By Sarah Hall

Editor

The Onondaga County Comptroller found little of concern in a recent audit of the town of Cicero tax receiver’s office, according to a report issued last week.

Comptroller Robert Antonacci’s only recommendations concerned the improvement of certain procedures regarding cash and wire transfers. Otherwise, he said he was pleased with the results.

“Cicero should be proud of their public servants,” Antonacci said. “Former Tax  Receiver  Sharon  Edick  and  Town  Supervisor Mark Venesky,  along with the rest of the town employees, are doing an excellent job.”

The audit was requested by retiring Tax Receiver Sharon Edick, who, according to the report, wanted to “ensure the established internal controls are operating effectively and in accordance with applicable New York state laws.” Edick retired at the end of April; she was replaced by Nicole Walsh, who was previously employed as the administrative assistant to Republican Onondaga County Board of Elections Commissioner Helen Kiggins Walsh.

The Cicero tax receiver’s office is responsible for collecting tax payments for the following municipal agencies:

• Town of Cicero/Onondaga County (from January to March)
• Village of North Syracuse (from June to October)
• North Syracuse Central School District (September and October)
• Central Square Central School District (September and October)
• East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District (September and October)
• Chittenango Central School District (September and October)

The department has two full-time employees throughout the year and an additional two part-time employees during tax collection months.

Current procedures are as follows: Once taxes are collected, the town posts them using a statewide computer system called Integrated, then uses another software system to reconcile their bank payments. Money is first deposited into an interest-bearing checking account, the transferred to the taxing entity’s account. That’s where the comptroller found a minor issue: According to Cicero town law, payments collected are to be remitted to Onondaga County by wire transfer within 15 days of receipt. In two instances over the last five years, the electronic wire transfers were past the required date. Antonacci’s report included a recommendation to firm up procedures so that such oversights don’t happen again.

The only other recommendation in the report involved cash transfers between departments. Other town employees would often bring cash in unlockable bags to the tax receiver’s office and sign a log indicating they’d been left there. However, no one counted the cash in the bags. The same was true when the town’s courier picked up the bags for bank deposits.

“This practice has the potential of placing employees in a difficult situation,” the report noted. “If the cash that was included in the bank bag does not balance to the detailed records maintained in these other departments, the receiver of taxes can be held liable.”

As such, the comptroller advised that any cash transferred between departments or to a courier be counted in the presence of the individual accepting the cash and the amount detailed on the log sheet. He also advised the town purchase additional lockable bank bags.

Town of Cicero Supervisor said the recommendations were “nothing to lose sleep over.”

“It was good,” Venesky said. “It was a clean audit, as I expected it to be.”

Ashley M. Casey contributed to the reporting for this story.