Auditor complains

MILAN — State auditor Keith Faber continues refusing to release information about the actual total losses the village of Milan suffered as a result of unlawful payments to employees. State Auditor Keith Faber was a guest on "Between the Lines" on Sept. 28, 2017. Faber, on Sunday, sent a letter to the editor complaining about news coverage of the audit totals. He sidestepped questions and, instead, rehashed information from years ago about former fiscal officer Mary Bruno. Bruno was among the first local residents who told the auditors about the unlawful payroll payments. Faber acknowledged that but still sought to disparage her in his letter to the editor. Faber said in 2016, before he became auditor, that Bruno was investigated by the auditor's office, which found she "received $2,979 in pay for hours she did not work during three consecutive pay periods." Bruno, however, contends the information Faber provided in the letter to the editor is inaccurate and that she was cleared in a criminal investigation. Faber has not been updated with accurate information, she said. "I did not pay myself for hours I did not work. I was paid for every hour I did work," she said. "It was not three pay periods. It was one. I was not working regular hours. I was on sick leave with cancer doing my job that no one else was able to do." A forensic examination of her laptop computer confirmed she was working during the hours she claimed to be working on her timecard, according to a report from the investigation. "During the examination, I noted that during the timeframe from Nov. 7, 2016, to Dec. 2, 2016, Mary Bruno was actively using the computer for work purposes. Emails, documents and internet activity including online banking for the village were located," the report states. Bruno, who filed a formal appeal of the auditor's finding For recovery, has not paid it because it's in dispute, she said. Keep moving Faber, who has refused to grant an interview to reporters, complained in his letter to the editor that Bruno and others won't accept the explanations the auditor's office has provided for discrepancies in the audit. But Bruno said there are good reasons not to accept those rationales. The auditor won't release the records and won't even state what the actual losses are, she said, calling it information the public has a right to know. The audit for the 2020-21 period was posted in April and shows less than $850 was misspent, giving regular hours, sick time, vacation and holiday pay to employees for hours they did not work or had not earned. The auditors issued eight findings For recovery in the audit. Employees paid back the money. But, according to internal documents that Bruno made public records requests for and received them from the auditor's office, numerous other time card issues were reviewed by auditors. It was determined that, despite irregularities, no findings for recovery would be issued for those instances. According to an email among auditors that Bruno received, through a records request, states employees received additional comp time or time off for employees working overtime and where sick leave counted as hours worked. "Village policies were either silent or ambiguous," the email states. "I don't believe we ever determined how we were going to treat them." Neither Faber nor anyone else in the auditor's office will provide information as to how the auditors justified not issuing those additional Findings for Recovery. Bruno said the auditors' workpapers she received from the auditor's office in response to public records requests show that other violations occurred and the total amount for those could be about $20,000 in improper payments. The exact amount cannot be determined from the records released by the auditor, and he refuses to release other records that might show actual totals. If her estimates are correct, it puts the total loss for village taxpayers at about $29,000, including a $9,000 fee the auditor's office charged the village for hours staff worked on the audit. Double standard? Faber, in his letter to the editor, acknowledged that "several findings regarding poor controls and weak fiscal management, including some that lead to findings For recovery, as in Bruno's case, we did not find any conduct that the audit team would recommend criminal prosecution." The auditor's office has refused to release information or answer specific questions about the audit's findings for the losses that have not been fully disclosed, citing attorney/client privilege. Faber was asked again Monday to disclose the actual amount in losses, but he declined. Bruno, the fiscal officer at the time, said she was accused of wrongdoing in 2016 after she refused to remove a person's name from a list of people with tax delinquencies, a relative of the mayor at the time. She is the only village employee to have been criminally investigated after village police Chief Bob Meister made repeated calls to an auditor's tip line accusing her. Meister accused Bruno despite also asking the Erie County sheriff to conduct an independent investigation, citing the potential conflict with the village chief investigating the village fiscal officer. Bruno was cleared in the sheriff's investigation. Faber, nor anyone else at the auditor's office, could say how the circumstances for Bruno back then, and for the other village employees now are the same or different, or why Bruno was subject to a criminal investigation and no such investigation was requested this time.