns the 0% loan for the street resurfacing project and that is in the audit report.

If you would provide the exact pages of the 2000-2001 Management Letter and 2000-2001 Audit it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone would like a copy of the Management Letter or Audit please email me and I can provide that to you. I want to make sure that everyone gets the correct information.

Hello Micheal

From your own ''evidence'' we can look at some of your claims.

Ms. White wrote:
''He said the same thing when I complained about Bartel. These statements were in the Dispatch. It was also stated in the Management Letter, to pay back the money to the residents.''

The Management Letter which Ms. White is attempting to quote is the 1998-1999 Management Letter not the 2000-2001 letter. The exact quote from the Management Letter is:
''The Village should refund any excess fees charged to residents.'' The auditors could not determine if excess fees had been paid. So if it is not shown that excess fees were paid then no money is to be refunded.

During this time the Village Ordinance set the pay for the building inspector at the fees that were paid for the building permits and were paid directly to the building inspector.

What should have happened is the fees should have been receipted to the Village and then a check issued by the Village to the building inspector. That was poor management and again Council had a duty to set the amount of pay and form of payment for the building inspector. They did that but in hindsight the form of payment of inappropriate and the Village should make sure that they do not set up anything like that in the future.

Ms. White has no proof that the fees collected by the building inspector were not reported as income but she likes to imply that he did not though she had never seen his income tax returns and that is a private matter and she has no business seeing anyone's tax returns.

It states in the report that the Village should investigate the fees paid to the Village and make sure that the fees charged were in line with the fees set by the Village. During Ms. White's time on Council she never investigated the matter. I do not remember any meetings held to have residents bring complaints forward or any meetings planned to be held to investigate the matter.

It has been almost five years now and nothing has been done. If the residents who felt they paid too much will send a written letter to the Village Hall stating how much they paid, when they paid, and provide any other additional information I will see that it is properly investigated. Without the residents taking that step there is nothing that I can do.

Buidling permits are no longer issued by the Village. All building permits are issued by the County once the Mayor provides a statement that the proposed work does not violate any zoning in the Village. Since there is no zoning in the Village that is not difficult for the Village to do.

Wrong Again

Ms. White wrote:
You say, ''THE MAYOR CAN ONLY DO WHAT COUNCIL ALLOWS HIM OR HER TO DO.''

Not true.
1. invoices from the contractor and engineering company go to the MAYOR not council.
2. The mayor always makes himself project manager.
3. Project manager oversees and makes sure the job is right.
4. Project manager signs-off on invoices IF it is right.
5. There were some invoices not sent to O.P.W.C.

Ms. White you are wrong again. COUNCIL can legislate that all invoices will be approved by Council. Language can be included in the original Resolution to approve the contract how invoices will be handled. COUNCIL CAN TELL THE MAYOR WHAT TO DO. If the mayor fails to follow the provisions of resolutions and ordinance charges can be brought against the Mayor. My understanding was that past Councils voted to send invoices to OWPC for their share of the costs and also the Council had to approve the Village's share of the cost. There are checks and balances.

Ms. White you never seem to grasp the full power of each office and how each can work as a check against each other to make sure that things are done properly. The current Council is taking a more active role and is doing there job. The current Mayor can only do what Council allows him to do. I can assure you that has caused more than a little frustration for the Mayor as he has not always gotten his way.

How Many?

Pages are in the Management Letter? Seven or eight. All the violations, [laws}that were broken are in the non-compliance pages. I spelled it out and even gave some word for word, from the auditor's mouth.