Monday evening’s Board of Supervisors meeting saw fire from residents over lack of answers regarding audit
By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com
The Kennett Township Board of Supervisors reacts to public complaints about financial records during Monday night's board meeting. From left, Robert Hammaker, Michael Elling and Allan Falcoff.
KENNETT — Most fires start as small embers, with a single spark igniting the tinder. With fuel added the temperature rises, and if allowed, the flames burn out of control until they blossom into a raging inferno.
Such is the ire of of at least some of the township’s residents. The spark was born three years ago, with the initiation of Township’s auditing process — replacing an elected auditor with one hired professionally — and culminated into an all-out siege by angry residents during this week’s BOS meeting.
The focus of their heated questioning: why has the township seemingly gone to such great lengths to prevent its residents from seeing the specifics of the audit?
The supervisors said that their reluctance to release the entire QuickBooks audit CD is due the fact that sensitive employee information (such as Social Security numbers and bank routing numbers) is entered into the fields and cannot be redacted.
“What I asked for was a backup of the QuickBooks accounting records for the township,” Scudder Stevens said.
Stevens—who is running against Chairman Allan Falcoff in the township’s Nov. 8 Board of Supervisors race— is at the forefront of the push for full disclosure.
“The state said that it was public information and that I was entitled to that information,” he continued, “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.”
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.
The situation came to a head as residents piled into the Kennett Township building Monday night for the BOS meeting.
The discussion began with Stevens’ campaign manager, Jeff Yetter, and Board of Supervisors Chair Allan Falcoff exchanging volleys regarding the ability to redact sensitive information from QuickBooks.
“We’ve been assured by people who are certified in QuickBooks that the information cannot be redacted electronically,” Falcoff stated, “I think the courts will end up settling this.”
Questions also arose about the current whereabouts and the history of the Certified Public Accountant cited for performing the audit, with Falcoff claiming that the CPA recently retired and left no forwarding contact information.
“I’m confused,” Yetter stated, “You hired an accountant; you don’t know where he is, and you don’t know how to get a hold of him.” Yetter went on to allege that SGR & co. doesn’t exist and question the authenticity of the audit itself, “Is the audit real?” he asked.
Falcoff reminded Yetter that the township offered to disclose a printed copy of the audit with the employee information blacked out.
“At 25 cents a sheet?” Yetter fired back, “For every transaction for the past four years? You really want to do that? You want the township to pay for that? You’ve given us an accounting for the open space which is ludicrous. You take funds from 2006 and apply them to 1998. We want to see the transactions. In your own audit and your verbal presentation the numbers don’t concur. It’s our money, we have a right. We have a right to see that information; it’s public information. We can provide you with a way to do that; we don’t want your personal information, we could care less…we have a right. Will you provide that?”
“That’s for the courts to decide,” Falcoff said.
Stevens and Yetter were not the only ones firing broadsides at the supervisors. One by one, other residents — some attending for the first time — began to rise from their seats to levy questions on the issue.
“Did you check out the credentials [of the auditor]?” resident Joe Duffy asked,” And the second part of that is, if you did, then why is this guy so mysterious?”
“I don’t know if we did or we didn’t,” Falcoff declared, also stating that he too is mystified at the CPA’s disappearance.
Stevens rose again to ask why the Board why they accepted unsigned documents from the auditor, to which Falcoff replied that he didn’t have an answer.
“This is the first meeting I’ve ever come to,” resident Mike Meacham stated, voicing himself over the crossfire of micro-debates erupting throughout the room, “The reason I came to it is because there are some questions about funds being mismanaged, and as we hear, we don’t seem to be getting direct answers; and so we’re wondering, is somebody hiding something? What’s going on here…I moved here from Los Angeles where you guys would be laughed out of the county if any of this gets in the press…this is a joke. What’s happening to the money? Our money? That’s all we want to know”
After an eruption of conversation, the Chairman called the room to order to address the concerns of the crowd as a whole.
“The question here seems to be why wasn’t the audit signed and what happened to the auditor…I can’t answer both of those questions,” Falcoff said, “As far as the money management goes in this township, we are one of the few townships around with a surplus…the money has been pretty well managed here.”
Despite this conclusion, many residents were still unsatisfied and many still left the township building with unanswered questions when the smoke cleared.
The resolution of the situation now seems to be in the hands of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas, where both the Township and Stevens will contend over the complete disclosure the records.
To learn more about the history of the audit, see https://kennetttimes.com/?p=1479
Once again Scudder contadicts himself. On his website he claims the township has ignored it’s mandate to preserve open space, yet here acknowledges the supervisors supported the state line woods. Which is it Mr. Stevens. He also fails to mention the arnold property which does border Kate duPont and is very close to his pr
You KNOW what the truth is, Tom; you just don’t tell it. No expenditures of open space funds since 2007, or early 2008, committed in 2007. NOTHING. A disgrace. And how much money has been collected by the Supervisors thereafter, including the millions for open space, that are sitting in bank accounts in two local banks. 11.4 million! When are they going to begin to spend it? Or use it to reduce taxes? Or do something, ANYTHING, constructive with it?
Incidentally, Tom, I note that you and Mike Elling were the first to conserve real estate in the Township, YOUR properties. And like all the conservations done in the Township, they were done secretly, and by the Supervisors, using State, County and Township money; only 40% of the money came from the Township, however. Any other facts you’d like to add to this disclosure? Are you yet ready to come out from behind your anonymity and acknowledge that you are Tom Nale? Or do you prefer to be able to snipe from the shadows? Sad.
Scudder
The reporter fails to mention that the auditor announced he was retiring last spring. That’s why he can’t be found by his business name. This is just another witch hunt by the land trust group and friends. This group has taken the land trust and the 10 million dollar investment it represents and left town. That’s what should really upset residents. Elected auditors worked just fine until the land trust group made a big stink about that 4 years ago. The land trust group is the biggest bunch of hypocrates in this township. Just look where the millions of open space taxes were spent from 2004 to 2006 . It all surrounds Scudder Stevens and Kate duPont, the land trust chairperson. Scudder doesn’t mention this. So much for transparency.
As usual, Truthsayer pronounces falsehood! s/he doesn’t point out that the accountant’s credentials were not checked by the Supervisors, that the Supervisors don’t know what the State requires in an audit, and can’t explain why they accepted those documents unsigned. The fact is that everything about those audits, and how they were procured, is in violation of State law, a fact not denied by the Supervisors. Everything about those audits screams out “Sham and Fraud”! The mysterious disappearance of the accountant and his business, now, only adds more strength to that conclusion – how convenient! The fact is that 97 residents petitioned for a paid audit in ’03, which request was ignored by the Supervisors. In ’07 the elected auditors urged the Supervisors to hire a professional to do the job. Two years later the Supervisors supposedly acted, to generate these two audits. The need for a professional audit was acknowledged by a wide spread segment of the community, including the elected auditors. It was not a “witch hunt”.
State Line Woods abuts a small portion of my property and none of Kate duPont’s property. The purchase of State Line Woods was supported by a broad spectrum of residents throughout the Township, including the Supervisors, and is a fantastic enhancement to the quality of life in the Township. While I, also, supported its procurement, I was not involved in any of the process and had nothing to do with its completion. Nevertheless, like the other residents of the Township, I am blessed that it exists, for which I thank the Land Trust for its wisdom and efforts in this preservation effort.
Scudder G. Stevens