Lies, Half Truths, Denials and Confusion Plague Wingham’s Senior Staff And Accounting – WFP & BFP Supporters Vindicated

August 8, 2011 WFP reported that Pat Newson, when asked by Bill Knott why NH suddenly wanted to sell the trailer park, stated that the Wingham trailer park loses $17,000 more than the budget shows. WFP reported this as an “accounting scandal”, since improper accounting damages the reputation of an organization, it fit the definition of a scandal.

When confronted with this figure, and the inaccurate accounting, town staff flatly denied it. This was not surprising since they even denied the trailer park was for sale despite having passed a motion to proceed with an RFP to sell the trailer park.

Shortly after Pat Newson made her statement about the $17,000, two WFP supporters confronted Gary Long. Mr. Long stated that he did not hear Newson’s statement, and it was news to him, despite the fact he was at the COW meeting taking notes. Mayor Vincent stated in September 2011, that the trailer park makes money. At the on site RFP meeting at the trailer park for persons intereted in purchasing the trailer park, Pat Newson claimed that the $17,000 was not true and that she had never said any such thing and would not discuss it.

August 22, 2011 Bill Knott, Alma Conn and Bernie Bailey went on the radio to discuss this issue. Mr. Knott was ridiculed by Councillor Bailey. In response to Bill’s comment about the $17,000 error in the budget, Bailey stated “If you read the budget properly and if you have read that type of budgets before and they are very difficult to read…”. Any businessperson familiar with GAAP would have taken that as an insult, as even a high school accounting student can read and understand a properly prepared budget. Mr. Knott refused to sink to Mr. Bailey’s level with a response despite the fact that this BFP supporter is aware that he has years of experience preparing budgets for major Canadian companies. It has now been shown that Mr. Bailey obviously does not know how to read a budget with the reporting changes that have now been brought about as a result of Mr. Knott’s questions.

Last year town staff repeatedly stated and implied that the WFP fabricates numbers and statements by council and staff in order to stir up trouble. This was done in an obvious attempt to discredit and discourage WFP, BFP and their supporters, and was done publicly and via emails and statements to other media . NH staff and council have felt comfortable with repeated denials since they have refused to allow meetings to be recorded as they are in all the major municipalities and most smaller ones as well. This has resulted in many cases of staff and council denying statements that they have made

The truth was revealed at the March 19th’s budget meeting. They have included the “Admin Expense”, but have trimmed the $17,000 figure down to $14,445.

From the 2012 budget for the Wingham Trailer Park:

Administration Overhead $14,445.00

Salaries and Benefits: $9,128.00

The salaries and overheads are double what they have been over the past several years and are an apparent attempt to shore up the argument that the park loses money. This was described as their worst case senario and does not take in to account the Legion taking over the park administration in which case these numbers would be dramatically decreased.

The trailer park is projected to lose about $13

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