Not to jump to the defense, as mistakes were obviously made, but... The mistake was found, and the mayor and the city council, after speaking to the contractor, were doing their best to get paid. The contractor was already heavily leveraged and they didn't want to go public for fear that he would just declare bankruptcy and nobody would get anything.
The contractor paid back ~100k of the debt before he finally was unable to continue. The city council had, by then, put a lien on one of the guys properties (the one that appeared to have the best likelihood of some return should the lien have to be executed). As a listener to the Mark Johnson show on WDEV this am mentioned, the real issue at hand here is how the *Contractor* "mistakenly" cashed a check for $468k too much. I don't know about anyone else, but as a business owner if someone overpays me, I would immediately notify them. That money is now owed to me, and is therefore *not mine*. Hell, if I find $20 on the sidewalk, or on the floor of Capitol Grounds, I try to track down the owner. The real issue is that the contractor stole $468k from the City of Montpelier. The city council appears to have tried to do what was in the best interest of the city, which was to recover the money. The only real issue I see so far is that the business owner stole nearly 1/2 million dollars and wasn't immediately sent to jail for it. Of course the city council had to decide what was in the better interest for the city - retribution or repayment of the debt. Rubin On Tue, 2009-10-13 at 13:01 -0400, Stanley Brinkerhoff wrote: > All, > > I know this list has members in the Montpelier/surrounding areas. > Incase you missed the articles -- apparently Montpelier overpayed a > contractor in ~2005 to the tune of $400,000. It wasn't noticed until > ~2006, and the city council, nor the mayor have been entirely > forthright about its occurrence. They do cite that they their legal > requirements by putting it in their counsel minutes (only available on > paper via request) and in the "annual report". They also note > repayment was ongoing from the vendor who was over-payed, which made > them feel as though the "issue was resolved". > > Appropriate links > http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091010/NEWS/910109998/ > http://www.montpelier-vt.org/story/241.html > > City Council meets this Wednesday to review the situation "publically" > http://www.montpelier-vt.org/community/313.html > > Stan -- Rubin Bennett rbTechnologies, LLC 80 Carleton Boulevard East Montpelier, VT 05651 (802)223-4448 http://thatitguy.com "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)
