Two money presentations on Monday
Mayor Joe D’Onofrio started Monday’s Village Board meeting by introducing three financial experts who serve the village — Treasurer Ralph Walters, Noah Nadelson from Munistat, and Justin Wood from Nugent & Hauessler.
“After months of hearing from one trustee that the ‘sky is falling’, I wanted to offer a way for village residents to hear about the village’s financial condition,” the mayor said.
Wood and Nadelson then went on to speak about their two areas of expertise — Wood on the most recent village independent audit and Nadelson about the village’s bonding and bond rating.
While the presentations were not too long, but detail-heavy (the entire meeting, including the presentation can be viewed at www.highlandfallsny.org, click on the blue ‘Board Meetings’ box for the YouTube link), they generated significant comments and conversation when they were finished.
Wood presented first, saying that the village had a ‘clean audit’ in May 2020, which is the last independent audit that was done. He spoke about the village’s assets and liabilities, and said that the village is not considered to have “fiscal stress” by New York State.
Trustee Melanie Guerrero was the first to comment when Wood finished, calling Wood’s figures “outdated” saying that by authorizing $3.4 million worth of bonding for an Ondaora Park water project, the village has doubled it’s debt since the audit was done.
Later in the meeting, Trustee Jim DiSalvo argued that while the board has authorized the bond for the Ondaora Park project, they have not yet spent any of it, and can still decide not to move forward with the project.
Guerrero also frequently referred back to a 2011 state comptroller’s report that she paraphrased as the state saying “you guys are in bad shape”.
When he spoke, Nadelson contradicted that comment, saying the village currently has an AA- bond rating, and is “on the right side of the range in every metric that we use”.
He used May 2021 numbers in his report and said that the village currently has $4.42 million in debt (bonds: $3,840,000 and BANs: $585,000), with a debt limit of $21 million. Nadelson noted that the village has reduced its debt — through scheduled payments and refinancing — 33 percent over the past five years.
Guerrero commented first after Nadelson spoke as well, calling all of the numbers being thrown around as “debt confusion”.
She said: “this number is intended to confuse and mislead the public” and added: “Can we afford this debt? The answer is a resounding no.”
D’Onofrio closed the hour-long presentation portion of the meeting by saying the village’s financial health “is well”.
The community-generated Frequently Asked Questions section of the website set up by the Laberge Group — many of which pertain to financial matters — has been updated with about a dozen questions and answers. They are available to view at: www.labergegroup.com/highlandfalls/faq/
On that same webpage there is a link to submit questions to Laberge that will be answered and posted. On the website you can now also schedule 15 minute sessions with Laberge personnel to talk about the dissolution vote and process.
Additionally, on the Laberge-created website, there is a link to company vice president Ben Syden’s presentation to the Village Board and community on August 9, and links to New York State documents and websites on the dissolution process.
