How Evers Paid A Million+ Over Contract

Politicians take the public for fools and Mark Evers and his supporters on the Town Board are certainly playing with public sensibilities if they think the evidence already in the public realm exonerates Evers role as the primary reason his Conservative Contractor and political benefactor was paid more than a million dollars more than the agreed to bid of 6.4 million beginning in July 2006.

Here's how he did it. The documents on line here today are called an Applications for Payment and Vendor Claim. Each is numbered by date of submission. The first step is for the contractor to submit his claim to the contract administrators, in this case the Building Department head who is supposed to "sign" and authorize the payment. Application 15 was submitted to the Building Department for approval in July 2006 seeking $326,093 for the contractor's work. At the top left of EVERY Application for Payment are accounting lines which are filled in so that officials know the total contract price, (6,459,300.00) Net change by Change Orders, (13,539.49)Contract Sum to Date, (6,472,839.49) and Total Completed to Date, which in the case of Application 15 brought the total spending to date on July 31, 2006 to $6,631,826.17.

That sum is approximately $200,000 more than the agreed to bid as adjusted by Change Orders. Once the Building Department administrator approves the application for payment, it is walked across the hall to the Town Comptroller's Office for approval and further processing. The Comptroller is supposed to attach a Vendor Claim and sign it then send the paperwork to the Supervisor for his signature. The Supervisor is supposed to look for the approving signature of the Department Head affirming that the work as stated was completed. He is supposed to look for the Comptroller's signature on the Vendor Claim and then affix his own signature on the Vendor Claim and the Town Check which will accompany the claim.

Beginning in July, the Town Comptroller REFUSED to sign the Vendor Claim and the check which as of April 2006 also for the first time required the Comptroller's signature in addition to the Supervisor's signature because of a Town Board resolution passed imposing the requirement.
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The July claim has NO signature of the Town Comptroller, Ted Nabywaniec. It was instead signed by Michael Miner of the Building Department. We are informed that the the check also lacks the Commptroller's required signature. Yet Mark Evers signed the Check and approved the claim. He issued that check to the contractor illegally. He repeated this in August with another check for $200,443.90. He did so again in November in December after the Comptroller had resigned on September 30th, nullifying the need for a second signature. We also believe the Board formally rescinding the requirement due to the vacancy in the Comptroller's Office.

Nonetheless, Evers had in his possession the documents which clearly showed the running totals of spending to date and signed the attached Vendor Claim for each. His public denials that he was not aware of the overspending in the month of November are ludicrous. Either he is incompetent for signing these records without looking at them or he is simply lying.

We believe he is both. We are also informed that the former Comptroller refused to approve those claims because he personally informed Evers the town could not spend the money over the contract without proper authorizations. The Comptroller is not here to defend himself having moved to Massachusetts. Evers knows this and blames the Comptroller and Building Department for "not telling him".

The excuses are lame and taxpayers are out $1,036,436 more than the agreed to bid in Water 14 because Mark Evers allowed those payments to happen. He could have said NO. He chose to say YES. It is clear that the July and August payments, if made without the Comptroller's signature on the Claims and Check were illegally paid out. Evers is the last person to sign a check and Evers gave those checks out.

So what is Evers doing about getting the money back? Nothing. He wants his contractor who runs the Conservative Party to get all the money and more. Evers even overspent the bond authority on December 15th when he approved another $83,000 check which overspent the 7.1 million bond limit by more than $190,000. Total spending was now at $7,190,335.

Evers likes to claim the former Comptroller signed a $400,000 check behind his back to give to the contract . This occurred in April 2006, the very first month the Comptroller had to sign the checks along with Evers who previously had signed them alone.

The Comptroller signed all the checks in April and walked them to Evers office for approval and Evers signature. Evers had possession of all the checks and somehow the contractor's check was given to the contractor without Evers signature. Either Evers forgot or more likely, the contractor came a calling as he usually does to get his check. Evers may not have been in the office this time and probably through some phone calls, he ordered his assistant to give the contractor his check without ever signing it.

Maybe Mr. Evers would like to tell his story to a Grand Jury? We doubt it. But one thing is clear, if the checks of April, July and August lacked two signatures, they were unlawfully issued and cashed. Evers should direct the town attorney to take legal action to recover the money for taxpayers until the latter is settled in court.

Don't hold your breath. Instead note that Claim 15 lacks the Comptroller's signature. Claim 16's check is said to lack the Comptroller's signature and amounts to $200,443. Claims 17,18 and 19 required no signature from a Comptroller because we did not have one. All exceeded the agreed to contract price. Evers signed the first two claiming he did not know he was exceeding the contract price. He signed the last one for $83,000 after acknowledging the overspending and claiming he was unaware until that week in November. The last claim on December 15 he signed anyway, knowing he was over the contract limit, ignoring the advice of the town attorney and just a day after a 3-2 vote by the town board to ask the State Comptroller to investigate and audit the payments. This one brought him over the legal spending limit authorized by voters of 7.1 million.