The query posed by Trustee Harrington related to the frequency of such large invoices from BCBS (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Trustee Selman was unable to answer this relatively simple question and offered to follow up with an answer at a later date.
The answer to Harrington’s question is we pay BCBS about $45,000 per month for Village employee’s health and life insurance. A number of roughly this same amount to BCBS has also appeared in dozens of bills for approval reports Trustee Selman has presented since she was appointed “chair” of the Finance Committee in 2011. Further, annual Village budgets and audits Selman has been responsible for reviewing and presenting also show aggregate amounts to BCBS that would clearly support an immediate, informed answer of “monthly” to Harrington’s question.
If this was an isolated incident of “brain freeze” or ignorance on Selman’s part at this most recent meeting, then we’d pass on this, but it is not. Village Board meeting recordings demonstrate she has had to defer many financial questions asked of her to a later date for answers. One can only assume that Trustee Selman apparently doesn’t read the reports she is responsible for presenting, doesn’t understand them, or she is incapable of retaining the information she reads. Whatever the situation might be, this cannot continue.
When she was assigned to head up the Finance Committee in 2011, many believed the choice to be odd given her resume and lack of consideration of another incoming trustee at that time who had extensive professional credentials in the fields of finance and investment management. It would appear now those questioning her appointment might have been right.
In the light of this most recent financial reporting gaffe, The Observer believes that Trustee Selman should offer to step down from her financial duties for the remainder of her term. Village finances were clearly a critical factor in the last election, and we cannot afford to continue to have such apparent inattentive oversight of the spending of our tax dollars.
– The Observer