Consideration

The Village Income Tax Committee released a three page recommendation of Issue 34 prior to the last election.  The fourth paragraph on the first page reads:

Why do we need this tax?  Village officials became aware in 2003 that vendors were reluctant to do business with the Village due to unpaid invoices.  A further investigation revealed that we were sitting on tons of umpaid invoices for services or goods.

A call has been made on the Discussion Forum for any charges that would give a reason for people to dislike Mr. Moore.  The above situation certainly applies.  Mr. Moore was Mayor for the Village of Windham from October, 1999 to December, 2003.  The Village Administration office is part of the Mayor’s responsibility in our Village.  It was the Administrative office that was negligent in reference to the “tons of unpaid invoices for services or goods”.  Some, if not all, of this took place while Mr. Moore was in direct oversight of the Administrative Office. 

In a business, when negligence is found in financial records, those who prepared those records are generally fired.  Also, those who are in leadership positions are held accountable for the negligence.  All of those in the Administrative Office, and the Mayor, carry some blame for the present financial condition of the Village.

The Village Council decided to give Mr. Moore a “second chance”, as it were, by appointing him to Council after being removed as Mayor by the voters.  During Mr. Moore’s tenure as Village Council President, he has worked to right the Village’s financial ship.  Now, two and a half years removed from the initial finding, we are not in much of a better position. 

These are marks against Mr. Moore.  Our hope is that his second round of Mayoral leadership is marked by better financial accountability and openness in all decisions regarding the Village.