Saugus OKs Wheelabrator settlement

SAUGUS – The Saugus Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Thursday night to accept the agreement and consent judgment with Wheelabrator. The decision ends the town?s pursuit of its own legal action against the trash-burning facility for environmental violations.The settlement includes a $261,000 payment to the town plus an additional $200,000 for a Center for Hard to Recycle Materials and for an environmental park off of Bristow Street.?For the town to pursue individual environmental claims against Wheelabrator would be very difficult,” said Special Town Counsel Ira Zaleznik. “There were a lot of options here and none of them are particularly good ?”Selectmen Chairman Scott Crabtree said Wheelabrator also has verbally committed to contributing to the upkeep of the environmental park, and agreed to help pay for start-up costs for implementing a single-stream recycling program in Saugus and to help establish a possible organic compost site.?All of us are frustrated that these alleged violations occurred and put us at risk,” said Crabtree. “I think the important thing here is that we?re trying to make sure this doesn?t happen again and that the town is fairly compensated for the alleged violations.”The board also voted to have accounting firm Powers and Sullivan further investigate the town?s financial records after a preliminary audit turned up irregularities.According to findings submitted to the board, Powers and Sullivan found “certain employees that were paid a salary as an employee and at the same time were being paid as an independent contractor.”The findings also state these payments were posted to overtime salary line items and non-payroll accounts.?The payment of an employee as an independent contractor is a direct violation of Internal Revenue Services and Massachusetts Department of Revenue laws and regulations,” said the report. “There is a high likelihood that the mis-posting of these transactions was intended to mislead those reviewing the budget-to-actual appropriation reports as to the actual nature of the transactions.”The report also states that the FY11 sewer enterprise account of $393,000 was overcharged by $100,000, and that the $219,000 water enterprise account was overcharged by more that $30,000. The report states this is a “clear violation of finance law and regulations.”The report further states there is a “high likelihood” that there are “significant violations” in procurement laws and regulations.?We believe ? there is a high likelihood that significant violations of finance laws and regulations may have occurred in the Town,” the report concludes. “As stated earlier these findings cannot be verified by us as part of our limited review but the Town would need an in-depth forensic audit to reach more definitive conclusions.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].