FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 18, 2020

CONTACT:
Austin Tylec
716.909.8877 | austinjtylec@gmail.com

Tylec Raises Concerns Over

Accountant’s Take on State Audit
(NORTH TONAWANDA, NY) Newly appointed North Tonawanda City Accountant Jeffrey Zellner,
who has served in that capacity for the past five months, disseminated an address to the City’s
Common Council that laid out his view of the recently completed audit by the NYS Comptroller’s
Office. The address, presented on the Mayor’s letterhead without a signature of any City official,
begins, “I am new…I, like you, read the audit as a draft and was very nervous.”

Zellner goes on to say that the purpose of the letter is to address findings in the audit, such as
whether or not the recent budgets were “balanced,” whether or not the city is at risk of “running
out of money,” and “did we deplete the fund balance to unsafe levels,” to which many of the
accountant’s answers are in direct opposition to the facts laid out by the Comptroller’s Office.

Tylec was quick to question the stance taken by the City Accountant. “The audit speaks for itself in
regards to all of these claims,” stated Tylec, “to say that NT adopted balanced budgets is
preposterous; they weren’t balanced, they weren’t rational, and that’s why I voted no on last
year’s budget after none of the concerns I raised were addressed.”

The accountant went on in his letter to state that there is no immediate concern of the city running
out of money and that borrowing from the Water Fund to cover payroll issues was a practical
decision. Page 7 of the audit reads, “We estimate that by the end of 2020 the unrestricted cash
balance in the general fund would have a negative balance of $568,000,” and on page 4 states,
“…[T]he general fund will likely incur an operating deficit of at least $1.4 million, and the sewer
fund will incur an operating deficit of $797,000, unless significant and immediate spending
changes are implemented.”

“This address is bizarre, it’s confusing, and it’s worrying,” says Tylec, “I’ve been in communication
with the Comptroller’s Office since the completion of the audit and it doesn’t seem like they’ve
ever seen anything like this before.”

The official audit includes a letter of response from the Mayor of the City to the Comptroller’s
Office regarding the draft audit that was distributed to city officials in late June. In this letter, the
Mayor expresses appreciation for the “assistance” offered by the Comptroller’s Office and for the
“constructive and informative discussion” during the exit interviews. The City Accountant’s letter
appears to contradict the Mayor’s acceptance of its findings.
The letter claims that Zellner found the Comptroller’s staff to be “highly unprofessional” and
“condescending.” He questions the suggestions made by the Comptroller’s Office, claiming they
don’t abide by “accepted accounting practices but were merely the opinions of the bureaucrats.”
Zellner goes on to claim the audit was “very political in nature,” an unsubstantiated claim first
proposed by Alderman-at-Large Bob Pecoraro (R) at the Common Council’s Workshop Meeting on
Tuesday, August 11th1.

The aforementioned meeting, held one day prior to the release of this letter, revolved around the
City’s planned response to the measures established in the audit. Tylec submitted a resolution 2 to
the Council that would establish a Fiscal Stability Committee – a panel made up of all the members
listed by the audit as pertinent to the implementation of its recommended actions to be taken. The
accountant, receptive to the idea at first, eventually joined the majority Council and Mayor in
opposing the decision. In the conversation, Alderwoman Donna Braun stated, “I feel that [Zellner]
just said that he has a pretty good grasp of what’s going on…” 3

“The Council made it clear that they think putting the fiscal recovery and the upcoming budget all
on one person’s shoulders is a good idea,” said Tylec, “the purpose of the committee was to avoid
doing exactly that.”

Merely minutes after Tylec questioned the Mayor on the lack of cash flow reports mandated by the
City Charter, for which the accountant and Clerk-Treasurer are responsible, Council President
Zadzilka floated the idea that the council “…designate [Zellner] as Chief Budget Officer,”
referencing miscommunications in the past regarding whether or not the “accountant was going
to prepare a budget” that they could review 4. This concern was echoed in Zellner’s letter where he
claims the 2020 budget was prepared without any help from the previous accountant, however, an
article from 2019 covering the 2020 budget proposed two weeks late by the Mayor references
claims by the former Accountant that, “…she sent the mayor a summary of working budget
numbers on July 18 [2019], and then sent a final working copy of the budget on Aug. 2 [2019].” 5

At the meeting, Tylec was quick to remind the Council that the City Charter imposes the duty of
preparing the budget to the City Clerk-Treasurer and Mayor and warned them not to strip that
title away from those positions. 6

“I’m not sure what the scariest part is, whether it’s the disregard for the competency of the State
Comptroller and his staff, the direct contradiction of the Mayor, or the fact that he’s only been in
this position for 5 months and doesn’t seem to understand the crisis that’s laid out for us in black
and white,” said Tylec, “At the last meeting I proposed a committee comprised of every individual
that plays a role in the budget completion process and the council, the accountant, and the Mayor
claimed it wasn’t necessary to successfully implement the State’s recommendations, and then I
receive this in an email; this is frightening.”

1
https://www.facebook.com/AustinTylecNTAldermanAtLarge/posts/3444719882245772
2
https://www.facebook.com/AustinTylecNTAldermanAtLarge/posts/3446777058706721
3
https://www.facebook.com/AustinTylecNTAldermanAtLarge/posts/3444719882245772 at 46:24
4
https://www.facebook.com/AustinTylecNTAldermanAtLarge/posts/3444719882245772 at 49:35
5
https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/north-tonawanda-officials-waiting-for-mayors-
budget/article_9bc71ed2-a304-576e-b2f3-60f027777d98.html
6
North Tonawanda City Charter, Sec. 3.027, §(a) & Sec. 5.021, §(a)
UPDATE: In an article 7 published on August 17th, former City Clerk-Treasurer Matt Parish told the
reporter via telephone that a resolution dated Dec. 6, 2019 authorized the City Clerk-Treasurer “to
make temporary loans whenever necessary from various city funds until revenues are received in
these loans are repaid.” The resolution 8 did not grant Parish this authority, the resolution reads,
“Please authorize the City Clerk-Treasurer to make temporary loans whenever necessary form
the General Fund until revenues are received and these loans are repaid.”

The meeting minutes 9, a public record of any public meeting that is mandated by NYS Law, were
falsified, and reads, “Please authorize the City Clerk-Treasurer to make temporary loans
whenever necessary from various City funds, until revenues are received and these loans are
repaid.”

The resolution, with official time stamp, is being provided as an attachment as the City did not
provide the agenda for public viewing on their website, making it impossible for a member of
the public to identify the changes made.

The Mayor, who in his written response to the audit voiced no concern over the accuracy of its
findings, in the same article jumped on the politically motivated bandwagon: “When asked if he,
like Zellner, felt the audit was politically motivated, Pappas replied simply, ‘We have our
suspicions.’”

“There’s nothing political about an independent watchdog auditing a municipality,” says Tylec,
“it’s only when the results come out this poorly that we reach for every excuse we can get our
hands on – where’s the accountability?”

###

7
https://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/featured/2020/08/17/142860/nt-call-for-fiscal-stability-committee-shut-
down
8
[Attachment A]
9
http://www.northtonawanda.org/file-library/100145/1_2_2020_Reorg_CC_minutes.pdf