Amenia investigates budget officer over use of clerk’s signature

AMENIA — Amenia budget officer Charlie Miller has been accused of submitting the town’s tentative budget with an old signature from Town Clerk Dawn Marie Klingner.

Klingner said she reported the issue to the Town Board in executive session on Oct. 3, prompting members to assign the town’s labor attorney, Robert Schofield, to investigate.

Officials say the issue stems from Miller’s use of an old cover page that included Klingner’s digital signature. Miller, who serves as the town’s budget officer, said the incident was unintentional.

Miller said the problem began with a computer error while assembling the file. He said he failed to save the document properly and lost most of his work. When he went back to recreate the file, he said he hastily put it together with the wrong cover page and sent it to Klingner and Blackman by email.

“It’s an honest mistake,” Miller said.

But Klingner said the action circumvented her duties as Town Clerk.

“I’m legally responsible for receiving and certifying the budgets, and my responsibility was taken from me when someone else used my signature and seal without my knowledge or consent,” Klingner said.

Miller reports directly to Blackman, who serves as chief financial officer for Amenia as part of his duties as Town Supervisor. As budget officer, Miller said he assists in drafting the budget but has no other control over the town’s finances.

Miller said he has cooperated with the investigation.

“The town board — I think rightly — engaged the town’s labor attorney to look into it, and so I completely support that process,” Miller said. “But that process should play out, in my opinion.”

The investigation comes as Miller, who is running for Town Board, faces a wave of rumors in the days leading up to the election that he said are unfounded. Rumors — which surfaced on now-deleted public posts on FaceBook — range from breaking in to the Town Clerk’s office to forging notary seals.

“There are a lot of extremely false accusations being thrown at me, which to me, looks very much like a political hack job,” Miller said, noting the election is just days away. “It’s almost bordering on libel at this point.”

Klingner said her report only concerned improper process in submitting the tentative budget and denied Miller broke into her office or forged a notary seal.

“I don’t want this to become a political matter,” Klingner said. “It’s not good for this board or this town — and I respect the work that Charlie has done here — but this is not the first time that we’ve had issues with process.”