Steinberg's Say: October 2009

At the Sept. 8 council meeting, David Sternthal tabled a report by a charted accountant, Gina Caliguiri, which made serious allegations about Hampstead’s financial state. When Councillor Sternthal was asked at the meeting if he minded if the Town responded to his report, he replied that he didn’t mind, as “the numbers speak for themselves.” The Town has now responded with three letters from: 1. the Town Treasurer, 2. Goudreau Poirier, the external auditors who prepare Hampstead’s financial statements, and 3. Mercer, the actuary who has administered the Hampstead pension fund for over 30 years.

Why is Team Sternthal trying so hard to keep this report from you?

At the Oct. 1 council meeting, a motion was made to distribute the Town’s report to all Hampstead residents, along with the original Caliguiri report. The only two councillors to vote against the resolution were Sternthal and Gonshor. Having failed to defeat the resolution, Sternthal then filed a complaint the next morning with the Director General of Elections (DGEQ) to block this information from being mailed out. The DGEQ reviewed the documents and ruled that they were factual and not electoral and gave the Town permission to distribute them. The Hampstead report, linked below, should be mailed within a couple of weeks.

When comparing the claims of the Caliguiri report with those of the Town of Hampstead and its external auditors, it is important to know the credentials of the parties. Gina Caliguiri admitted in public, at the Oct. 1 council meeting, that she had never done a financial statement for any municipality and does not know the rules and standards for doing such statements. Furthermore, she admitted that she did not know the rules pertaining to some of the conclusions stated in her report.

In contrast, Jocelyne Poirier, the principal partner, wrote the letter for Goudreau Poirier. She has had 27 years experience auditing municipalities, is the President of the municipal administration committee of the Quebec Order of Chartered Accountants, and plays an active role on the Municipal Finance Committee of the Quebec Municipal Affairs Ministry. Her firm has audited more than 100 public organizations including 40 municipalities.

The 10 most important facts from the Hampstead Response

Hampstead is in excellent financial health!

Hampstead does NOT have a deficit of 3.75 million as Team Sternthal claims.

The Town had a surplus of just under a million dollars in 2008.

Over the first three years of this mandate the total accumulated surplus has grown to 2.1 million (from an inherited surplus of $300,000).

The Town has never had a deficit in any year of this mandate.

The Town’s inherited debt is 9.24 million and NOT 7.5 million as the Team Sternthal implies on their web site.

Long term debt at the end of 2008 was just under 13 million and it will be 13.72 million at the end of 2009. It is not and has never been 16 million, as Team Sternthal claims.

The increase in debt is 4.5 million, most of which is from the 4.4 million interest-free loan that Hampstead got from the Quebec government. This will save the Town about 3.3 million in interest over the 20 year life of the loan.

Debt service, which is the best measure of the Town’s ability to repay its loans, is the fourth lowest of the 14 demerged towns on the island of Montreal.

Therefore, our town has a solid financial foundation on which we will continue to build a better Hampstead.

All the documents that will be mailed out are linked below. Please read them carefully and judge for yourselves.
Please share this with all the Hampstead residents you can. It is time that the electorate read the real truth about Hampstead’s financial condition.