To the editor:

Bill Harkins began his announcement for reelection to the Westport Board of Health with the statement: “I am running on my record of solid management of our Health Department and the Transfer Station.”

On March 26, Mr. Harkins sent Public Health Director Matt Armendo before the Westport Finance Committee with the humiliating news that —three months before the end of the fiscal year — the Department is $13,500 “in the hole.”

Mr. Harkins “solid management” of the Transfer Station has been to use it as a piggy bank to cover the day-to-day expenses of the BOH, a scheme FinCom member Robert McCarthy declared “almost negligence.” The Transfer Station has zero funds left in its budget. But there’s more; without intervention the BOH will not be able to meet contracted payroll at the end of June.

During the meeting, Mr. Armendo said the BOH had just now gotten “a handle” on its fiscal troubles. With FinCom members raising more concerns, Mr. Amendo exclaimed: “We’re doing the best we can. I was handed this budget. I had no hand in creating it or setting anything for it, and it was just inadequate for the business that we’re doing.”

Anyone who knows anything about finance understands money cannot simply be transferred at will from one account to another. Town budgets are developed with input from the Town Administrator, BOS and FinCom. For fiscal transparency, moving funds requires a vote at Town Meeting.

It is painfully clear the BOH did not follow proper protocol, and now, once again, the town is in a very messy situation. Although Mr. Armendo was set up to take the fall, it is BOH Chairman Bill Harkins who bears responsibility for the inadequacies of the budget and resulting deficits. Mr. Armendo had not yet been hired at the time the FY2019 budget was submitted and approved.

Mr. Harkins acted as he has so often before — as if the BOH is his own little fiefdom.

This is déjà vu all over again. This is precisely the way things were run at the BOH back in the bad old days that Mr. Harkins claims he has delivered us from — when his former colleagues did not follow proper procedures on animal inspections, having unlicensed staff perform barn book inspections and paying no heed to the falsification of records. We paid then and we’ll pay again now.

Fortunately, we have a choice in this election. Join us in electing someone to BOH who actually is a solid manager and who respects town governance and protocols. Please vote for Tanja Ryden on April 9.

David Dionne

Jack and Cindy Reynolds

Lawrence Holsworth

Westport