MACHIAS, Maine (WABI) -On Thursday night many packed into the Washington County Courthouse in Machias to take part in a public hearing held by the Washington County Commissioners.

The hearing revolved around the upcoming bond referendum that would see voters decide on whether or not to approve an $11 million general obligation bond to resolve the county’s budget crisis.

During the hearing, folks of Washington County could ask questions to the commissioners, as well as voice their frustrations and concerns ahead of the November election.

Several speakers called for a forensic audit and asked for more transparency as to how something like this could happen, stating they felt as though laws had to of been broken.

During the roughly two and a half hour meeting, former commissioner Chris Gardner spoke for about ten minutes to offer his apologies for the error. Saying that what occurred wasn’t intentional, instead saying it was a mistake.

Arguing that they watched it as much as they could, saying that they couldn’t get an auditor, and that they never knew there was a cash flow problem until it was too late.

“I appreciated it. I thought it took a lot of guts for him to do that. And a lot of us were looking for that. We wanted that from the rest of the people that resigned. I don’t think we’re going to get it. But I do appreciate that he explained some of it. He didn’t explain the ARPA funds, you know, why the ARPA funds were transferred from the ARPA account to the general fund, which is not supposed to happen,” said Kendall Alley, a resident of Machias.

Voters will decide on November 4th.

The commission says that they currently have no backup plan if voters reject the referendum although they said they have two or three suggestions from the bond council.

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