'The anatomy of an error and cover-up'

The anatomy of an error and cover-up: Some politicians try to avoid admitting an error at all costs. The problem is, once you decide to go down that road, it is very hard to find an offramp.

The error was in the calculation of the Yorktown 2025 tax rate in the December adopted budget, which was released to the press. Local media reported this wrong tax rate. To date, there has not been a subsequent press release notifying the public of the error or even an agenda item mentioning the error.

At the April 15 Yorktown Town Board meeting, I asked, “Why did our taxes go up 7.4% when the official budget adopted in December listed an increase of 6.6%?”

[See video from the April 15 meeting here.]

I found the answer on page 2 of the budget: the tax rate should be based on the official assessed value for the coming year, reported to the state on September 15. I went to the town website and found the error. A number approximately $800,000 higher was used, inappropriately lowering the tax rate. I called Councilwoman Siegel, and she quickly confirmed that an error was made.

At the next board meeting on May 6, Councilwoman Siegel revealed the error, but Councilwoman Haughwout interrupted her explanation of the error with an emotional attack on her for revealing the error without first notifying the other Town Board members. Councilman Esposito agreed with that criticism.

At the May 20 meeting, Councilwoman Siegel shared documents revealing that the town had used the outdated assessed value from the previous year’s tax bill, which did not include the loss of over one million dollars at the JV Mall. But Councilman Esposito again criticized her for revealing the error and then deflected attention from the error, launching into other emotional criticisms of Councilwoman Siegel.

[See video from the May 20 meeting here]

At the June 3 Town Board meeting, when asked for an update on the error, Supervisor Lachterman said that the number is a fluid number. What number—fluid when?—and went on to say there wasn’t an error in the calculation for the budget.

Councilmembers Haughwout, Esposito and Murphy did not contradict the supervisor and admit the error. At this point, the error was well documented and easy to confirm.

At the June 10 board work session, not only was there the continued assertion that the tax rate was correct, but that it was good procedure to use the outdated March assessed value despite the subsequent loss at the JV Mall months before they started work on the adopted budget. And such a good idea that they proposed to continue the error and use outdated assessments in future budgets.

As of June 10, almost two months after I first asked my question, we saw delay, deflection, denial, ambiguous statements, emotional outbursts and attacks on Councilwoman Siegel for revealing the error—all strategies identified in the political science literature used by politicians to avoid admitting errors.

At the June 17 meeting, the supervisor finally admitted the error but said he thought the comptroller admitted the error at the previous meeting. Not true. And that using the outdated assessment from the previous year was standard operating procedure. Again, not true. Tom Diana’s 2024 budget and Matt Slater’s 2023 budget both used the more current September number, as required by a 1948 county law.

At the July 1 meeting, with no explanation of how the error happened and a proposal to continue the error, I raised these issues again.

The supervisor interrupted me and, in an emotional outburst, charged that I was making a personal attack on board members. No. I was asking for clarification of the error and the correction of misinformation, which has still not been corrected.

Was the cover-up intentional? Each board member will have to answer this question for themselves. The error was easy to find. Had they asked their department heads in April, they would have had confirmation of the error. Over a series of meetings, they failed to ask questions that would have revealed the error.

Do the error and cover-up matter? The error was not just in the tax rate. The assessed value table and associated graph were also wrong. The declining value of our commercial real estate should have been noted on the major change page of the budget. Over two years, it has declined dramatically. The graph in the budget minimizing the decline has never been corrected.

Although the error caused our tax bills to go up only $10 or $11, that’s on top of other major increases. The Yorktown portion of my tax bill went up by $279.

The error was never listed as an agenda item nor shared in a press release. Why not? There should be a press release apologizing, informing people of the error and what will be done differently this year. It should include correction of all the misinformation provided to the public about the error (e.g., it was not standard practice) and assurance that the town will not continue the error by using the outdated assessed value in the adopted budget.

The error and cover-up do matter. Over a period of months, they indicate a lack of transparency, accountability and failure to take responsibility to correct misinformation. Don’t you think we deserve better from our Town Board members?

—Larry Kilian, Yorktown Heights