Desso's Audit Blues

County Legislator/Town Councilman Lou Desso couldn't wait to find an excuse to get rid of the former Town Comptroller so he could gain more control over town finances. To justify the hasty removal last January, Desso used a sloppily written, poorly worded letter from a local CPA firm to ransack the reputation of the man he sought to fire.

Desso however, ratcheted up the rhetoric by calling for a "forensic audit" of the town's books. This was to imply criminal conduct and give Desso the political cover he needed to remove the Comptroller and at first replace him with the Town's Assessor, a clearly conflicting office. That's not a big deal to Desso because he too holds a conflicting elective office by simultaneously holding a post in the county legislature thanks to a partisan vote in the legislature that allowed him to hold two posts despite a court ruling defining the conflicts established in Town Law.

Now Desso will get more than he bargained for with a full State Audit by Comptroller Thomas DiNapolli. State auditors will get a chance to see all of the shenanigans Desso and his majority have engaged in because they will undoubtedly tear apart the malicious claims made by Desso against the former town comptroller. They are also likely to meet with the fired Comptroller to get his perspective and input on the financial practices, the intimidation, secret budget practices, contract negotiations, grant practices, overtime abuses, the lack of a time clock in town hall uses and all the other abuses that characterize Desso's tenure.

A recent letter by the Town's Democratic Chairman outlined some of the issues the State auditor's will learn about as they begin their audit in the days ahead. If you missed it you can read that letter here. In the mean time, get ready for a big time audit made possible because of the thoughtless comments of Lou Desso which were undoubtedly read by folks in Albany who will be coming to a town office near you real soon.