The saga of the out-of-state treasurer in Grafton continues.
As the Valley News continues doing their “fluff” stories I would like to say that all hell is breaking loose at the Grafton County Government level. Between the Commissioners meeting dated 05-05-2009 and the Executive Committee meeting dated 04-20-2009, there have been a whole lot of proactive maneuvers on the county’s part to circumvent future disasters that could only be created by our uninspired County Treasurer. You can access the full meeting minutes: [no longer online]
To put it in a nutshell, our county officials have no confidence in the County Treasurer. Worse yet, the county is running out of money. On April 20, 2009, at the Executive Committee meeting, the following two motions were passed:
Rep. Ward moved that the Treasurer be requested to place the Deputy Treasurer as a signer on all accounts no later than April 28, 2009, which was seconded by Rep. Ford. All were in favor.
Rep. Ward moved that the Treasurer present a plan for Tax Anticipation Notes, at the May 18, 2009 Executive Committee meeting, which was seconded by Rep. Gionet.
Two weeks later at the Commissioners meeting on May 5th, nothing had yet been accomplished by our County Treasurer.
Rep. B. Ward arrived and asked if the Treasurer has gotten the Deputy Treasurer added to the accounts and Commissioner Richards said that she spoke to her directly last week and asked that she take care of it. Commissioner Richards said that she received an email from Treasurer Sievers saying that she mailed the information to the Deputy Treasurer. Commissioner Richards said that she then asked Treasurer Sievers to get back to her as soon as that happened. Rep. Ward asked if the TANs plan was being worked on as per the delegation’s request and no one seemed to know if that was underway or not.
If Sievers has any consideration for Grafton County and its residents, she would either do her job or resign. Our County has put way too much time, energy and money into propping up this elected official. We all know in the real world Sievers would have been fired many times over.
Why hasn’t the Valley News been reporting on this story? Is it too much to ask of our crappy liberal-loving local paper? Maybe the AP will pick up this story and get the job done. And, finally, will NHPR do a follow-up piece and concede that they promoted an ineffective politician which has been a detriment to our county? Hmmmm…
On a last note, I am tired about hearing this comment from uneducated politicians and folks who think they know everything. From the Executive Committee minutes, a last ditch effort to discredit our previous County Treasurer by Representatives Friedrich (D) and Gionet (R):
Rep. Friedrich then asked if the previous Treasurer’s investment at a 1% rate was deemed inappropriate, which was also questioned by Rep. Gionet. Director Clough suggested that this was in the past and that she was not privy to what other rates may have been available at the time.
Let’s clear some things up about Treasurer Elliott and her 1% investment rate. Anyone can take the time and Google information about the prevailing CD rates of last December. You could then sound at least a little bit educated about the state of the economy at the time Treasurer Elliott was trying to find the best interest rates for the county’s investments. While a rate of 1% sounds bad when compared to the 4% rates of October 2008, it doesn’t sound so bad when compared to the .5% rates that were offered at the end of December 2008 (doesn’t anyone remember that credit crunch and banking collapse and TARP and all the other crap last fall?)
So, while some folks at the county level may be trying to point fingers at Elliott, she acted responsibly by the investment of short term CD’s thereby giving the newly elected treasurer an opportunity to invest as she saw fit. Silly me, you voted out a treasurer that showed up and did her job for one that doesn’t. So at this point sit down, shut up, and quit your stupid whining.
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