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FROSTBURG — The fact that bonding agencies have refused to certify Frostburg’s newly elected finance commissioner will have no negative impact upon municipal operations, according to John Kirby, city administrator.
Kirby confirmed Wednesday that the city has not been able to get Donald L. Carter Jr. bonded so that he can sign city checks.
“Typically, four people are eligible to sign city checks and two of those four must sign a check to make it good,” Kirby said. “Besides my name, there is the mayor (Arthur Bond), the director of finance (Candace Sandvick) and the finance commissioner. There are still three of us available to sign checks.”
Kirby said that by law, the bonding agency cannot reveal its reason for rejection, but that it usually has to do with that individual’s personal finances. He said, too, that he is not aware of any finance commissioner in the past who has been refused bonding.
Kirby said there have been some informal discussions about whether or not to make bondability a requirement to serve as finance commissioner.
“We have not been directed to take any action with the charter and an idea like that would have to be checked out in detail for its legality,” he said.
Carter defeated the incumbent finance commissioner, Richard Weimer, in the June election, 488 to 478.
Carter said Wednesday afternoon that he did not know he had not been bonded, that nobody in city government had told him about it.
“I learned about it 15 minutes ago from your e-mail,” he told the Times-News.
“I don’t know why I didn’t get bonded with the city. I’m bonded for my real estate and appraisal business. Maybe the requirements are different for the city bonding.”
Carter said he doesn’t believe the signing of checks is a necessary requirement for a finance commissioner.
“I haven’t been going in to sign checks anyway,” he said.
Carter said he doesn’t believe it is necessary for the finance commissioner to be bonded.
“I don’t deal with money. I oversee the budget process and give guidance. Maybe 30 years ago commissioners were handling cash, but that’s not the way it is now.”
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
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DONALD L. CARTER
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