From the Desk of Teri Nigretto
President, Eastsound Water Users Association
Good evening EWUA members.
Today, we need to address “access” – specifically, the operational access to financial record keeping that is provided to the organization’s Treasurer.
Let me be perfectly clear: The role of EWUA’s Treasurer is to oversee the financial operations of the organization. Our Treasurer will have – and always has had – the access he or she needs to conduct full and proper oversight.
EWUA’s Board and staff are all too familiar with the debate that has erupted over access. But it is a nuanced debate. Our critics are demanding “unobstructed” or “unfettered” access, which exceeds normal functionality.
To be fully transparent, let us time stamp how access has been granted to our two previous Treasurers – Tenar Hall and Carol Ann Anderson.
Tenar Hall’s History of Access to Financial Systems
Hall takes office as Treasurer/Secretary on January 1, 2023.
- January 3, 2023: Hall gets access to new Treasurer Gmail account.
- January 6, 2023: Hall given unrestricted Administrative access to WaFd account, our only bank at the time.
- January 9, 2023: Hall granted access to EWUA’s new financial enterprise software Caselle Online and the $5k approval flow.
- January 11, 2023: Hall was trained at the EWUA office for demo and training on the Caselle $5k approval flow and how to navigate WaFed Prime bank account.
- January 20, 2023: Hall given General Ledger access in Caselle Online.
- February 13, 2023: Hall gets employee-level Admin user access to Caselle including the General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Receipting, Project Accounting, Document Management.
- February 13, 2023: Hall distributes the Treasurer’s Report for February to the Board incorrectly noting “missing money.”
- March 15, 2023: EWUA learns that Hall was communicating with Caselle directly in January and was manipulating her account with them to gain system-wide access as an employee. Hall’s intrusion delayed working access to her account for weeks.
- March 20th 2023: Hall resigned from the Board
Carol Ann Anderson’s History of Access to Financial Systems
Anderson takes office as Treasurer/Secretary on January 1, 2024.
- December 5, 2023: Anderson gets access to Eastsound Water’s Treasurer Gmail account for her initial January reports.
- January 5, 2024: Anderson given Administrative access to WaFd account as the new Treasurer.
- January 5, 2024: Anderson given read/write access to a new “Board of Directors” folder in Dropbox which included:
- All monthly financial reports dating back to January 2023,
- All detail transaction reports in the Caselle system dating back to January 2023,
- All budgets and budget drafts from 2022 to present,
- Audit reports of every single positive and negative dollar transaction in the Caselle software system from January 2023 to present with timestamps for every entry and by whom.
- March 19, 2024: Anderson presents the 2023 financial year to the membership and Board, asking the Board to accept the 2023 financials as accurate and complete and ready to send to the CPA for taxation.
- April 2, 2024: Anderson is removed from the Treasurer/Secretary position after recusing herself from the Farm to Market Lawsuit but continuing to participate in the lawsuit to overturn the results of the 2023 election.
By all standards of statutory and common law corporate governance, both Hall and Anderson had the access required to fulfill their treasury functions, including operational oversight.
However, what Hall and Anderson wanted was the inappropriate ability to “pierce the corporate veil” or what is commonly known as the “firewall.” In effect, they seemed to be demanding:
- Administrative login access to all Dropbox accounts where personal customer and employee data – social security numbers and personal bank passwords – are kept.
- Access to storage records, including containers, file cabinets, and safes, keys, and combination codes.
- Access to administrative email controls for the creation and deletion of email accounts and EWUA passwords.
- Providing the Board officers administrative control and setting staff with the appropriate level of access as determined by the officers of EWUA.
- Administrative login access to water operation software including Mission Scada, Eye on Water, and any other water production monitoring and water control systems.
Your EWUA Board found it necessary to draw a bright line for the safety and integrity of our financial systems.
If your Treasurer, in the prosecution of authorized oversight of financial operations, can simultaneously manipulate financial data, change numbers, or record or modify passwords, then that treasurer would be exercising oversight on themselves. That would be conflict of interest, which cannot be allowed.
It’s not personal or even a viable debate. It’s straightforward best practice for corporate governance.
Teri Nigretto
Board President
Eastsound Water