BERNE — Two years ago, The Enterprise reported that the town of Berne had been letting some of its National Grid bills go unpaid. It’s still the case today.

The lapses are part of ongoing issues with financial mismanagement, one of the major reasons three town board members resigned in August, leaving the Berne government inoperable.

A Freedom of Information Law request for bills received from January to August this year has revealed that the town had not, in that period, been paying its town hall electricity bills in full, carryinging over significant balances for eight months straight.

The town also had overpaid some of its bills on other National Grid accounts, though not by the same amount that it owed for the town hall service. 

The town most recently, in August, had carried over an outstanding balance of $726.48, with that month’s new charges bringing the total balance to $1,403.42. 

Those numbers are similar to the figures seen in other months, with the town typically paying only about half of what was owed and letting the rest lapse, incurring late fees of 1.5 percent. 

However, in March, the town didn’t submit a payment at all, bringing the balance to $2,327.14.

Meanwhile, the three instances of overpayment seen on the other accounts this year only earned the town a total credit of $1,957.41, and each had occurred only after the non-payment and several underpayments on the town hall account.

Supervisor Dennis Palow could not be reached for comment.

Despite the outstanding balances, Berne has appeared to significantly improve its diligence in paying National Grid bills since 2022, when The Enterprise first reported on a much more severe pattern of late payments across multiple accounts, with one outstanding balance reaching nearly $5,000. 

However, it’s not the only indication of financial mismanagement that’s been found in recent months. An Enterprise review of the town’s bank accounts found that the town let its payroll account get overdrawn on multiple occasions in 2023, and had been making unauthorized transfers between accounts, apparently to keep the balances above zero.

Three of the town board’s five members resigned suddenly in August after raising concerns about the town’s finances that got two of them — Leo Vane Jr. and Joe Martin — kicked out of the town hall, as they described it to The Enterprise that month. 

The Enterprise also reported this week that the town is currently withholding its tentative budget from the public, despite there being no barrier to publishing it on the town website at this time since, as the New York State Committee on Open Government opined, tentative budgets are subject to public disclosure requirements anyway.