Saturday, June 12, 2010

Open the Mail Already!

During Bob's Correia's (one!) term in office, he promoted a, seemingly underqualified, city employee to the role of City Collector, a potentially $88,000/year job. I had my doubts about her promotion but in the end thought "how hard can it be to open mail and collect money?" My question was answered at the City Council meeting on Tuesday. Apparently it is so hard to open mail that the Collector's Office has not done it in TWO MONTHS. This means our payments for excise taxes, property taxes, water bills, etc. have not been processed.

Thousands of dollars that could have been in the bank earning interest were/are just sitting in envelopes in an increasing pile at the Collector's Office. Their job is to collect and deposit payments....what exactly was the entire office doing, if not this?

How could this go on for two months before anyone noticed or addressed the issue? Leo Pelletier had to point it out at the council meeting on Tuesday. The Collector's Office is notoriously and chronically incompetent (see the time my house almost got taken away because of the Collector's Office). This situation will be particularly egregious if anyone is getting late notices for bills while their payment is sitting on someone's desk in the Collector's Office.

The Collector's Office needs to be overhauled, and if not fired, taught how to open a freaking envelope and deposit a check in the bank.

*Somewhat related story. A relative of mine called the Collector's Office a few weeks ago He was trying to pay his water bill online but the city bill pay service kept telling him that the bill number didn't exist. The Collector's Office employee told him that they could not help him because they don't have internet and that the supervisor was out of the office so she couldn't help either. They clearly don't want our money!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

speaking of one term mayors, it's good thing we don't have 4 year terms in Fall River. We may be going to 1 year terms based on the last election.

Anonymous said...

Wait, Is this the same person who was promoted even though she had some fake degree from a fake online college?

I still think there is more to that story.

Anyone see Laughlin lately?

Anonymous said...

LMAO! Glad you are still blogging!

Anonymous said...

This isn't about Bob Correia. This didn't happen under his watch. You want to talk about incompetent look at the Treasurer hired by Flanagan. He's a real winner.

shamrock said...

@ 11:10 - Yes, the collector is Shannon Lyonnais & yes her promotion coincided with the mysterious termination of Robert Laughlin. And, her degree was from an online correspondence associates degree school that was under investigation by the SEC.

@12:51 - THANKS! I am glad I am still blogging too, I missed it.

@19:46 - I just like the mention that Fall River is able to have one term mayors ;) But, you are right, this happened under Flanagan's watch and it is inexcusable. Seems like someone should get fired over this malfeasance. I am going to give the treasurer a little more time before making a final judgment - but so far, I am not a fan.

puck said...

Give poor Shannon a break. Mayor Bob probably confiscated all sharp items, including letter openers, so that he didn't end up like Julius Caesar. Would you want the poor staff getting paper cuts from trying to open all those envelopes with their bare hands? Then they'd have to sue the city for hazardous duty pay, and the Flanny Man has us in enough legal trouble as it is.

Henry V said...

Sorry to say this folks, but we've got bigger problems than lost investment income, even though every penny is crucial in a budget for FY11 which we all know mthis administration had no hopes of balancing before June 30.

No, the lack of entering and depositing payments means that this City's commitment to DOR to reconcile accounts payable to bank account balances in the general Ledger on a timely basis has not been kept. If you will recall the City agreed to do this as a condition for obtaining a tax rate for FY 2010. No amount of arm twisting of Gov. Patrick will keep DOR from punishing the City for this. At a minimum it will NEVER trust a figure or commitment from this City ever again. They cannot, because if the debt service obligations for the City and any of it's Enterprise Funds goes unmet, the professional staff of DOR will be to blame for not correcting the situation, and that, quite simply, will not happen.

IN A MORE PRACTICLE SENSE, without monthly reconcilations, closing the books will take months, nd we'll be right where we've always been, stupid and lacking and as incompetent as ever...

I thought this new guy was suppossed to change all this? IO thought the new Mayor was suppossed to be a step ahead in improvement.

Yeah!

shamrock said...

Yes Henry, our situation is bleak. I just read the budget and found that, despite numerous cuts elsewhere, the law department is budgeted to add ANOTHER attorney. Another attorney....and another broken campaign promise.

Anonymous said...

Politics is holding and will continue to hold Fall River back. Word of advise to future candidates: only make promises you can keep. Telling us what we want to hear and then not keeping the promise will end up getting you out of office. Keep your money and save yourself the embarasement of keeping Fall River back if you do anything different.

Anonymous said...

Tonight's news that the City Accountant is leaving is way to funny not to be laughed at. I think this City has an allergy to closed books. Maybe they keep getting closer to actually stumbling upon wrongdoing so instead of doing their jobs they just quit! I suppose then this guy, who happens to be a relative of bob Correia, if I'm not mistaken, can make sure mthe City Grants are not ever audited and closed as well.

Fall River....the new motto should be "If We Ain't Cheatin', We Ain't Tryin'!... a big assist goes to the Jet's LaDanian Tomlinson for use of that quote!

Oh, yes, and this now guarentees the books for the City won't be closed for months....I don't think DOR will be ok with this at all....Hey, wasn't GRABB BAG a Municipal Accounting Officer in Quincy?...So there should be NO PROBLEM with the City closing the City's books for FY2010...sotrry Will, you won't get away with whatever overexpenditures and illegal uses of funds you've been up to since you've been in control.

Anonymous said...

Almeida is not related to Correia.

Anonymous said...

He worked for Sahady, he signed Sahady's no-bid audit contract. Why is Sahady still with us? The only common denominator to the City's fiscal demise is Sahady and she is still getting multiple checks from the City!

Anonymous said...

almeida is bobs godson

Anonymous said...

Why does it matter if Bob Correia is his godfather? His family has enough to handle with the current legal and judgement issues of his grand-daughter. Leave them alone.

Anonymous said...

It jsut explains how he got the job.

Anonymous said...

He's bot his godson either. No personal connection. Get over it.