Laurel resident returns to challenge town oversight

Questions regarding financial oversight, audit compliance, transparency, and public participation continued to dominate discussion during the Laurel Mayor and Council meeting on Monday, June 15, as Mayor Carlos Oliveras and resident Sharon Ardisana offered differing perspectives on concerns first raised during a previous council meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Oliveras addressed public reaction to comments made during the council’s prior session and subsequent media coverage.

Oliveras said he received numerous phone calls regarding the discussion and expressed concern that some comments may have created a misleading impression about the town’s financial condition. The mayor emphasized that Laurel had not experienced a failed audit but was instead dealing with compliance issues related to delayed audits.

Oliveras cited the death of a longtime town employee and the retirement of the municipality’s auditor as contributing factors to the delays. He also pointed to challenges in recruiting qualified personnel, noting that many employers are experiencing staffing shortages. “No one wants to fail an audit. No one wants to be out of compliance,” Oliveras said. “But certainly, things happen.”

The mayor also took issue with statements suggesting that residents did not know where town money was being spent. “As long as our workers are being paid, the garbage is being picked up, the sewage is being done, the town is running, the money is going to the right places,” Oliveras said. He said comments questioning the town’s financial management could lead residents to draw inaccurate conclusions and potentially damage Laurel’s reputation.

Oliveras also defended his response to concerns raised by Ardisana, stating that he had responded through email and considered that communication to be an action taken by the administration. “We have to protect our image,” Oliveras said. “Everybody that sits here makes $40 a month. I’m the big winner, I make $80, but we do it from our hearts. We do it because we care about the town of Laurel.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Ardisana challenged several of the mayor’s statements and reiterated concerns she first raised at an earlier meeting. She said her primary concern was not whether audits passed or failed but rather the amount of time that has elapsed without current audited financial information.

According to Ardisana, the town is approaching three years behind on required audits despite provisions in the town charter calling for audits to be completed within 90 days after the close of the fiscal year. “The issue with the audits is we are three years behind,” Ardisana said. “You cannot run a town when you don’t have current audited data.”

While acknowledging that staffing changes and the death of a longtime employee may have contributed to delays, Ardisana argued that those circumstances do not fully explain why the town remains years behind in completing required audits. “Let’s even say a year,” she said. “It does not take over two and a half years to recover from that and get information to auditors so that they can do the audits.”

Beyond the audits themselves, Ardisana questioned whether council members receive sufficient financial information to effectively oversee town operations. She argued that elected officials should routinely review budget-to-actual spending reports, bank account information, and check registries in order to monitor the town’s financial condition and verify expenditures.

“The council cannot possibly know the financial health of this town without looking at budgeted versus actuals every month,” Ardisana said.

She also questioned the level of financial reporting provided during council meetings, contending that current reports do not provide a complete picture of the town’s finances. Ardisana said the town charter requires reporting of all revenues received during a given month and expressed concern that existing reporting practices fall short of that standard.

Throughout her remarks, Ardisana repeatedly encouraged residents to review public records, meeting recordings, and transcripts for themselves. “Please go back and listen to the transcripts and make up your own mind,” she said.

Ardisana maintained that her concerns are based on information obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, public records, and the town’s governing documents. She also raised concerns regarding transparency and public participation in the council process.

Ardisana disputed statements contained in the May 18 meeting minutes regarding her efforts to secure time on a council agenda to present her concerns. According to Ardisana, she initially requested 45 minutes to address council and later reduced her request to 20 minutes, but both requests were denied before she was eventually granted time to speak.

She said she was not added to the agenda until after raising concerns about her First Amendment rights and copying the town solicitor on correspondence with town officials. “I was left with no choice,” she said, explaining that she turned to the public meeting process after receiving no response to concerns she said she raised directly with the mayor during an April 2 meeting.

According to Ardisana, she met with Oliveras on April 2 and discussed her concerns regarding financial oversight, audits, and compliance issues. She said she asked the mayor to review the matters with council members and the town solicitor and hoped the issues could be addressed privately before becoming part of a public discussion. “I told him, go back and talk to the council. Go back and talk to your town solicitor,” she said.

Ardisana further challenged the accuracy of several sets of council meeting minutes, stating that portions of her previous remarks were omitted or summarized in a way that did not accurately reflect what had been said.

As part of her comments, she submitted a letter requesting corrections to meeting minutes and asked that both a transcript of her previous presentation and a collection of email correspondence between herself and town officials be attached to the official meeting record. “No minutes are going to be verbatim, but they need to accurately reflect what was said,” she told council members.

The exchange highlighted an ongoing debate within the community regarding government transparency, financial oversight, public access to information, and the responsibilities of elected officials.

Town officials have stated that efforts are underway to address outstanding audit requirements and administrative challenges. Meanwhile, residents such as Ardisana and Councilman George Lodato continue to call for increased financial reporting, stronger oversight measures, and greater transparency in municipal government.