IT'S YOUR MONEY TAXPAYERS - BUT, THE MT. PLEASANT SCHOOL BOARD HAS NO PROBLEM WASTING IT!

The New York State Comptroller's Office periodically audits all School Districts.  Accordingly, the Mount Pleasant Central School District was audited and the Comptroller's Office generated a Report of its findings (2009M-131).  Here are some of the highlights of that report:

• "District management has not provided sufficient oversight to ensure that internal controls were operating effectively.  As a result, we (NYS Comptroller's Office - NYSCO) found weaknesses in the District's internal controls over purchasing, credit cards and information technology." (Found on Page 3 of the Report)
• "The District did not have an adequate purchasing policy.  The policy did not specify when the various forms of competition would be used.  We (NYSCO) found that District officials did not seek competition for services provided by seven vendors, who provided services such as electrical, cleaning, advertising, uniform maintenance, chair rental, public relations and plumbing and were paid a total of $365,143.  As a result, District officials cannot be assured that they are obtaining goods and services of the desired quality at favorable terms." (Found on pages 3 & 4 of the report)
• "District officials did not establish an adequate control environment and did not design or implement internal controls over gasoline credit cards, store credit cards and lines of credit.  The former and current Business Administrators established credit accounts and allowed employees to do the same without Board authorization.  In addition, credit card claims were processed and paid without proper documentation.  As a result, the District paid approximately $253,596 for purchases which may not all have been for legitimate District purposes." (Found on page 4 of the report)
• Re: Purchasing - "Purchasing policies and procedures are an important component of the District's internal control system.  An adequate purchasing policy helps ensure that the District obtains the best services and materials at the lowest possible price, in compliance with all applicable Board and legal requirements; helps guard against favoritism, extravagance, and fraud; and helps foster honest competition.  This process helps ensure that taxpayer dollars are expended in the most prudent manner." (found on page 7 of the report)
• "General Municipal Law (GML) requires school districts to competitively bid purchases over $10,000 and public works contracts over $20,000." (found on page 9 of the report)   The District violates this Law on a regular basis.
• "Five former employees who left the District from three months to 11 years prior to our (NYSCO) audit period were still listed as authorized users on one of the credit card accounts.  ... We (NYSCO) identified two charges ... attributed to one of the five employees after he retired in June, 2008." (found on page 10 of the report)
• Re:  Gas purchases/credit cards - "... one employee purchased gas two or more times a day on 29 occasions.  On many occasions purchases were made within minutes of each other. ... the District did not have a system to monitor and reconcile gas purchases."  "... there is an increased risk that the purchases made by these employees were not for District purposes."(found on page 10 of the report)
• "The claims auditor did not perform a proper review of claims. ... As a result, District officials do not have adequate assurance that the $253,596 paid for credit card and credit line and gas credit purchases were for legitimate District purposes." (found on page 12 of the report) 
• "Inadequate claims review, the lack of proper documentation, and improper record keeping put the District at risk of making payments for purchases that are not authorized, such as credit card purchases, over payments to vendors and payment for items that are not legitimate District purposes." (found on page 12 of the report)

NOTE:  A formal criminal complaint (Case # PI2009-0290) was filed with the Westchester County District Attorney's Office related to the misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars by District officials and staff, as cited above.  The case was closed after about a month because neither Superintendent Guiney, nor the School Board would press charges against those involved.  That is a curious response from the District Administration when so much money was involved.  No one was ever reprimanded and the money was never recovered.  The School Board apparently didn't care enough about this matter to follow through and pursue the complaint and as a result, the taxpayers take a huge loss.  Assistant District Attorney Brian Conway was assigned to this case - if anyone would like to call him and ask why this case was never fully investigated and, why no one was prosecuted, he can be reached at (914) 995-3562.  Also, Sergeant Artie Romaine was the local law enforcement official involved in looking into this matter - call him and ask why more effort was not put in, in trying to recover the PEOPLE's money.  His number is (914) 842-2386, or, (914) 879-1014.

As you can see from the information provided in the NYS Comptroller's Report, the School District and the School Board have been and continue to be extremely careless in spending your hard earned tax dollars.  There appears to be no accountability or oversight and District officials and employees spend your money however they choose.  Considering these facts, it makes the recent Bond requests that were proposed by the Administration and the School Board that much more ludicrous and totally unnecessary.  This District needs to be a better steward of the taxpayer dollar.  However, it does not appear that the current group in power - Superintendent Guiney and the School Board have any interest in better managing District funds.  There is only one way to cure that problem and that is to remove those who have so recklessly spent YOUR money. 

On Tuesday, May 19th, vote out those who have squandered your tax dollars.  Send a clear message to this School Administration that the PEOPLE will no longer accept this mismanagement of public funds.  Vote NO on the Budget, and tell the District "to go back to the drawing board" and come back with a legitimate budget that does not continue to waste residents money.

If we want to stop the careless and irresponsible spending of this School Board, we need new faces, who have not been corrupted by the system.  Vote for the two candidates who will bring fiscal responsibility and integrity to the Mt. Pleasant School Board - Cathy Tully and Peter Peale.