What would you do if checks totaling $3.2 million showed up in the mail? Keep them? Spend them? Call up the sender and ask if there had been a mistake?

West Haven’s three fire districts decided to keep the checks from the city when they received them a year ago. They didn’t call City Hall and ask if there had been a mistake, even though one district’s business manager suspected there had been an error.

Fortunately, the districts apparently did not spend the money. It was set aside.

The extra payments came from tax receipts the city mistakenly thought were due to the districts. The city collects taxes on their behalf.

The error occurred, according to Mayor John M. Picard, because the former finance director, whom he subsequently removed, set up a new accounting procedure of which others in the Finance Department were unaware.

The error is disconcerting because it occurred as the city is trying to solve a $14.3 million deficit caused by accounting irregularities from the prior administration.

The city did not discover the error until September. Picard did not call a meeting with the districts to tell them about the error until December. The public did not learn of the mistake until last month.

The city has recovered most of the overpayments to the districts by withholding money from subsequent tax revenue distributions. But, as of the end of January, according to city figures, the West Shore District still owed $226,7000 and the Allingtown District, $62,000. The Center District has fully refunded the overpayment it received.

While Picard and the fire districts have contended that no lasting harm was done, critics are correct on two points. The overpayments to the districts should have been disclosed promptly, whatever the difficulty they might have caused Picard in his bid for re-election last November. Taxpayers should be aware of how their government is handing their dollars.

Further, although the initial error was the city’s, having four separate taxing districts in West Haven compounded the error. If there were one city fire department, West Haven would not suddenly have had a $3.2 million hole in its revenue. Someone would likely have walked across a hall to ask what was going on. Picard would not have had to ask the districts to return the money.