The release of the 2009-2010 audit of Kennett Township has been the subject of controversy for some residents and political figures since its introduction in July
By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com
KENNETT — With one side arguing a lack of transparency and questions about how money was spent and the other claiming politics trumping common sense and township employee’s right to privacy, the most recent audit of the township’s finances has become a central issue of this year’s election race for Township Supervisor.
The township’s release of its 2009-2010 audit has raised some eyebrows over its seemingly mysterious auditor and has been a point of contention in this election year as Township Supervisor hopeful Scudder Stevens alleges a lack of transparency in the Township’s governance. Stevens faces incumbent supervisor Allan Falcoff in the November election.
Citizen groups, such as the Kennett Township Residents for Good Government, have also claimed that Board of Supervisors is being secretive about the nature of the audit, while township officials argue that they’ve done nothing out of the ordinary and are merely seeking to protect the privacy of township employees or protect matters relating to litigation, as allowed by law. In an attempt to clarify certain expenditures and address the concerns regarding the identity of the accountant responsible for the audit, Stevens pursued the issue with the township.
“Mr. Stevens submitted an open records request,” Township Manager Lisa Moore said, “Unfortunately, we had to go through the process with our attorneys because half of those documents are not legally allowed to be released…there was attorney/client information on them. The QuickBooks (an accounting software package used by many small businesses and local governments) disk that he wants; I can’t give those out with everybody’s Social Security information, their spouses’ Social Security numbers, their healthcare information…I would be sued. We had to go through our attorneys to find out what’s legal and what’s not…he (Stevens) thinks the employee module can just be removed, you can’t do that.”
Stevens, however, contends that the dissemination of the information is guaranteed to all those who seek it by Pennsylvania’s “Right to Know” law.
“What I asked for was a backup of the QuickBooks accounting records for the township,” he said, “The state said that it was public information and that I was entitled to that information. I certainly agree that the personal information enclosed therein should be redacted, and it can be done, probably easier than doing it manually. What it requires is to take a backup of the material, load it up in the program, and go in and put ‘X’s where the social security numbers are. If there’s anything there regarding personal health or addresses, redact it—take it out…it’s a simple straightforward thing.”
Even the auditor himself — and his seeming sudden disappearance — appears to be a point of controversy, too.
The audit is credited to Ed Johnson of a company known as SGR & Co. Stevens said he made inquires about Johnson and SGR, wanting to know about how the audit was done, but was unable to locate him or the firm. A further search conducted by The Kennett Times, consulting with local Certified Public Accountants, turned out nothing on the whereabouts or the history of the elusive accountant or the company.
According to the audit report, SGR & Co. was based in Wilmington, Del. All Certified Public Accountants practicing in Pennsylvania and Delaware are required to be registered within those states. The Delaware Society of Certified Public Accountants had no listing for Johnson or SGR.
Subsequent questions have been directed to the township supervisors, who said, to the best of their knowledge, that Johnson retired in May of 2011, and left no phone number or forwarding contact information other than that of a P.O. Box.
In terms of Johnson’s current whereabouts, Township Supervisor Michael Elling — one of the supervisors who put out the request for proposal for auditors — said he is equally mystified, but indicates that the township is in no hurry to locate him.
“We don’t have any requirement to do that and we haven’t had any reason to,” he said, “I suppose we could spend our time doing it but, you know, we’ve got a lot of other things to do…and that’s going to be a time sink.”
“For many years we elected township auditors,” he continued, “But for political reasons, we were accused of strange things and we decided that we didn’t need that kind of harassment. So we did away with having our auditor do it and went to a CPA. If you look into the method of auditing, our auditors did a much more thorough job than the outside auditor…they went through every invoice and balanced everything. An outside auditor doesn’t do that, they sample.”
For more information regarding the history of the audit, see https://kennetttimes.com/?p=935
Looks like we now know one of the reason Lisa Moore’s boyfriend is SPENDING THOUSANDS of dollars to keep the current Kennett Township supervisors in office. For those who do not know Lisa Moore is our town Township Manager / Secretary-Treasurer and Secretary to the Planning Commission. Brian is Lisa’s boyfriend and the person paying for the Falcoff diversion campaign. Have you ever heard of a town managers boyfriend giving THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to keep a supervisor in office?
Can you think of a reason why the Town Manager and Treasurer would want to conceal an audit or auditor? Our why Brian would so desperately want to keep Scudder from becoming supervisor. Transparency can be a VERY scary thing if you have something to hide. Transparency is a blessing for those that have nothing to hide….time is on our side!
It occurs to me that the township can easily prove that the accountant and the audits exist by bringing forth the cancelled checks used to pay Mr. Johnson. There is no violation of privacy for any employees if they do this. Show the people the cancelled checks and this problem will go away. Simple. Of course, if they paid him in cash, that will be more difficult.
Jussayin’
Gee, I’m in a position where I have reviewed thousands of tax returns over the last three decades in Wilmington…. I’ve dealt with almost every CPA in the area at one time or another. I have never heard of this guy or SGR…. what are the chances…….
Nonsense? The truth is that the township collected $ 2.9 million in open space tax from 2006 to january of 2011 . $2 million was spent on property that directly borders Scudder. That means more than 2/3 of all the open space tax collected directly borders him. Another $1.5 million was used for the Arnold property which does border Kate dupont, Scudder’s close by neighbor. That means Scudder and his supporters are indeed SURROUNDED BY EVERY PENNY of open space tax collected from 2009 through 2010 . His threats of libel against me are baseless and pathetic. As an attorney he is the one lodging baseless claims saying everything about the audits violates state law. If that were the case then why isn’t the district attorney investigating as he did when THE SATE POLICE RAIDED SCUDDER’S LAW OFFICE SEVERAL YEARS AGO!!!!
Tom, your lies don’t change the truth about the land conservancy obtained by the Supervisors in secret meetings. I had nothing to do with the purchase of any of the land you reference. But you know that. Nor did I have anything to do with the failed development effort by you and the other Supervisors of the Arnold property that had to be bailed out by the Land Trust and local citizens. But you know THAT, too.
And since you are using your inside connections with the “authorities”, you also know that there was no “raid” on my offices. The State Police served a subpoena on me to obtain a hard drive used by a former employee who was under investigation for alleged acts performed a year after he left my office. While you certainly do try to confuse what happened by your manipulative language, the facts (as usual) get in the way and fail you.
When are you going to announce that “Truthsayer” is Tom Nale? and stop hiding behind your anonymity? Or is it easier to scam the truth in secret?
Scudder
Further, Tom, as you know, NOTHING has been paid toward open space since 2007, and the beginning of 2008 as committed in 2007. Further, as you know, Tom, only 40% of the total monies used by the Supervisors to do the State Line Woods Preserve and Arnold properties came from the Township; the balance came from the County, the State, and private citizens. But it is nice to have ANOTHER open space dollar value bandied about. This is what, the fourth, or the fifth different number presented for open space expenditures and receipts so far. Too bad the fraudulent audits don’t consistently confirm the dollar assertions. Too bad the Supervisors need to hide the facts from legitimate citizen requests. Obviously there is a reason WHY Tom and the Supervisors feel a need to hide from the light of scrutiny. Soon enough the residents of the Township will know what that reason is.
See you at the polls, Tom.
Scudder
Truthsayer continues to issue falsehoods. Its too bad that s/he needs to hide in anonymity, afraid to stand behind his/her statements in public, as I have been doing. Libel is so much easier from the dark.
As I have written on other pages of this newspaper, I had no active participation in the decision of the Land Trust and the Board of Supervisors to use taxpayer procured funds to purchase and establish State Line Woods. I certainly supported the effort and was pleased that it occurred. As were a significant number of other residents from all corners of the Township.
While Truthsayer asserts that State Line Woods surrounds both my property and Kate duPont’s property, and used “every penny of open space tax that was collected from 2006 to January 2011”; none of this is the truth. Kate’s property does not abut State Line Woods at all, and it only abuts a fraction of my property. Further, the cost for that purchase did not use five years worth of open space tax collections. The Supervisors fail to provide a tally of what was collected, and what was used; hence, my Right To Know efforts. But clearly, Truthsayer’s assertion of the actual numbers is wrong. Just more nonsense by him/her!
Scudder G. Stevens
Scudder stevens’ allegations of lack of transparency ring hollow in light of the fact that he has failed to reveal that he and some of his supporters are surrounded by millions of dollars worth of taxpayer funded open space. He claims on his website and in his literature that he doesn’t know how the open space funds have been spent and hasn’t been given that info despite the fact that he has been given access to thousands of pages of documents. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he and land trust chairperson Kate duPont are surrounded by every penny of open space tax that was collected from 2006 to January 2011. Whether he is talking about taxes, open space, or his three thousand page open records request Scudder Stevens and his supporters misrepresent almost every fact. Don’t be fooled by Scudder’s smoke and mirrors. Kennett Township residents deserve the truth from Scudder and they’re not getting it.
The accusations by Brian Gore (Our town Manager/Treasurers boy friend) are laughable and show the desperation of the Falcoff campaign. So funny how Falcoff can try to use the accomplishments of the DuPont Company to give him credibility but in the same breath try to say the family eases land for self-serving purposes. It is common knowledge that the Dupont family is one of the most generous families in the area. Giving millions to area schools, YMCA’s, Hospitals and almost every cause in the area…..how self serving!! Kate duPont is following in the families tradition of philanthropy by giving 100′s of hours of her time and 1000′s of dollars so that EVERYONE can have the opportunity to enjoy open space.
Have any of you been on the eased land on Mike Elling’s, Allan Falcoff’s or Tom Nales property? All three supervisors received over $100,000.00 in compensation for the eased land in their back yards which is used ONLY by them…..The two preserves near our home are used by hundreds every week and are maintained by volunteers including Kate and I. We have no regrets supporting the Land Conservancy and will continue to donate our money and time no matter who is supervisor in Kennett…..because it is the right thing to do for Kennett community. We have received $0 in compensation.
I find it very interesting that 2 out of 3 local newspapers REFUSED to run Brian Gores and Allan Facoffs latest add. When asked why they refused to run the add they said ” It was obvious the statements were false and with absolutely no merit” When Randy Lieberman owner of the Chester County Press was asked why he ran an obvious false advertisement he response was ” THIS IS HOW WE MAKE OUR MONEY” enough said….The paper is usually very unbiased so the fact that he took the advertisement just for the money was very surprising.
Helping to preserve land for EVERYONE and very proud of it !!
Alfred duPont