Finance Committee calls for forensic audit

MIDDLEBORO — A week after voters approved a pared down budget at Town Meeting, officials tackled layoffs and a potential forensic audit during a Select Board meeting on Monday, June 8.

Select Board Chair Teresa Farley read a letter from the Middleboro Finance Committee, which recommended that the Select Board consider a forensic audit of the town. The review could include various town expenses, financial reporting practices, credit card usage, grant reporting and enterprise funds.   

The possible audit follows a budget crisis stemming from an over $3 million shortfall identified by Interim Town Manager Joseph Perkins earlier this year. In response, Middleboro has cut 26 town positions for fiscal year 2027, according to Perkins. Three more positions will be cut halfway through the budget year in January 2027. 

During the meeting, Perkins read the names of 15 town staff members whose jobs were cut because of the deficit. 

"I think it's important that people know who they are, and I want to personally thank them now publicly,'' Perkins said.

"I think that people in the community should, if they see them, they should thank them and apologize as well," he said. 

Perkins inherited a budget from former Town Manager Jay McGrail, which he previously said overestimated state aid and underestimated how much Middleboro owed to the state. The original budget from McGrail was about $112 million, which Perkins said was not balanced in March. 

"This was gross fiscal mismanagement and this was preventable," Perkins said. "And I want to  make sure that people know that in this town."

Instead, voters approved a smaller, but balanced $109 million budget last Monday. 

Resident Cheryl Diamond spoke in favor of a forensic audit after Perkins read the names of the town staff being cut.

"I've always thought that a forensic audit was the way to go," Diamond said. "This reinforces it."

While Select Board members did not explicitly accuse any particular person of mismanaging the budget, residents who spoke at the meeting criticized former Town Manager Jay McGrail.

Diamond said she couldn't believe the Select Board didn't ask McGrail to come back and speak to the public. 

"Where's Jay McGrail?" she asked. 

Farley thought that bringing back McGrail to address the public was not necessary. 

"I had zero interest in it, honestly, because we were in a position at that time where in that moment it didn't really matter," Farley said. "It would have been non-productive, in my opinion."

The Select Board did not take a vote or discuss a forensic audit. The topic will be on a future select board agenda with time for public comment, Farley said.