Concerned_About_Gates (Gates' Democrats, That Is)

Concerned_About_Gates took a couple late swipes at me and the Gates GOP on the Gates Blog. He waited until there were a couple of other negative comments before he added his two cents. I guess he wasn't confident enough to be the sole naysayer. This was his rather lame jab at me:

"Repoman aren't you the Town's attorney? For how many years? Why should anything MCIntee brought up be a surprise? Aren't supposed to know the law? It's not like we haven't had deficit budgets before".

Obviously, I am the Town Attorney. I never made a secret of that fact on the Gates Blog. Further, and despite his/her uninformed and disparaging remarks, the issue was not my legal work for the Town of Gates. The issue was Mr. McIntee’s political grandstanding.

The simple fact is that Mr. McIntee found or was given a copy of a Town Law section that he or someone else erroneously construed to believe that the proposed budget was defective. Given that information, Mr. McIntee had two choices. He could raise the issue in a timely fashion and get an answer to his concern or he could wait until the budget vote was pending and raise the issue for the purpose of political point scoring. He chose the latter.

Mr. McIntee saw me at the Town Hall that afternoon. We spoke about the upcoming meeting. His claim that he simply forgot about the issue is hard to believe.

Concerned appears to believe that attorneys should have all relevant statutes committed to memory. I would suggest that attorneys who give legal advice without resort to their law books had better keep their malpractice policies paid up to date. I do not try to memorize the numerous laws that affect the Town. I do, however, know where to find the law books with the correct answers.

The morning after the meeting, I researched and prepared a memorandum for Mr. McIntee. I explained how he had read the requirement incorrectly. I pointed out to him that in prior years, fund balances (surpluses) had been included in our budgets as those funds were being applied to current year expenditures. Even though we have greatly reduced our deficit, the Town still does not have a surplus. As such, there is no fund balance to apply in this year’s budget.

Had Mr. McIntee asked me about the fund balance issue in the afternoon when we spoke, I could have given him, and the rest of the Board, an answer at the workshop. Moreover, the whole thing is really a tempest in a teapot. The workshop was dealing with the preliminary budget. The final budget will be approved at the public budget hearing. Thus, even if Mr. McIntee was correct, a minor omission such as that which “concerned” (no pun intended) him could be remedied then. But, once again, it’s quite obvious that Mr. McIntee did not want a resolution, he wanted a headline and a faux controversy.

Clearly, Concerned , and others in the anti-Ralph legion, are trying their hardest to oblige him.

Well, knock yourselves out! Most residents of Gates see right through you!