-------- Your tax dollars at work ---------
Well Dear Reader,
You will likely have noticed that while last week's postings from your humble servant were significant, the volume of posting's has slowed down somewhat. Two primary reasons. First, I have been a guest at Roseway Hospital since last Monday and getting access to the Internet has been a challenge...
Second, I am working on a new blog that I hope to launch on July 1st.... it will I hope, provide insight and a serious forum for the discussion of the future development of Shelburne County and the provision of opportunities for generations to come. I will launch that with a Primer on RDAs, with a quick historical perspective and information about how the original concept produced by extensive consultation with local communities in the mid-nineties was turned on its head by SWSDA and their crew.
As for the SWSDA Accountability blog, I propose to maintain it and keep reporting news and views until after our communities have sorted out the mess visited upon us by years of neglect by elected officials and secrecy and backroom dealing by SWSDA and the failure of the present agencies who are responsible for development in this region at the local and provincial levels.
Today, I want to post a couple items in keeping with past postings.
The firs
t is Frank Anderson's Job Description .....
.... that I recently received from SWSDA. I invite you to note that fully a third of his job description as seen by Mr. Anderson falls under the rubrique "Security Functions". Whoever prepared this job description must have been copying from Dick Cheney's book on terrorism and scaring people..... .
It is hard to imagine that fully a third of the job description of a self-described "CEO" of a community development agency in Nova Scotia would fall under the title Security Functions....you'd think .... he was working in the ghettos of LA with gang bangers!
The Second is a comparison of financial reports from SWSDA ....respecting the monies remaining from the sale of the Boys School.
The critical factors to observe here are the following......
1. The date covered are significant. The first column reports expenses from April 1, 2005 to May 31, 2007. It does not include the $550,000 reportedly paid by Mr. MacDonnell for the Boys School. Unfortunately for Mr. Anderson, you should note that the school was not transferred to SWSDA until September 6, 2005 so any expenses reportedly included by Mr. Anderson in this statement for maintenance of the Boys School prior to that date should not charged to the Boys School funds.
2. The second Column reports expenses from April 1, 2005 to July 31, 2007. Unfortunately this report from Mr. Anderson not only includes expenses on maintaining the school before it was acquired by SWSDA from the Province as well as maintenance expenses attributed to the Boys School funds, 34 days after the sale of the boys school property This statement also includes the $550,000 from the sale of the Boys School on June 26, 2007.
3. The third column reports maintenance expenses again from April 1, 2005 (five months before the property was acquired by SWSDA) to September 30, 2007 (three months after the property was sold). Please note that Mr. Anderson has not added interest on this money in his calculation since July 2007.
4. The final column reports expenses from May 1, 2005 to March 31, 2008 - nine months after the Boys School property was sold. Please note that Mr. Anderson has not added interest on this money in his calculation since July 2007
This information is important because at the present time Mr. Anderson has argued that his continued use of the Boys School sales proceeds and maintenance fund are legitimate expenses of SWSDA..... go figure!!
Soooo .....why aren't any of our municipalities raising a stink about this??
Of course.... there are many more problems with this accounting by Mr. Anderson..... none that a forensic audit wouldn't solve!
In closing... I've got bad news and good news....
The good news is that I now believe that the Municipality of of Shelburne does not owe SWSDA Millions of dollars!!!
This has been more smoke and mirrors from the pro himself......
More about that next time I blog....
The bad news is that ...... I won't be able to post for the next week..... I am going to take a little forced R&R and give my body up to science for a few days.....
I'll tell you all about that next week.... in the meantime I have made arrangements to post comments as they are received..... soooo keep those cards and letters coming....
Your humble servant,
Ed
