The Charlestown Citizens Alliance Listens, but only to itself.

Can you trust the CCA to manage Charlestown's money?

By Will Collette

Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) candidate Bonnita Van Slyke continues to try to change the history of the CCA’s financial mismanagement that led to its ouster by Charlestown voters in 2022.

It’s like trying to argue with Donald Trump over crowd size – no matter how much evidence you present, Van Slyke will continue to deny the fact that CCA malfeasance “misallocated” or misplaced or lost $3 million dollars and that this fact only came to light after almost two years.

The CCA’s immediate reactions included:

·       > Checking the thesaurus to find a word other than “lost” to describe the missing money.

·       > Directing their revered former Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz to use every trick in the book to prevent public disclosure of town financial records.

·       > Looking for a scapegoat to blame, anyone other than themselves.

·       > Thwarting all efforts to get an outside independent review including blocking inclusion of the issue on the Town Council agenda for discussion.

·       > When all these measures failed, Bonnie and her colleagues now pretend the problems never existed.

So Bonnie keeps writing letters to the Sun to try to sell the CCA platform of lies. Maybe Van Slyke thinks if you repeat the same lies often enough, you can make the public believe them.

Her most recent letter repeats most of the “whoppers” (her favorite word) from her earlier letters, focusing this time on her claim there were multiple outside reviews.

There weren’t.

The error was found, and reported, by the town’s former auditor. Rather than an outside review, Town Administrator Stankiewicz and recently ousted Budget Commission chair Richard Sartor reviewed themselves and found themselves blameless. Instead, they blamed the auditor who found the $3 million “misallocation.”

The CCA hired another auditing firm, Marcum LLP, just before the new majority took office.

Marcum’s review confirmed the serious systemic problems that Sartor and Stankiewicz overlooked. Unfortunately, the CCA’s pick overcharged the town and was also nailed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that fined Marcum LLP $10,000,000 because, the SEC charged, "Marcum prioritized increased revenue over audit quality."

Here's what Marcum found:

The new Charlestown Residents United Council majority was left to clean up the mess.

The CCA took control of Charlestown in 2010. Their last year
of control was 2022. Tax rates only tell half the story because
your actual tax is based on the rate as well as your property's
assessment. Chart created by the Charlestown Tax Assessor.

But hey, says Bonnie, it’s all good because the tax rate is low – not acknowledging how the rate dropped from $8.17 when voters booted the CCA to its current 2024 $5.78 rate under the new Council leadership.

Apropos of nothing, Van Slyke cites a 2021 community survey where most residents said they were happy with Charlestown. Of course they are.

But Van Slyke and the CCA don’t get that in the only community survey that matters – the 2022 General Election – Charlestown voters ended the CCA’s decade of control.

Thank you, Bonnie, for reminding voters about the most important question in the November 5 election: Who can best manage Charlestown’s money?