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Dear Editor:
I have seen a couple Letters to the Editor recently and felt I needed to respond.
As many know, I have faithfully served the citizens of Westfield for decades as the city’s elected Clerk Treasurer. I believe that one of the most important duties of my elected office is safeguarding the city’s finances. Critical to the discharging of this important duty is maintaining the security and integrity of the city’s data systems. If anyone – whether a city official, employee or a third party – has the ability to gain unfettered and complete access to these systems, then the security of city’s finances is jeopardized.
To be clear, I have never interfered with the mayor’s ability to see and use the city’s financial data and information for the benefit of the city or other city business. This includes complying with the mayor’s financial review and providing information and documents to his self-appointed review team. I continued this cooperation even when it became clear that the primary purpose of his appointed financial review team was to undermine public confidence in my office, which was evident by BKD’s biased report that cost taxpayers $451,404.
What I could not and cannot abide by is any person outside of my office having the ability to manipulate or alter financial data through the granting of “administrator level” access into our systems.
This is true whether it is Mayor Cook himself, his appointees, employees, city IT personnel, or non-city third parties who desire such access. The mayor has access to all our city reports and he, his administration and all department heads are able to view all financial data at any time.
I understand why certain citizens have identified mistrust as the primary reason for the difficulties between the mayor’s administration and my office.
After all, an administrative employee conducted a raid of my office in July 2021 in an effort to stop my investigation into remote access software found on all the computers in my office – an investigation that as an independently elected official for the City of Westfield, it is my responsibility to safeguard all financial data. I was fulfilling my elected role by hiring the proper forensic IT investigator to investigate this issue. Search warrants were executed against administration employees.
However, the cause of mistrust, and the reasons for ongoing difficulties with the administration, have nothing to do with my office.
Cindy Gossard
Westfield Clerk Treasurer