Auerbach, said that off-books — i.e., accounts that aren’t figured into or listed in the county budget — accounts are a throwback to the days before the new county charter. In most cases, their existence ran contrary to the principle that the comptroller have “care, custody and control” over every dollar coming in or out of the county. Auerbach, who has produced a report on the persistence of off-book accounts in numerous county departments, said Carnright had been especially resistant to his efforts to bring fiscal controls into compliance with the charter.
“It seems like we spend an inordinate amount of time getting the DA’s office to recognize where the care, custody and control should be,” said Auerbach. “We get the greatest amount of pushback from that office.”
Sennett, who is making his second run for the district attorney’s office, hit his opponent on this issue at his October 13 press conference at his John Street, Kingston campaign headquarters, where he displayed the correspondence between Carnright and Auerbach (obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request) and tried to make the case that Carnright had mishandled funds and stonewalled the comptroller’s efforts to bring full accountability to Ulster’s finances. Sennett had the pertinent documents blown up many times their original size and pasted onto large pieces of cardboard, pointing to them often for both clarity and dramatic effect.
“This is not a radical requirement,” said Sennett, a former Bronx assistant district attorney. “This is simple standard operating procedure.”
Sennett also displayed copies of a voucher signed by Carnright for a $5000 check made out to Matthews in March 2008 labeled “emergency check for buy money-ongoing investigation.” Since April, Sennett has been calling on Carnright to recuse himself from prosecuting the case against the disgraced former detective on the grounds that Matthews’ close working relationship with the DA’s office created a conflict of interest. The voucher, Sennett said, was smoking-gun evidence that Carnright was not just a close working associate of Matthews, but potentially a material witness in the criminal case.
“His stubborn and unnecessary refusal to recuse himself taints the entire case and calls into question the ethics of the Ulster County district attorney,” said Sennett.
Carnright rebutted the accusation, saying that in signing the voucher he was merely acting as a department head approving the release of funds which had already been earmarked in the 2007 budget, before he took office. Carnright, however, admitted that the voucher was pertinent to Matthews’ trial. In his written response to Sennett’s allegations, Carnright took his opponent to task for “disclosing documents to the public which is evidence in a trial which is pending.”
Carnright also sought to defend his record on financial affairs. Carnright noted that he had returned money to the county at the end of the year each year he had been in office despite a series of technological upgrades, including the introduction of BlackBerry devices, laptops and modern audio and visual equipment.
“How is that mismanagement of funds?”
Carnright and Sennett will face each other at the polls on November 8. No debates are currently scheduled between the candidates.
