Portsmouth council member spars with head of taxpayer group

Dismisses questions raised over budget and audit

By Jim McGaw
Posted 3/13/19

PORTSMOUTH — The Town Council’s new rules on public comment and posting agenda items came to a head Monday night during a heated exchange between a council member and the head of a …

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Portsmouth council member spars with head of taxpayer group

Dismisses questions raised over budget and audit

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — The Town Council’s new rules on public comment and posting agenda items came to a head Monday night during a heated exchange between a council member and the head of a local taxpayer group over the town’s financial practices.

Larry Fitzmorris, president of Portsmouth Concerned Citizens, was on the agenda to ask the council several questions about the 2017-2018 fiscal year budget and audit. 

Among them was a request for discussion on the council’s transfer of some surplus funds to complete the new police station. Voters approved a $10 million bond in 2016 for the project, but due to cost overruns the council voted in December to use about $204,000 in surplus funds to complete the job.

Mr. Fitzmorris questioned why the transfer wasn’t reflected in the audit report that was prepared by the accounting firm Hague, Sahady & Co., P.C. of Fall River. 

That audit report, which found no significant deficiencies with the town’s financial reporting, was received by the council and placed on file at its Jan. 28 meeting. During that meeting, Mr. Fitzmorris questioned the town’s fiscal transparency and said citizens should be granted more time to look the audit over. The report was completed Dec. 26, but his group hadn’t seen it until four days before the meeting, he noted.

Answering Mr. Fitzmorris’ question Monday night, a consultant with the accounting firm said the council voted to dip into surplus funds on Dec. 10, 2018 and the audit was for the 2017-18 fiscal year that ended June 30, 2018 — more than four months earlier. The next audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 will show the budgetary adjustment and actual transaction, she said.

At that, council member Leonard Katzman accused Mr. Fitzmorris of wasting the town’s time and resources with what he deemed were irrelevant questions. PCC holds itself “as good on the budget,” he said, yet it can’t recognize why a December transaction wouldn’t be reflected in a report for a previous fiscal year.

“It is laughable, but it’s not funny because it takes town resources,” Mr. Katzman said. “I don’t believe the organization has respect for the town’s time and resources.”

Mr. Fitzmorris’ agenda item, Mr. Katzman said, “is one of the reasons” the council recently implemented new rules on public comment and agenda items

On Feb. 11, the council voted 4-3 to institute a three-minute time limit for citizens when they address the panel on a particular issue. The council also voted unanimously to require residents who want to place an item on the agenda to identify the specific things they’d like to discuss as well as provide supporting or referenced documents or facts. Both rules were proposed by Mr. Katzman.

PCC: Questions were fair

Mr. Fitzmorris took exception to Mr. Katzman’s remarks. “The claim that we don’t understand the issue … I reject,” he said.

When the request to move surplus funds came before the council in December, the PCC recommended the motion be changed to reflect a withdrawal of money from the fund balance, he explained.

After the meeting, Mr. Fitzmorris argued that the council had moved surplus money from a budget year that had already been closed, which he said was improper. He maintained his questions about the transfer were relevant and fair.

“It’s not in your budget, it’s not in the audit, there’s no amended budget here. What happened to it? Mr. Katzman doesn’t like questions like that,” he said.

The audit is 195 pages long and the budget is very complex, which makes it difficult for the average citizen to approach the council with questions, especially under the new rules on agenda items, he said.

“Portsmouth Concerned Citizens provides at least that opportunity for the citizens to have another view of what happened,” said Mr. Fitzmorris. “It’s always a mistake to believe anyone’s going to perfect on these things, and we won’t always be perfect either. But, the citizens have a right to come in here and ask questions about how they’re spending what is in fact about $65 million.”

As for the council’s new agenda rules, he accused Mr. Katzman of aiming them at PCC specifically. “It won’t have the effect on us that he thinks it will. What it will do is put up more barriers for a citizen to come in who wants an answer to a question,” he said.

‘Proper move’

Mr. Katzman maintained the town’s financial reporting has been transparent and proper. 

“Of course, it was a proper move,” he said after the meeting, referring to the surplus transfer. “I know Mr. Fitzmorris stands by his assertion that he knows what he’s talking about. I don’t mean to cast aspersions against people, but I’ve simply found that to be inaccurate — not just tonight, but across decades.”

He also denied that the new agenda rules were specifically targeting PCC.

“It is directed at all individuals who have a history of monopolizing the podium, who go on and on, asking the same questions over and over again,” said Mr. Katzman. “They get the same answers but they ask again because they don’t like the answer they got. If that includes the PCC, so be it.”

Portsmouth Town Council, Portsmouth Concerned Citizens

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.