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QUEENSBURY----The State Police barracks on Aviation Road in Queensbury has furniture and equipment.
But where'd they come from?
A highly reliable and knowledgeable source of The North Country Gazette says that when Warren county's new public safety building opened in October, 2004, that Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland gave the state police the old furnishings and equipment from the former quarters of the sheriff's department.
But the administrator of the Warren County Board of Supervisors doesn't have any knowledge of such a "gift", officials of the Town of Queensbury say they didn't furnish the police station and the New York State Police say they have no records pertaining to the acquisition of furnishings for the Queensbury station.
And Cleveland refuses to respond to Freedom of Information Law requests.
Based on the findings of an audit of the sheriff's department by the state Comptroller's office, released in October, The North Country Gazette has asked the state comptroller's office and state Division of Criminal Justice Services to look into the matter as if such transfer of furniture occurred, it could be an unconstitutional gift and alleged misuse of county tax dollars without authorization.
State auditors found that nearly $165,000 of telephone commissions from the county's jail were improperly used to furnish Cleveland's office in the new public safety building and without formal approval by the board of supervisors, in non-conformance with the county's adopted budgeted, purchasing and accounting procedures.
The audit found that Cleveland improperly used the telephone commission money and circumvented a system of controls in place to prevent such unauthorized spending. Auditors said that there was no legal authority for Cleveland to use the commission monies as he did.
So far, none of the public entities involved can explain where the furniture and furnishings came from that are in the state police station.
Although all of the other state police barracks in the area such as Chestertown, Bolton and Wilton as well as those in Washington County are maintained by the state, usually leased from private owners, Queensbury taxpayers own and maintain the Queensbury station.
However, contacted last week, an employee of the Queensbury town clerk's office said that while the town owns the land and building, they do not furnish the building and have no records on hand for how the furnishings and equipment at the station were obtained.
In addition for providing police protection to the town in addition to the Warren County Sheriff's Department, the State Police receives only $5,000 from the town and in return, the town provides the land, building, pays the electric bills, maintains the grounds and performs building maintenance.
Joan Parsons, administrator and clerk of the board of supervisors, said that legally the county could not gift furnishings from the former sheriff's quarters, that any surplus equipment would have to be offered to the public through legal notices and there is no record of such occurring. She said that to the best of her knowledge, the old furnishings left behind by Cleveland would have remained for the next tenants of the space which she says is now occupied by the probation department, public defender and legal aid office. She says there has been no board resolution authorizing the gift or sale of furnishings or equipment to the state police and suggested that Cleveland be contacted for information concerning the disposition of the old furniture.
The State Police are being mum about how they obtained the equipment which visitors say appears to be "used". In response to a Freedom of Information Law request, SP administrative officer William Callahan says that "after having a diligent search of our files conducted, there are no records responsive" to a request for records pertaining to office furniture and equipment from the sheriff's department to the state police.
Despite several requests to the state police for copies of vouchers relating to the procurement of furnishings for the station, to date there has been no response.
Cleveland also refuses to respond to a request for information.
However, the newspaper's sources, one of whom is intimately familiar with sheriff department operations, insists that Cleveland allegedly gave taxpayer-owned furnishings to the state police without proper authorization and without following the proper procedure---but then according to the state comptroller's office, he didn't follow the law and county policy in the use of pay phone commissions to furnish his new office.
The state comptroller determined that Cleveland and the sheriff's department lacked accountability over cash balances in their civil office division---including bail money----and fails to comply with county budgetary accounting and purchasing policies in the corrections division.
According to the audit, it appears that Cleveland had been improperly handling the monies from the telephone commissions, ranging from approximately $40,000 to $50,000 per year, for about five years.
In 2004, the department spent $164,193 in telephone commission bank account moneys to furnish Cleveland's office in a newly constructed facility that became home to virtually all of the department's divisions.
"We verified that the purchases, which included office and jail furniture, copiers and dental equipment for the jail, were for legitimate county purposes. We noted that certain of these purchases were made under the terms of the New York State Procurement Contract and others were made after obtaining quotes from vendors", the audit says. "Furthermore, the purchases were discussed by the sheriff's committee of the board of supervisors. However, there was no formal budgeting for the use of these funds in the county's adopted budget. Neither the receipt nor expenditure of the moneys was processed in conformance with the county's adopted budgeting, purchasing and accounting procedures".
The sheriff's department is generally subject to the same fiscal and budgetary controls that govern other county administrative units. These include the requirement that the county treasurer receives, and is custodian of county moneys; that no expenditure may be made without a budget appropriation and that claims against the county must be audited and approved before they're paid. 'We are not aware of any statute that would authorize a sheriff to establish a separate account for, and maintain custody of, income from inmate telephones. The commissary fund is specifically established to hold and account for the profits from the commissary sales, the comptroller's office said.
Failure to properly account for the receipt and expenditure of public moneys in accordance with established laws and guidelines increases the risk that errors and irregularities will occur, the comptroller's office said. It circumvents a system of controls established to help assure the prudent use of public moneys and acquisition of quality goods and services at lowest possible cost, the audit said.
Since being caught by the state, Cleveland has remitted the balance remaining in the telephone commission account to the county treasurer and agreed to remit all future commission to the treasurer's office on a regular basis, the comptroller's office said.
Although the audit was highly critical of the sheriff's department and in particular Cleveland for the alleged mishandling of money and lack of accountability, to date the daily newspaper, The Post-Star, has failed to report the issue. 1-1-06
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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