BERNE — The town is hiring an accounting firm as it revamps the way it handles finances.

On March 11, Supervisor Joseph Giebelhaus had proposed a number of changes to how Berne handles money and the board supported each unanimously. To have all the town’s money handled by one person, as formerly, is not the best accounting practice, he said.

So Giebelhaus proposed setting up a budget office with three separate tasks: The first is a bookkeeper to handle day-to-day transactions. The second is budget management. And the third is a certified public accountant, overseeing the other two. The CPA will be responsible for the annual financial report and will interface with the state comptroller’s office, he said.

On March 25, the town board unanimously agreed to hire BST Consulting Group, which is headquartered in Latham, to fill the third function.

Brendan Kennedy, a partner in the firm, told the board that the goal is for him to spend as little time as possible on the work for Berne — “to leverage as best as possible … The better we leverage, the better we do,” he said.

The standard rates for the company range, at the top of the scale, from $360 to $575 per hour for a partner down to $105 to $130 per hour for an accounting specialist.

The estimated fee range, BST wrote to Berne, is not to exceed $7,500.

Giebelhaus told The Enterprise after the meeting that a contract with BST has yet to be negotiated but will be based on the proposal made by the firm

Laura Grippin, who has an accounting degree from The College of Saint Rose and now works for BST, accompanied Kennedy to the meeting; he described her as a Berne native.

Tax Collector Stephanie Audino gave an enthusiastic endorsement for Grippin, and Councilman Bunzey said, “She’s got good parents.”

Bunzey also said, given Berne’s financial difficulties, that it was “a good thing” to have “someone to keep our books straight.”

Giebelhaus said he was “very impressed” with BST and likes that the firm could use Berne’s current accounting platforms.

“We’ve been watching over the years what’s gone on,” Kennedy said, apparently referencing Berne’s financial difficulties.

In 2021, an audit report from the Office of the State Comptroller itemized the duties the town board had neglected and made 11 recommendations. A year later, the comptroller’s office found that just one of its recommendations were followed and that the then-supervisor had lied to state officials.

Besides the comptroller’s report, other state-recognized areas of mismanagement included safety protocol at the town highway department, where a worker died in 2020; compliance with Open Meetings Law; and repeatedly hiring building department employees who did not have proper licensing.

In 2022, bills from National Grid were unpaid or underpaid for the town hall, the senior center, the library, the pump station, the highway department, Switzkill Farm facilities, the town park, the transfer station, and the wastewater treatment facility.

In 2024, three of the town board’s five members simultaneously resigned, citing financial mismanagement among their reasons.

This stopped town government for seven months until the governor finally made an appointment, giving the board a quorum.

Kennedy described the town board members who took office on Jan. 1 as a “clean slate.”

The two members of the current board who helped to draft the 2026 budget said in January that they were surprised when tax bills came out with a 68-percent hike rather than the anticipated 38-percent increase. The board then voted to ask the state comptroller’s office to investigate what had happened.

“Town officials have not sent us a request for an audit,” Mark E. Johnson, press secretary for the Office of the State Comptroller, told The Enterprise in an email on March 13. “They conveyed to our office that they determined the change in the tax rate was due to a calculation error and it was corrected prior to the issuance of tax bills, and that the tax bills are based on the approved budget. At this time, we do not plan to engage [in] an audit but continue to monitor the town.”

Kennedy told the town board on March 25 that some of the difficulties Berne had witnessed are prevalent and concluded, “Our success will look like your success.”