Wellfleet’s Troubles
To the editor:
Having read in the Independent about Wellfleet’s 2021 audit, Buddy Perkel’s March 9 op-ed column, and Selectman John Wolf’s response, I have three comments about the accounting and financial issues bedeviling Wellfleet.
First, I agree that suing the town’s auditors for malpractice is a bad idea. Typically, when auditors are sued, it is by third parties who claim that they were damaged by misleading financial statements. I have never heard of a client suing its own auditors for malpractice for inaccurate financials caused by the client’s faulty accounting systems. Such a lawsuit would almost certainly fail.
Second, Wellfleet should change auditors, as the state strongly recommended. You report that the current firm has had the town’s auditing contract for 27 years. Having the same firm audit a client’s books for that length of time is, in my experience, unheard of. That only the current auditor responded to the town’s RFP shows that there is a need to reach out to other firms to assure them that becoming Wellfleet’s auditors would not expose them to an unholy mess.
Third, Wellfleet urgently needs to hire a director of finance. It should offer a sizable salary for the position to attract highly qualified candidates. The short-term cost to the town will come with many long-term benefits. Your articles demonstrate how a failure of communication among the town’s finance departments led to several serious errors in the town’s records. Having a captain of the ship will help prevent a recurrence of this problem.
The residents of Wellfleet deserve a government that is able to maintain its books and records in a professional manner. The select board needs to act promptly to cure Wellfleet’s many longstanding accounting and finance issues.
Stephen Greenberg
Wellfleet
Perkel Responds
To the editor:
I see little point in arguing about the potential liability of Wellfleet’s auditors with John Wolf [letter, March 23]. I would rather urge all who are interested to Google “auditing standard 265” on “Communicating Deficiencies in Internal Control to Those Charged With Governance and Management” and make their own decision on who bears primary responsibility for this mess.
Two other brief comments: first, I believe that town counsel, if asked, could refer the select board to one of the many law firms that specialize in professional malpractice cases, one of which may take this matter at minimal, if any, cost to the town; second, I hope Mr. Wolf’s suggestion that the board does its work “more quietly” does not violate the Open Meeting Law nor skirt the transparency citizens need from their government.
Buddy Perkel
Provincetown
Dogs as Family Members
To the editor:
Listening to the recent Truro Board of Health meeting about restricting dogs on the beach, I heard over and over the phrase “This dog is a member of my family,” which leads to the question “How do members of a family behave?”
Do you let your child run up to strangers and jump on them with sandy feet as you call out, “Don’t worry — she’s friendly!”?
Do you let children urinate on other people’s beach stuff? Do you let children grab another person’s sandwich and run away? Do you let your children bite people or defecate in the middle of the path to the beach?
If you claim that the dog is a member of the family and should be able to go everywhere with you, then the dog has to act like a member of your family. I think we can agree that we have different expectations for dogs and humans, and that is why we need to have different rules for dogs.
Bruce Monteith
Truro
Decorum at Town Meeting
To the editor:
Re “Rude Awakening” [Letter From the Editor, March 23]:
Lots of folks, the New York Times included, interpreted the Supreme Judicial Court’s Barron ruling as judicial endorsement of discourteous behavior. It is not.
The ruling is limited to the facts of the case and struck down as unconstitutional a local bylaw that regulated speech content during a public comment period.
In the future, this may embolden people to get rowdy at meetings of municipal boards that continue to set aside time for public comment, but town meeting is a different story.
Mass. General Laws Chapter 39 Section 17 states: “No person shall address a town meeting without leave of the moderator, and all persons shall, at the request of the moderator, be silent. If a person, after warning from the moderator, persists in disorderly behavior, the moderator may order him to withdraw from the meeting, and, if he does not withdraw, may order a constable or any other person to remove him and confine him in some convenient place until the meeting is adjourned.”
Well-seasoned moderators, like Wellfleet’s Dan Silverman, have the authority and discretion to maintain decorum that is not specifically bestowed by statute on other municipal officials.
In my opinion, if the same facts and circumstances at issue in Barron occurred in the context of an annual town meeting, the SJC’s ruling would be very different.
Michael Fee
Truro
