By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
UNITY — A forensic audit of the Unity Free Library identified a number of serious deficiencies in the facility’s recordkeeping and accounting methods, which have resulted in missing financial records, an inattention to state statutes regarding fiscal reporting, and numerous expenditures and bank transactions whose authorization and purpose remain unknown.
Approximately 50 Unity residents attended a public meeting on Saturday to discuss an ongoing forensic audit of the Unity Free Library. In July 2021, the Unity Selectboard and Unity Free Library Board of Trustees contracted Jeffrey Graham, an auditor from Graham and Veroff, an accounting firm based in Springfield, Vermont, to investigate the library’s financial operations dating back to 2018.
The selectboard and trustees authorized the forensic audit over concerns about the library’s management under former library treasurer and board chair Gordon Brann.
A central concern to the joint boards was the learning in early 2021 that Brann had been reserving the library’s unspent budget surpluses, which by state law were supposed to be returned to the taxpayers at the end of the fiscal year.
Those surpluses, which were reserved in the library’s bank accounts, totaled $43,735 at the end of 2020, Graham said.
According to Graham, these surpluses were not included in the library’s annual audits until the end 2020, which led to the selectboard learning of the issue.
Graham also reported that a large volume of records pertaining to authorizations of bank transactions, expenditures, and purchase explanations are either missing or nonexistent.
Auditors found that “over 36 percent of the examined disbursements paid by the library did not have any supporting documents,” such as receipts or stated reasons for the purchase, Graham said.
“To auditors that is a fairly big number,” Graham said. “That’s a material problem to the transactions being looked at by anyone from the outside.”
According to Graham, Brann regularly transferred $450 per month into a petty cash debit card account, which was used by the library director.
Other than the bank statements that show the debit account activity, few of those expenditures have an invoice and there are no records showing the board’s prior authorization or stated reasons for the purchases, Graham said.
“As to whether they were inappropriate or not, there is no detail into the background to know [the answer],” Graham said. “That’s part of the problem.”
Auditors also found an unauthorized withdrawal of $500 from the account in December 2020. According to Graham, the library director said it was a bank error though Graham found no records to show that the bank had corrected the error.
A deposit of $500 in January 2021 was made to restore the balance though the records do not indicate if this was the same money that had previously been withdrawn, Graham stated.
The main takeaway, Graham said, is that the library has failed to manage its finances in accordance with state law, which requires that all receipts, expenditures and unexpended balances are annually reported. The treasurer conducted many bank activities, including locking other trustees from the accounts, without records showing authorization by a majority vote of the trustees.
In addition all library records are required by law to be kept either in the library or in the town offices. According to Graham, the actual records found in those buildings were only a fraction of what there should have been.
“For the entire year of 2020, all of the documents that I have could fit between my fingers and thumb,” Graham said. “That’s probably 10 to 15 percent of all the documents that exist.”
But the town’s effort to access those missing records has proven costly and unsuccessful so far, officials said.
While Brann claims not to have any of the requested records, Graham contended that he believes Brann either has them or knows who possesses them.
The library trustees filed a Writ of Mandamus in September to seek a court-authorization to search Brann’s property. In November Sullivan County Supreme Court Justice Brian Tucker denied the request, saying that the court cannot compel Brann to turn over documents that he denies possessing.
Town Attorney Michael Courtney said the town has filed a new court petition to order Brann to pay the library’s legal costs to pursue the Writ of Mandamus.
Acquiring the library’s missing invoices and receipts would require the town to file a separate suit to order those individual retail companies to turn over their records, according to Courtney.
“And that’s a question of whether we have the time to do that or if that’s financially feasible,” Courtney said.
To date the library has been billed $29,980 in total invoices for services tied to the audit, including $24,221 to Graham and Veroff for the forensic audit and $5,759 in legal fees, which the library hopes the court will order Brann to reimburse.
The library has paid $14,742 so far to Graham and Veroff and $1,059 to legal firm Upton and Hatfield, totaling $15,801.50.
The Eagle Times wishes to correct a statement from a previous article, published on Dec. 18, 2021, titled “Unity Library racks up $56K in legal fees.” The article stated that the library’s payments included “$27,902.79 in legal fees to Upton & Hatfield,” which was documented in the draft minutes of the library trustees meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. However, those minutes were not officially approved and Trustee Sally Teague denied making that statement during the meeting. The Eagle Times also received copies of the library’s bank statements during the affected time period and found no evidence of any withdrawal or payment of that amount.
Unity resident Mark Kirk questioned whether the total cost of this inquiry has exceeded the amount of money in question.
“Are we talking about a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars, or tens of thousands of dollars?” Kirk asked. “Because unless it’s a big number, just from my perspective, it’s not money well spent.”
Graham explained that the town would have a fiduciary duty under state law to report inappropriate expenditures, regardless of their amount, and to correct their system to prevent future fraud or misuse.
Graham also acknowledged that pursuing a hypothetically small amount such as $50 may not be money well spent. But in the case of Unity Free Library, in which there have been numerous expenditures and transactions without receipts or supporting records, the confirmation of one misappropriation could likely indicate that many occurred over multiple years, which could mean a significant amount.
Selectman Edward Gregory denied accusations from library supporters that the selectboard’s motive is to permanently close the library.
“The Board of Selectmen are not opposed to opening the library back up again,” Gregory said. “But let’s not go down the same track.”
Gregory said the logical approach is to wait until after the town elections in March, which will include the election of one library trustee seat. Gregory said he would like the new board of trustees to work with the selectboard in that reopening plan, which will require the hire of a new library director.
Gregory said he “will take full responsibility” for the library’s closure, since he raised the motion on July 15, 2021, to close the library until the completion of a forensic audit.
Initially that closure was only meant to last two weeks to allow library officials time to gather their records for the audit, Gregory said. However, officials extended the library’s closure as the conflict with Brann over the records escalated.
“I want accountability,” Gregory said. “We need to stop and regroup.”
Brann did not attend the meeting on Saturday following the counsel of his attorney, Melanie Bell.
Bell told the Eagle Times on Friday that the town has not responded to Bell’s Right-to-Know request for a copy of Graham’s audit report, which Bell said her clients should be able to see prior to a meeting being hosted by the selectboard.
Bell’s other client, former trustee-alternate Deborah Leahy, also filed a Right-to-Know request for the audit report on Dec. 21 but was told the town would not fill the request until Jan. 28.
“There is no way they are attending this meeting without being provided this information,” Bell said. “It isn’t because they are disinterested or hiding.”
reporter @eagletimes.com
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