Auditor disengaged, 911 called

It wasn’t all healthcare and public comment during the marathon meeting of the Saratoga Town Council on June 4. The council also made decisions in regards to who will perform the next audit, requested—for a second time—that Town of Saratoga legal counsel Tom Thompson send a letter to the vendor for the Saratoga Police Department’s E911 system and made appointments to the Saratoga Airport Advisory Board.

ACM not engaged

Under reports from town hall, the council was presented with a letter from Anton Collins Mitchell (ACM) giving the Town of Saratoga the opportunity to engage with the auditing company for the 2018/2019 Fiscal Year audit. As was reported previously (see “Questions for the auditor” on page 2 of the May 29 Saratoga Sun), ACM partner Dennis Tschacher had attended the final budget workshop to provide answers for the council.

“As many of you know, I know the council is aware, we’ve had an audit and have been participating in several discussions about that audit throughout our budget workshops. The audit was provided by ACM for the 2017/2018 fiscal year. What we have in front of us tonight is a proposal from them, or a letter of engagement, to hire them back to do the audit for the 2018/2019 fiscal year. I would make the motion that we do not accept the letter or enter into engagement with ACM,” said Councilmember Jon Nelson.

Councilmember Bob Keel asked Nelson if there was a possibility of the Town of Saratoga negotiating with ACM about different requirements or different expectations.

“My motivation in wanting to make a change is to get a different set of eyes on it. It’s really not so much what’s the scope and what we are requesting,” Nelson said. “I was pretty disappointed with some of the answers that we received from Dennis Tschacher at our last budget workshop and I think it would be in the best interest of this council and of the town to have somebody else trying to address some of the questions that we have.”

With Mayor John Zeiger calling for a poll of the council, the decision was unanimous to not engage with ACM for an audit of the 2018/2019 fiscal year. Nelson informed the council it had been suggested to him by two different sources to attempt to engage with McGee, Hearne & Paiz out of Cheyenne.

Can you hear us now?

During the May 21 meeting of the town council, Saratoga Police Chief Ken Lehr had informed the council he was still having difficulty contactingº¡ Venture Technologies, the vendor for the E911 system used by the police department. While Thompson was not in attendance, a motion had been made to request the legal counsel to send a letter to Venture Technologies requesting they work on the equipment.

When Nelson asked Lehr if the police department was any closer to a solution on the system, the police chief informed the council member following his latest call, he received another request for payment.

“At the last meeting, did we not make the motion to send them a letter from the town attorney? Did that happen?” asked Nelson.

“I wasn’t at the last meeting,” replied Thompson.

Minutes from the May 21 meeting, published on page 11 of this week’s Sun, show that Councilmember Judy Welton made the motion and Councilmember Steve Wilcoxson seconded to request Thompson send a letter. With Thompson in attendance at the June 4 meeting, Nelson made the motion and it was passed unanimously.

Along with E911 system, Lehr also informed the council that the maintenance agreement for their radio system had expired and presented them with a contract with a new company.

“As of right now, we are battery backups. Those haven’t been checked for the last four years. If we lose power, we have three minutes of radio operation and we’re done. This company agreed to come in and fix these issues for us,” said Lehr.

Discussion between Lehr and Wilcoxson also revealed that officers were having issues communicating with dispatch when they were no more than a block away from the police station. With the presented contract being new to the council, Thompson informed the council members they could allow Lehr to engage with the new company on a month-to-month basis until a decision was made on the contract.

Take off

Under the airport board, the Town of Saratoga received a letter of interest from Lance Grubb, who had served as chairman of the Saratoga Airport Board at the time of its dissolution. In his letter, Grubb expressed his interest to the council in providing continuity for the Saratoga Airport Advisory Board and that he be considered for one of the shortest terms.

Grubb was appointed to the board by a unanimous vote from the council.

This left a decision to be made on the two remaining letters of interest; one from former airport board member Arlen Hughes and one from Ladd Sanger.

“Out of the other two, I think both have excellent qualifications and certainly appreciate both of their interest. We can only pick one because they are both ground lessees at the airport. So, I have been kicking this around, I’m prepared tonight to make a recommendation and make the motion to appoint Arlen Hughes to the airport advisory committee,” said Nelson.

Welton, following Nelson’s recommendation, asked Saratoga Town Clerk Suzie Cox if Ladd Sanger owned the hangars at the airport or if they were owned by his father, Charles Sanger. Cox informed Welton that while, the elder Sanger owned both hangars, L. Sanger’s signature was on one of the ground leases.

Hughes was approved by the council for the Saratoga Airport Advisory Board, but with the understanding that if there would be an opportunity for L. Sanger to serve on the board, the council would revisit the appointments.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on June 18 at Saratoga Town Hall.