My name is Leslie Stolzenfels and I have been the elected treasurer of the City of North Tonawanda for the past 23 years.

Being an elected official opens you up for the occasional criticism and my rule has always been to accept the comments for what they are. Throughout the past year, however, there has been an anonymous campaign of half-truths and outright lies being waged against me, primarily through Sound Off, that I can no longer ignore. Let me set the record straight on several issues.

The issue of city departments overspending their overtime allotments in the 2006 budget has come up often. The treasurer’s role within the budget process, once it has been adopted, is to monitor the budget and “report to the Council without delay” (NT Charter section 5.023) when it appears that the revenues will not cover the appropriations.

The treasurer does not have the power to schedule or approve overtime for any department other than its own. The responsibility to direct and supervise the various departments of city government in fact lies with the mayor’s office.

In reporting the overdrafts I was fulfilling my duties under the charter. It is the responsibility of others to see that these overdrafts do not happen and to make the appropriate management decisions if they do.

Several Sound Off calls have questioned my present salary. In fact, the salary for the office of treasurer for this current term of office was set by the common council in April of 2003, a full six months prior to the last election for treasurer.

The salary was set and would have been the same whether I won the election or my opponent had won. I am positive that if my opponent had won that election, this would not be an issue (which says a lot about who is actually making these Sound Off calls).

A favorite theme of many Sound Off calls concerns the treasurer’s department’s collection of the 2005 school taxes. The procedure for collecting and handling school taxes started long before I took office, and we followed those same procedures for the 2005 School tax collection.

Please note that prior to this past year the school district had never voiced a problem with these procedures. I attempted to update these procedures several years ago when I suggested to the school district that we electronically transfer the tax funds. This approach would have effectively eliminated that past year’s problems, but it was never agreed to by the school district. Earlier this year I worked with the school district to design and implement new procedures to address their concerns which we are now using.

Another issue that seems to be in Sound Off is my involvement in the city budget. The charter states in several places that the mayor will present a budget for the city, while it also states that the treasurer shall “assist the mayor in preparation of the budget” (NT Charter section 3.027).

I am ready and willing to work with the mayor when requested. The truth of the matter is that each year I have been in city government (including this year) the budget has been prepared by a combination of City Accountant David Jakubaszek developing the expenses and I, as treasurer, supplying the revenues.

The last Sound Off issue that I would like to cover is the request that my department be audited. The truth is that we are audited on an annual basis by an independent external auditing firm and also by the state of New York. My department and I have no problem standing up to the scrutiny of a third audit if the city wants to take on the additional expense.

Throughout the past year you have been subjected to lies, half truths and innuendoes in Sound Off concerning the treasurer’s office. I invite the Tonawanda News to verify that what I have written in this letter are the facts.

Unlike the nameless, faceless cowards who have attacked me in Sound Off, I have nothing to hide. I dare the people that are running this smear campaign to come out of the shadows and into the light. It says so much that they are too ashamed of their actions to show their faces.

Their cowardice takes away from all those citizens that are using Sound Off for legitimate purposes.



Leslie J. Stolzenfels is the North Tonawanda city treasurer.