To the Editor:

I read John Flick’s October 30 letter to the editor entitled, “’Dedicated Volunteer’ Ward has ‘In-Depth  Financial Expertise, Experience’ Required to Serve as Old Lyme Town Treasurer” and was dismayed to  find the exact same (word for word) untrue statement about my record as Treasurer that was printed in an LTE [on] this LymeLine website from October 16. So I am here to say again, while what he writes about Mr. Ward may be true, what Mr Flick writes about me continues to be false. 

Mr. Flick notes with exactly the same words as the [previous] LymeLine LTE that he reached out to Board of Finance members and was told that I rarely attend any Board of Finance meetings. I remind you all that he left out a rather crucial point: the Town Treasurer has no standing need to attend Board of Finance meetings. The duties of the Town Treasurer and the duties of the Board of Finance are different. One can easily research the statutory job responsibilities of the Treasurer in section 7-80 of the Connecticut General Statutes which is titled, “Duties of the Treasurer.” As I said before, the Treasurer is responsible for managing the Town’s money and ensuring that all bills are paid. Which means the Treasurer works with the Finance Department, not the Board of Finance. Nor do I report to the Board of Finance or Board of Selectmen either. 

So what have I been doing over the past four years, besides the day to day task of working with the Finance Department? When COVID hit I worked with the Finance Director and our IT Company to ensure that even if Town Hall had to shut down, bills and paychecks would still be paid. (And while I was at it, I worked with the Town Hall IT Committee to upgrade all our IT systems to current standards). More  recently, when our Finance Director was out on extended medical leave, I helped find a temporary replacement to fill the role until a permanent replacement could be found. 

I believe that the Republicans actually do know the Town Treasurer responsibilities and continuing to push this lie in now a second LTE concerns me deeply. If they are telling people this clearly false statement about me and the Town Treasurer responsibilities, what else are they telling you that isn’t true? 

I take this role extremely seriously. Honesty and integrity are the backbone of all elected positions. I’ve  been inside Town Hall for the past four years working hard for the people of Old Lyme and I’m looking  forward to continuing to work for you over the next four years.

Sincerely,

Michael Reiter,
Old Lyme.

Editor’s Note: i) The author is the current Old Lyme Treasurer and the candidate endorsed by the Old Lyme Democratic Town Committee for the position in the upcoming election.

ii) The author is correct that the letter from Mr. Flick is an almost ‘verbatim’ copy of Mr. Bucior’s letter. We apologize that we did not notice that — we would not have published the second letter had we realized. We offered to take down Mr. Flick’s letter but Mr. Reiter preferred to respond to it since it had been published for a few days. We would respectfully ask that letters are not submitted, which are effectively copies of previously submitted letter,s, but signed by a different author. Thank you.