Professional Deception Of Town Funds Lisbon Style OR Gross Mismanagement? Both?

MORE MONEY UNCOVERED

The master of hiding money from the people is none other than the Chief of Police, David T. Brooks. It is a shame he cannot find money like our $32,500 misappropriated from the town but he sure can hide it from the citizens of Lisbon. During his presentation on the Consolidation of the Communication Center, Brooks openly admitted line items for the communication center were placed under different departments in the budget. The cost for communication center personnel, telephone, software, repair & maintenance and supplies was scattered in other places within the budget in order to disguise the actual cost of operating the police department.

After reviewing the school budget for this year, there was an interesting abnormality discovered. It seems the school is required to pay the two Student Resource Officers assigned to the school department. According to the Superintendent of School, Richard Green, these Lisbon Police officers perform critical tasks such as cyber bulling and handle family crises. These two officers are on the staff of the Lisbon Police Department and are performing police duties. Mr. Green stated these officers are a critical entity of the school system.

Now comes the rub, the School Department is required to pay 75% of these officers salary. Why should the school department pay anything for these officers? These officers are members of the 14 officers of the Lisbon Police Department and are performing police duties in the schools. Just because these officers duty assignment is in the school does not justify making the school department pay 75% of their salary. This is just another way for Brooks to hide more money from the people of Lisbon. Brooks does everything he can to conceal the true operating cost of the police department.

Honesty would go a long ways to improving communications in this town. The people have a right to know where their money is going and what the true cost of operating each department is. How can anyone see where to cut spending if all the costs are not located in their right places? This is yet another prime example of mismanagement by our town officials.

Larry Fillmore

Concerned Citizen