Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are remote only, but some are held in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you are interested in for an agenda and instructions on joining remotely.
Thursday, Feb. 8
- Cape Cod Commission Executive Committee, 2 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 9
- Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee, 1 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 12
- Maurice’s Planning Committee, 2 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 13
- Cable Internet and Cellular Service Advisory Committee, 9 a.m.
- Cultural Council, 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 14
- Maurice’s Planning Committee, 1 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Wellfleet May Hire Its Own Accountant
After 13 months without its own town accountant, Wellfleet may be getting one.
At the select board’s Jan. 30 meeting, Town Administrator Rich Waldo announced that he had made a conditional offer to accountant Suzanne Moquin.
According to Moquin’s resume, she was the finance director for the town of Carver from 2021 to 2023. She was the assistant town manager and finance director for Abington in 2020 after serving eight years as Abington’s accountant.
Wellfleet’s last accountant, Nick Robertson, resigned in December 2022 after nine months on the job. Since then, the town has been contracting its accounting services to a company, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA). According to invoices from CLA, the town had been paying the firm from $15,000 to $30,000 a month for its services.
Most select board members were thrilled that Waldo had found a viable candidate. But board member Ryan Curley found a news article that he said suggested a potential problem. According to the article, free cash was certified late in Carver in 2022 while Moquin was finance director.
Carver’s finance committee blamed the delay “on former town officials who haven’t worked for the town for some time,” according to the article. But Curley said he had also found a second article that revealed a series of delays in free cash certification in Abington, where Moquin worked before she worked in Carver.
That article stated that free cash had been certified late in Abington in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
“I can’t support this. It’s more of the same for Wellfleet,” Curley said. “I don’t see how you interview somebody and you do not address those issues.”
Waldo noted that Wellfleet is still experiencing its own delays with free cash certification. The Div. of Local Services (DLS) typically certifies towns’ free cash accounts by October; Wellfleet is still in the process of getting its free cash certified. Last year, free cash was certified in late April, after the town went three years without being able to use any of its free cash.
Waldo told the select board he spoke to Moquin’s former employers, who expressed “strong support” for her. He noted that Moquin has more municipal finance experience than most of Wellfleet’s previous accountants did. —Sam Pollak
