How did gas payments get overlooked?

To The Eagle:

Reading the article about the rift between the mayor and the fire department, I have mixed emotions and questions.

While we certainly have the utmost respect for all our volunteers in the First Aid/Fire Dept. and are truly thankful they're there 24/7 for us, rain, snow, ice or sunshine, it seems to me too much stress was emphasized on personal issues rather than business.

As a taxpayer who is concerned as to where and how our money is spent, I'm not happy with the way bookwork was handled. Let alone, it boggles my mind how the husband and wife can look at themselves in the mirror going about their everyday living while fraudulently using the taxpayer's "card" for their own benefit right in front of us, the whole community! I see they're pleading not guilty. Who paid the eight or nine grand that they racked up? Paying for reimbursement on the job, I don't mind, but fraudulently using it for his/her own benefit is wrong.

Getting back to bookwork, I was given a corporate Visa card from a bank I worked for. Every time I used the Visa, I saved the receipts. When the Visa bill came, I compared the receipts with the bill and then it went to my supervisor for approval before it went to Accounts Payable for billing. That said, how do these types of bookwork get overlooked for two years?

The thought that came to mind was that they were just going to sweep it under the rug and expect the taxpayers to cover the error without us knowing it? Would the public know of this had the mayor not spoken about making some changes? Our town cannot afford this type of financial error.

I do not know the full story but I do know we're all human, capable to err and this is certainly a wake up call for all of us.

To keep our town prosperous, especially during this critical economic time we're now living in, we need to put aside personal issues and to think, in business terms of a bookwork strategy that would best serve our community.

Toni Below

Cathlamet