To the Editor:

We are writing at this time to ask the voting public to give us a financial professional to work with us to repair the significant damage done by inattention to duty in the county treasurer’s office over the past several years.

It has recently come to our attention through our external independent audit team that bank reconciliations for scores of cash accounts have not been performed, as required. A culture seems to have developed in that office that puts no value on this requirement when it is the single most important duty to be performed.

This can be likened to not balancing your personal checkbook in a timely manner and blundering ahead without knowing what money you really have in your bank account. We have seen no bank reconciliations prepared for years in the past and that inattention would seem to continue today!

We need the services of someone technically trained with a long track record of success. That is why we are encouraging the voting public to elect Derek Van House, CPA as our next county treasurer. We need new blood with the technical background to right the ship. As a certified public accountant, Derek has chosen the more difficult path of preparing for a grueling professional licensing exam and has been successful. On top of that, he has many years of experience managing people and assigning duties to staff and following up on the results.

Although St. Lawrence county employs 55 accounting employees, no one has seen fit to make sure the bank reconciliations are done on time each month! Now we are finding out that the general ledger cash accounts on the county’s books have no relationship to actual cash balances and may represent combinations of up to 10 actual bank accounts, all rolled up in to one line on the general ledger. According to what we have found out so far from an independent firm that has been hired to figure this puzzle out, the set-up of the general ledger in 2013 was ill-conceived and is responsible for much of the confusion.

Please vote for Mr. Van House for county treasurer. We cannot let this travesty continue.

St. Lawrence County legislators Donald J. Hooper, District 1; Larry Denesha, District 6; Dave Forsythe, District 2; Kevin Acres, District 8; Joseph Lightfoot, District 3; Joe Timmerman, District 10; Joel LaPierre, District 4; Chad Colbert, District 11