11/24/2015

To: Kristina Gossman, Chairperson of the Norridgewock Sewer Commission

Dear Kristina,

As you know, PM be out of town for a few weeks and will not be able to attend
local meetings. I do, however, want to share some of my thoughts with you and
the board on our financialmatters.

I made a complete 71 page copy of the town's 2014 audit report for my use and
review. After reviewing the document in it's entirety regarding the sewer
department?s ?nances I did not find the information that auditor Rob Smith gave
us at our last meeting which was that we "are broke and there are no funds at all
in our capitol reserve account's:i and much more. It seems that the discussidn of
the audit that he related to us that he had with the town manager was not passed
on to us from the 1:0th manager nor were his comments included in the printed
audit report. ThezqueStion is why? Much of the wording in the audit report
appeared to .be of a 'fboiier plate,"- variety that is commonly-used by accounting
?rms but what .is sorely missing is a frank printedidiscussion of what-he .
related to us at? our last meeting. Basically-he told us that we had no money, just .
debt. 

During the year at- our meetings we were presented with,?gures from our capitol
accounts: 1. Collection system $122,592. Equipment (Plant ?Sc Pumps)
$90,154. as of 10/14/2015 and 3. Building (Plant) $119,732. We had discussions
as to what to pay from these accounts and did vote to pay some repairs from
them;  such, it came as duite a surprise'when the auditor tbld' us that there

of-ftli?ese accounts. If he is Correct; why are the accounts
empty? and why were we lead to believe there were real monies in each of these
accounts? When and how were-they-emptied? Why did thesewer administrator
provide us with capitdl account balances that in 
had nopositiye any of?the?i?fh?islisZBi?-inohey being 
should have ourrfocus as to what-has happenedhere.  - 

The same accouoting firm has done our audits for several years under our same
sewer administrator (town Manager) and at our last meeting there seemed to be
a "cozy" relationship that may have developed between them. Does this auditing
firm audit the town of Fairfield or is soliciting their account? Does the relationship

cloud the report of the auditor so that some of the important issues from the
audit is only communicated verbally? Was the meeting of the town manager and

the auditor recorded or were there other persons present at thetime?

It would be my opinion that at least the finances of the sewer department be
audited separately by an auditing firm other than the current one in order to

obtain a fresh vieWpoint.

When you review the audit report you?ll find the sewer ?nances under the -
headings of business type activities" or "enterprise funds" along with the
finances of the Norridgewock Airport.
'You will also ?nd on page 38, note it 16 Contingencies: a statement regarding
legal claims against the town but does not specify that there are or are not such

claims currently pending and if there are who the plaintiffs are. In years past
there were such disclosures. Boiler plate statements are very uninformative.

After understanding my concerns that began at our lune meeting where we
were informed by the sewer administrator that we had a large deficit annual

carryover you might better understand why I became so concerned from that
meeting forward about the integrity of the financial reports that we were being

provided.

You are encouraged to provide a copy of this memo to the rest of our'board and
to the selectmen when you meetwith-them-on-Dec. lst. 

Keep up the good work Kristina and HI be home again Dec. 22nd.
Kind Regards,



Ronald Currier, Vice Chairman