BERNE — Berne’s financial lightbulb appears to be flickering, as the town has frequently left its electricity bills outstanding throughout this year and last.

The Enterprise received all the bills dating back to January 2021 through a Freedom of Information Law request. 

Altogether, they show a concerning pattern of nonpayment and underpayment of charges in which the town accumulated late fees at a rate of 1.5 percent from National Grid, along with disconnection notices. 

For instance, a bill for electrical service to the town hall for the month of December, issued this January, was $386.07, but there was still a balance of $427.85 leftover from previous bills, so the town owed $813.65 by Jan. 27; otherwise it would incur a late fee, as National Grid noted on the bill. 

The following month, the town paid only $428.58, and took on an additional $789.57, for a new total of $1,174.64. The town didn’t make any payment on the next town hall bill, leaving a balance of $1,990.29.

Meanwhile, the January bill for outdoor lighting service was not paid, leaving a balance in February of $4,665.93. The town did not make any payment before the March bill was issued. 

Bills for the senior center, library, pump station, highway department, Switzkill Farm facilities, town park, transfer station, and wastewater treatment facility were also left unpaid at different times. When bills were paid, they were frequently less than what was owed. 

National Grid even sent disconnection notices for service at the Switzkill Farm lodge over an unpaid balance of just $135.68. The lodge sits on the property unused while the town is exploring options to rid itself of the parkland. 

This is all despite the fact that the town board routinely and unanimously voted to allow its supervisors — Sean Lyons in 2021, and Dennis Palow in 2022 — to pay bills, at least during periods when Lyons was not inappropriately paying bills without board approval, which the state comptroller’s office admonished the town for following an audit. 

Neither Lyons, Palow, nor Anita Clayton — who was town clerk last year before becoming a councilwoman this year — could be reached for an explanation of why charges have been left to accumulate. 

Councilman Albert Thiem, who was appointed to the board earlier this year, said he was unaware of any issue with the town’s electricity bills and agreed to have copies sent to him by The Enterprise. 

The exception to unanimous votes in 2021 was then-Councilman Joel Willsey, a Democrat, who frequently abstained from voting because he said the other board members, all of whom had been elected on the Republican line, withheld information from him. 

“They refused to make bills and such available to me at meetings,” Willsey told The Enterprise this week. “Said I had to go to the clerk’s office by appointment. Of course, every interaction I had with them that was not public resulted in some accusation. So I couldn’t go there.”

(Republican-backed candidates on the board, including Palow and Lyons, spent over $15,000 on investigations into different Democrats who had sat on the board since 2018. Investigations often came after those board members voted against or questioned Republican proposals.)

No indication of a funding problem was ever made to the public, with The Enterprise learning of unpaid bills from former Supervisor Kevin Crosier, a Democrat, who was receiving calls from National Grid about the bills because the town apparently failed to update its contact sheet for the company. 

“There’s a major cash flow problem if you can’t pay your electricity bill,” Crosier told The Enterprise this week.

National Grid told The Enterprise in August that it does not comment on specific customers’ bills, only stating that “if a customer is late or unable to pay their bills, we will work with them to provide assistance.”

Month after month of outstanding bills throughout 2021 included advisories that towns could reach out to National Grid for help with COVID-related financial difficulties, with protections extending to the end of December 2021. 

Long history

Berne’s financial dealings and stability have long been in question by certain residents, who fear that grudge politics and a strong desire to appeal to residents by virtually eliminating property tax in the town have led board members to make irresponsible decisions — to say nothing of other state-recognized areas of mismanagement, such as 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. 

The town was audited by the state comptroller’s office, which found based on records reviewed from the whole of 2020 that the town board “exceeded its authority” when it allowed Supervisor Sean Lyons to pay bills without town board review beginning in January 2020 — which is when GOP-backed candidates took full control of the board —  and that financial records were sorely inaccurate as a result of this and other issues.

The audit report also detailed various record-keeping failures, and said that disorganization led to mispayment of credit card bills, resulting in $468 in late fees and interest charges. 

There was no evidence, however, of misappropriation or lost funds aside from that. 

The audit also revealed that Palow, who was then deputy supervisor and had controversially received a $1,500 raise for that position, which primarily centers around reviewing and signing documents in lieu of the supervisor, was not adequately reviewing financial material before signing off on it.

The report states that, as deputy supervisor, Palow had signed four bank reconciliations without adequately reviewing them, explaining that Palow told auditors that “he only looked at bank statements and did not review and trace information from the bank reconciliation sheets to balance sheets or general ledger reports.”

“The Deputy began reviewing bank reconciliations in December 2020 when the bookkeeper provided him with all prepared bank reconciliations for the year,” the report says. “However, the Deputy did not perform a proper review of the bank reconciliations to make sure adjusted bank balances agreed to general ledger reports so the bookkeeper could resolve the differences.”

The town was also criticized by an outside budget consultant for the way Lyons constructed the budget in 2019, and for some officials’ attitude toward the consultant while he was contracted. 

The consultant, Michael Richardson, said that Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger, who at the time was also the chairman of the town GOP committee and currently chairs Albany county’s GOP committee, “didn’t complete his statutory requirements” because he never provided the supervisor cost estimates for the highway department, which accounts for roughly half the town’s expenses. 

In general, Richardson said, the town’s Republicans, who at the time were outnumbered by Democrats on the board 2-to-3, were incredibly resistant to his work for the town — a first in his career, he added. 

In 2021, Willsey questioned why the town was purchasing a highway truck for around $32,000 more than what the piggyback bid price was, as shown on bid documents. Although that price was still a steep discount from the retail price, officials did not respond to Enterprise inquiries seeking clarification on what the town was ultimately paying extra money for. 

Also last year, a tax-bill error left the town nearly $35,000 short of revenue for its expenses in the sewer district, which the residents there have yet to repay. 

The town’s 2022 budget was also criticized for allegedly relying on one-time funds sourced from the fund balance and pandemic-relief money to reduce the tax levy, leaving the town and its residents vulnerable when that money runs out.