By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Despite having agreed to a review of its financial procedures late last year, the North Syracuse Volunteer Fireman’s Association is trying to shut the village out of the process.
However, the association still wants the village to pay for the audit, Mayor Gary Butterfield said at the Aug. 11 meeting of the board of trustees.
“The Fireman’s Association doesn’t want the village to be named in the audit and they don’t really want us to have a copy to keep,” Butterfield said.
In March, the board voted to enter into an agreement with the Bonadio Group for $3,000 for a partial audit of the NSVFA, which is a support organization for the North Syracuse Fire Department and receives money from the village. At the March 24 meeting, Clerk/Treasurer Dianne Kufel said the review would seek to reconcile 40 randomly selected checks over $500 in monthly payments with bank statements. The review also would examine two months from the association’s receipt log.
The NSFVA had provided the village board with a 2013 audit but agreed to a new independent review to see if the association had implemented recommendations from the 2013 report.
“As of 2016, our insurance carrier has not been notified that they did some of these things,” Butterfield said of the 2013 recommendations.
The new review was to have been done by Sept. 1, which Trustee Diane Browning noted is about two weeks away.
“It’s getting very uncomfortable,” Kufel said of her recent conversations with the Bonadio Group.
“I guess we need to contact the chairman of the board of directors that’s been contacting Bonadio,” Butterfield said.
Browning noted that neither the North Syracuse Fire Department nor the Fireman’s Association had sent a representative to the Aug. 11 board meeting.
Village attorney Scott Chatfield said he was “frankly troubled” by the NSVFA’s reluctance to let the village in on the audit process and said the exclusion of the village while using its funds for the review could be illegal.
“If the village has no interest in the services provided in the contract [with the Bonadio Group], then that becomes an illegal gift of public funds,” Chatfield said. “The amount of pushback we’re getting makes my antennae tingle. My antennae weren’t tingling before.”
Also on the agenda
In addition to the Fireman’s Association review, the board also discussed the following items at its Aug. 11 meeting:
• Paving restrictions: Since last year, the village board has contemplated limiting how much of the front yard residents may pave, but the proposed legislation seems to be dead in the water. A poll on the village website showed that 62 percent of respondents were against the proposed restrictions and Chatfield said enforcement would be difficult. The board wanted to prevent residents from parking multiple vehicles on their front lawns.
“My thought is maybe we would approach [repeat offenders] with a letter rather than new law that might not be enforceable anyway,” Butterfield said.
“I think that we have enough local laws on the books,” said Trustee Chuck Henry. “If we try to legislate any more, we might scare people away.”
“The majority of the people in the village take pride in their property, and the ones who don’t should be dealt with on an individual basis,” said Trustee Pat Gustafson.
• Sanitary sewer grant: The village is eligible for grant money to make improvements to its sanitary sewers and runoff management as part of the Chestnut Street and Route 11 projects. Deputy Mayor Fred Fergerson said the area in front of St. Rose of Lima Church often floods. Fergerson, who is president and owner of Fergerson Funeral Home, said funeralgoers and churchgoers use the space for handicapped and overflow parking. The grant can be used to install pervious pavement, which allows water to drain. The board voted to delegate the project decision to Butterfield and Fergerson.
