State audit of Credit Card Use

[Hscout]

seriously who do you believe?

[Pumpkinhead]

The Americorps.gov website says that the Office of Inspector General audits and oversees the program. I hope this report was forwarded to them.

Spirit of Ebenezer - I always wondered why Christina Bove flipped on Mark Lazzarra and the program. What a sell-out.

As for the rest of the bums, you've got John Greenan writing this farce of a letter - let's see, wasn't his brother the Town Attorney during the years when all this was going on, and wasn't his brother-in-law on the Town Board and I think also on the Americorps board? HMMM, yes, who do you believe?

[FisherRd]

Where's Manny? Or the person that was on the Board that would come here and pretend like she wasn't on the board, I bet she's panicking...

[WNYresident]

seriously who do you believe?

Well think about it. People will lie while other innocent people have their ass's roasted to cover their ass and so on...They don't give a crap about anyone except themselves.

For the period January 1, 2006 through June 29, 2009, the Town paid
approximately $1 million for charges on 35 Town credit card accounts
that were used by the Town Youth Bureau and WNY AmeriCorps. The
credit cards were routinely used for a variety of purchases including,
but not limited to: cash advances ($21,000), meals and refreshments
($130,000), travel and entertainment ($250,000), gift cards and
certifi cates ($30,000), donations and sponsorships ($50,000), home
improvement and landscaping materials and supplies ($140,000),
apparel and sporting/outdoor supplies ($95,000), administrative and
offi ce items ($195,000), and vehicle and equipment items ($60,000).
Some of these items, such as donations and gift cards, would generally
not be appropriate Town purchases. We have referred this matter to
law enforcement for investigation.

Read the above. How could this even be true? Specially when so many people were supposed to be watching over our tax money.

$21,000 in cash advances without any reciepts handed in to verify where the money was going?

$130,000 meals and refreshments. That's a lot of meals

$250,00 travel and entertainment. Where were these people going?

$30,000 gift cards and certificates


and so on...

All I can say is someone was turning a blind eye towards this and all should be held responsible.

[mnb811]

This isn't surprising is it? When people continue to have no compettition come election time what do we expect. One party in charge of everything breeds greedy corrupt people who will take whatever they want to.The reason for atleast electing a different party is a system of checks and balances. West Seneca, Cheektowaga,Lackawanna and Buffalo really have'nt had any checks and balances for years so they can do whatever they want and get away with it. These muncipalities even pass off political cases to one another and fix the system. Example: The cat or should I say kitten shooting incident by a Lackawanna dog control officer. With these guys one hand washes the other. Disgusting!

[dtwarren]

The full report is available at: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/...westseneca.pdf

[Hscout]

All I can say is someone was turning a blind eye towards this and all should be held responsible.

I can't believe all of WNY AmeriCorps, the entity as it is today should be thrown under a bus because someone from the youth bureau 2 years ago received a credit card as a town employee. It is a different AmeriCorps then it was before August 2008 and wrong for anyone to think the Corps is guilty of something they didn't have anything to do with 2 years ago when it was under a different organizational structure.

[nogods]

Sedita's full of BS - I've represented lots of people prosecuted by his office with little or no evidence to support unfounded charges.

"The state comptroller's office turned the audit over to Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III, but a criminal case does not seem imminent.

Sedita said he has responded to the comptroller's office, noting that because it suggests there might be criminal liability, it would be helpful if the state identified what crimes were committed, who committed them, and what proof is available.

"I will prosecute a case when I am provided with credible evidence admissible in a court of law ... that demonstrates a crime has been committed, and an individual has committed those crimes," Sedita said."


and with respect to the NFTA double dippers, note that the report states:

"Without doing a thorough review, the former [NFTA] Chief discussed this matter with the Erie County District Attorney who, according to the former Chief, declined to pursue it further"

Sedita's too busy prosecuting 19 and 20 year olds for drinking to be bothered with political corruption.

[dtwarren]

What is striking about this report is not so much what was found but the Town's response.

When Mr. Piotrowski took office he vowed a department by department review. Both the Youth Bureau/Americorps and the Comptroller's office were purportedly reviewed in 2008.

Specifically, it was in June 2008 that Mr. Piotrowski proposed a merger of the Youth Bureau and Recreation Departments and the termination of the renting of BNAC to Americorps, surely this was done after a detailed review.

Mr. Piotrowski stated at the January 14, 2008, Town Board meeting that the Comptroller's Office was being reviewed at that time.

Likewise, the department by department review should have discovered that the Comptroller's office was "not properly accounting for certain financial activity and had not made significant adjustments to the Town’s financial records to ensure that they agreed with the audited financial statements. To a great degree, the Town Comptroller is relying upon the external auditor to properly account for certain financial activity. Because the Town Comptroller waits for significant adjustments from the auditor, the financial records are not reliable during the year."

Yet it took until April/May 2009 when Mrs. Meegan proposed a credit card policy that is applicable to all town departments which was ultimately adopted in November 2009 for any change to even be considered. If there truly was a department by department review the deficiencies noted in this audit should have been discovered and acted on much earlier particularly since these deficiencies are not limited to a single department.

However, I believe that the department by department review was either for political gain and/or poorly done.

[Psycho1]

However, I believe that the department by department review was either for political gain and/or poorly done.

You know as well as I do, that it was done purely in response to a number of residents badgering the TB continuously about the arrangement, and financial matters, between AmeriCorps and the Town, that something occurred. I wonder if we would have seen the same result if "The People" hadn't made such a fuss. I tend to think we wouldn't have.

[WNYresident]

So who do we think was stealing the money?

Cash advances? Gift cards?

[Psycho1]

I can't believe all of WNY AmeriCorps, the entity as it is today should be thrown under a bus because someone from the youth bureau 2 years ago received a credit card as a town employee. It is a different AmeriCorps then it was before August 2008 and wrong for anyone to think the Corps is guilty of something they didn't have anything to do with 2 years ago when it was under a different organizational structure.

Have you been reading the posts here?

Mark Lazzara, Exec. Director of AmeriCorps since its inception, was also the Youth Bureau Director for West Seneca. He ran both organizations simultaneously, funneling money through the Town, with the blessings of former Supervisor Paul Clark, and his crew, and he was considered a Town employee. It only became WNY AmeriCorps after the new Town Board started questioning him about his financial dealings, made him move out of the Burchfield Center, and eliminated his job with the Youth Bureau.

With the exception of a few faces, it is still the same organizational structure, with ML still in charge.

[Psycho1]

So who do we think was stealing the money?

Cash advances? Gift cards?

That's a rhetorical question, right?

[WNYresident]

If there are not records of who received the gift cards and why.... and there are no records to show where the cash advances were going, it's stealing.

I skimmed the report. Did it mention who was in possession of the card used?

[FisherRd]

Maybe some cash advances went to fix up the town vehicle that got banged up when his daughter was drunk?