Once again, we have a “facts be damned” situation on our town government. At the March 14, 2018 meeting Supervisor Cynthia Hyde read another statement, which seem to have become a norm for her. She once again bashed Councilwoman Seaman making accusations of defamation of character against her by Councilwoman Seaman. Cynthia Hyde then turns around and defames the name of a past employee of the town, this person has passed away and can no longer defend himself, he also still has children and family that live in this town. Cynthia Hyde took no issue naming this person in her statement numerous times when in fact his name was never used in the official audit report from the NYS Comptrollers office. Mrs. Hyde chose to name this person. You can not make an accusation against one person for defamation against you then one second later defame another person. That shows very low personal morals.

Mrs. Hyde is using the 2016 audit of the garbage bags as facts, when in fact, an audit from the NYS Comptrollers office is their opinion and their recommendations. How can we make this statement, do we have facts to back this up? Yes, we do. The fact is, if the comptroller that did the audit took the time to listen to audio, instead of relying on people to remember exactly what was done or said, he would have seen that the supervisor in 2014 and the town board of 2014 did request an audit of the garbage bags from then clerk Cynthia Hyde. It was the town clerks responsibility to keep a running audit of these bags. The supervisor in 2014, Evelyn Wood, did ask the then clerk Cynthia Hyde for an audit in August of 2014. Not once did Cynthia Hyde provide the town board with an audit. There is an audio of this request posted below as proof.

Mrs. Hyde chose to use very specific sentences from the audit to make herself look good and others look bad, adding in the name of a person that was not named in the actual audit. (A copy of the actual audit can be found below) One instance Mrs. Hyde read the following sentence;

“Once money was remitted from the transfer station to the Clerk, the collections were properly receipted, recorded and deposited in a timely manner.”

However, she failed to finish that paragraph which stated the following;
 
“However, we could not determine if all deposits were made intact because the Clerk did not always retain a copy of the detailed deposit slip.”

The audit also refers to “Town Officials”, which would include the Town Clerk, she was a town official. If fact, in one instance the audit report does in fact state the town officials, Supervisor, Town Board and Town clerk.
 
Here are a few more “facts” that were in the audit that Mrs. Hyde seemed to have left out.
 
“Also, the Clerk did not have procedures in place to reconcile the number of bags provided to the transfer station attendant with the remaining inventory of bags and cash collections remitted to the Clerk.”
 
“The Clerk should have procedures to reconcile amounts received for bags from the transfer station attendant to total bags provided to the attendant less bags still on hand. She should also reconcile collections in her office with bags acquired less bags remaining in inventory. Once total collections have been reconciled, the Clerk should verify that amounts collected are equal to amounts deposited in her bank account and provide that information to the Supervisor.”
 
The only fact here is that the audit refers to “Town Officials”, which Cynthia was and still is one. She had responsibilities to the town board to give them an accurate accounting of the bags. She was asked to do a detailed audit of the bags and did not do so. So how can the then town Supervisor and the Town Board be held solely responsible for this. It is not their job to do the audit of the bags, that was and is the Town Clerks job.
 
Cynthia Hyde, shame on you for defaming a man who has passed away and cannot defend himself from the allegations you made against him. Shame on you for accusing Gail Seaman of defaming your name when you did the same thing to another. Shame on you for not standing up and taking responsibility for what you should. You have a responsibility to the taxpayers of Thurman, all taxpayers Mrs. Hyde, not just those that supported you during your election campaign.
 
The family of the man you named and accused is owed a public apology from you Mrs. Hyde. As taxpayers of this town we should demand no less from you. Stop using your position to blame everyone but yourself for what you have done in the past. You are doing a great disservice to the people of this town.