By Cliff White 

Staff Writer

Buxton Recreation Director Chris Barstow said his department has accrued a roughly $30,000 accounts receivable defecit, the majority in unpaid bills.

The statement, made at a March 17 budget committee meeting, came on the heels of a letter sent by Buxton’s auditor, Ron Smith of RHR Smith and Co., to the town’s selectmen warning of chronic overspending in the town’s recreation department accounts. The letter, dated Feb. 15, also advised the selectmen to institute greater oversight of the department’s finances.

“This has been a chronic problem with the town’s recreation programs,” Smith’s letter read. “The town, prior to this year and including this year had used money from other recreation programs to cover the deficits. The town needs to monitor its recreation programs individually for adequacy.”

According to town audit reports, the recreation activities account – or enterprise fund – lost money in each of the last three years. In 2005, the fund had revenues of $31,742 and expenditures of $46,752 to post a deficit of $15,010. In 2006, the fund had revenues of $56,761 and expenditures of $89,717, equaling a deficit of $32,956. In 2007, it had revenues of $33,710 and expenditures of $68,981 for a total deficit of $35,271. As of June 30, 2007, the enterprise fund had a deficit of $86,209, according to the audit.

In each of those years, revenues from the summer recreation and after-school program accounts combined were greater than the deficits in the recreation activities account.

“The question is, why is this account constantly in the red, year after year?” said Budget Committee Member Steve Anthony.  “The town has known about this for quite some time now, and yet it seems like nothing has been done to change that.”

Buxton Treasurer Anne Robishaw said, as recreation director, Barstow was responsible for the financial management of his department, including billing for all recreation programs and following up on unpaid bills.

Earlier this week Barstow said the auditor made him aware of the deficits. He said he considered the deficits a “non-issue.”

“I, as recreation director, did not put as much focus or concern at the time into the collection of certain cases of fees as I could have,” Barstow said. “I have had discussions with the auditor, the treasurer and the selectmen. I am working with them in rectifying that situation, and I am hopeful we can recover the majority of those funds.”

Barstow said actions had been taken to insure the department’s practices were changed to eliminate billing problems, including switching his accounting system to Munis, the same program used by the town.

“We’ve looked at our billing processes, and we’re looking at recouping of payments,” Barstow said. “We are moving to keeping a closer eye concerning profits and loss in regard to programs in the future.”

Barstow said he would begin to contact those with past-due balances.

“Unfortunately, we probably will be telling some parents their child will no longer be allowed in our after-school program specifically because of the past-due balances we are facing,” Barstow said to the committee.

During his meeting with the budget committee, Barstow said some of the debt was the result of enterprise funds being used to pay for expenses attributed to Buxton Community Day, which Barstow has organized for the past three years. Community Day ran deficits of $6,329 in 2007 and $10,934 in 2006, according to Robishaw.

Barstow told the budget committee “the practice of using funds from one account to fund another program” has ceased. He said he had turned over responsibility for organizing this year’s event to a committee of volunteers.

Barstow was hired to fill the part-time position of Buxton’s Parks and Recreation Director in 2005. Barstow currently works 32 hours a week as director. His 2007-2008 salary was $32,824.25 and is set to increase 3.5 percent to $33,973.10 under Buxton’s current budget proposal for 2008-2009. He is concurrently serving in the Maine House of Representatives as a representative from Gorham and announced on Feb.28 that he was seeking reelection to a fourth term in November.

At an April 2 Buxton Selectmen’s meeting, Anthony asked the selectmen whether it would be possible to remove the recreation department’s director without eliminating the position or the department.

Selectman Jean Harmon responded to the question, saying the only way the director could be removed is if he resigned or if the selectmen fired him, which she said could only happen if they had “just cause.”

Reached for comment Tuesday, Anthony said he would like to see the recreation department and the director’s position remain, but questioned the selectmen because he wanted to know all of the town’s options. He said he had become frustrated at the difficulty the budget committee has had in “getting straight answers” from Barstow. He said he had been similarly frustrated in trying to get answers from the selectmen regarding the recreation department’s finances.

“It seems like no matter what words I use to ask these questions I get looked at cross-eyed,” Anthony said. “When someone gives you a non-answer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that person is hiding something, but you wonder why he or she is not giving the plain truth.”

Contacted earlier this week, neither Harmon nor Selectman Bob Libby commented when asked if more than $20,000 in accounts receivable was “just cause” for removal of the recreation director.

“I think what we’re seeing here is an individual who is probably way more committed to his position in the State House than to his job in Buxton,” Anthony said Tuesday. “[Barstow] is probably a good, smart individual with capabilities to do a real good job as recreation direction, but I wonder if he is really committed to his job or if he is just getting it done.”

Fellow Budget Committee Member Lawrence Miller said he also has concerns about the job Barstow is doing as recreation director.

“We have known about these irregularities for more than a year – at least since last year’s hearings,” Miller said. “There are major questions that haven’t been answered, and at some point, you begin to wonder if the recreation director is getting paid for work he is not doing.”

Miller said he doesn’t think the fault for mismanaging the fund lies solely with Barstow.

“The selectmen could have told the treasurer or whoever controls payment of the budget to the recreation department not to pay anything until the situation was resolved – that would have been one way of controlling the situation,” Miller said.

Libby said it was important to remember the enterprise account was funded from fees for services.

“This is not taxpayer money,” Libby said. “The fact there is money going uncollected is absolutely a sign procedures needed to be changed, but property tax money is not involved in this.”

“The recreation department is meeting the needs of Buxton’s citizens, and Chris is doing a good job as director,” Selectman Jean Harmon said. “I would be very concerned if every column were a negative number, but that’s not the case. What happens to the money paid for services – if there is some left over and it goes to support another program that lost money – I’m not going to lose sleep over that.”

Miller said he was hoping a meeting between the budget committee, Barstow and the auditor – set for Wednesday evening, after the Gazette’s deadline – would clarify the issue for him.

 “I don’t have any idea of what direction was given to the recreation director or whoever controls payment out of these funds to prevent loss. The bottom line is this fund wasn’t managed properly,” Miller said. “I don’t know whether to attribute that to the director, the selectmen, a combination, or what.”

Miller said he was exercising restraint in his approach to the issue.

“People want something fixed here, but everybody agrees it won’t get fixed if the hair starts to stand up on the backs of people’s necks,” he said. “Then there will be a standoff and we won’t have a solution.”