Crabtree warns of deficit problems as Saugus FinCom reviews audit

SAUGUS – Town Manager Scott Crabtree said he?ll be meeting with the Department of Revenue on Friday to discuss the water and sewer audit, and noted that the town may have to absorb the $1.4 million in salaries and expenses the audit says were improperly charged to those accounts.Crabtree said that $1.4 million will have to be reclassified back into the general account for 2012 and 2011.?They?ve outlined what transactions took place and reclassification needs to take place ? and then the board would accept those and I would push to have those changes made which will create an operating deficit for 2011 and 2012,” said Crabtree in his update to the Saugus Finance Committee Wednesday night.Crabtree also said there will be no free cash this year and there?s the possibility of having large deficits carried over from previous years, which may grow if auditors look back beyond 2011.?When you look at the report, it indicates there?s a strong likelihood that this practice is something that was ongoing,” said Crabtree.To prepare for potential cuts, Crabtree said he has instructed department heads to make proposals outlining tiered cuts of 6 percent, 4 percent and 2 percent.Crabtree said certain employees are still currently being paid out of the water and sewer accounts even though they don?t work for those departments, but noted he?s waiting for a report from the auditors and the payroll department outlining those salaries.Several Town Meeting members were in attendance Wednesday, including Al DiNardo, who asked Town Moderator Bob Long directly for a statement on the audit report, saying former Town Manager Andrew Bisignani moved money around on his own without the authority of Town Meeting.Long said the audit report deals not just with Bisignani, but with several people who “did and said nothing.”?These people and the manager appear to have betrayed the public trust, and it should not just be allowed to go sliding by,” said Long. “I?d say take it to where it should go and prosecute and do whatever it takes to straighten it out. You work for the public trust and I work for the public trust ,and betraying it is somewhere you just don?t go.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].