Report Finds that Mount Vernon Comptroller is Trying to Hide City Finances

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Feb. 25, 2019

MOUNT VERNON — City Inspector General Charles Knapp issued a report today on city Comptroller Deborah Reynolds’ failure to pay the city’s bills and her efforts to hide the city’s finances from her fellow elected officials.

Knapp’s findings of improper or unauthorized conduct include:

• Reynolds’ attempt to move the city’s finances from a computer-based record-keeping system to a paper-voucher-based system that will prevent other city officials from monitoring how or if bills are being paid.
• Reynolds’ attempt to move the city’s computer-based record-keeping system to a cloud-based platform where only she would have access and signing a six-figure contract for the migration without knowledge or approval from the City Council or the Board of Estimate and Contract.

“The Charter has not created an independent Finance Department that the Comptroller may treat as her personal fiefdom and from which she can exclude what she may consider the Mayor’s prying eyes,” Knapp stated in his report. “Nor does the Charter contemplate the Comptroller exercising an executive control within the Finance Department that parallels or bypasses functions specifically entrusted to the Mayor, such as the power to contract or counter-sign checks. (Section 65) Nor does the Charter exempt the Comptroller from following rules and ordinances, such as those regulating the bidding and procurement process.”

Mount Vernon Management Services Commissioner Brett Erasmus, who has monitored Reynolds nonpayment of bills since the summer, has been a target of Reynolds’ efforts to prevent him from reviewing city finance records.

On Feb. 14 he wrote to Mayor Richard Thomas warning about a lack of financial reporting by the Comptroller’s Office, the 2019 budget and changes to purchasing procedures, among other serious issues.

“After Management Services was falsely accused by the Comptroller of having somehow prevented her office from using the city’s information systems in order to pay the city’s bills, I feel vindicated by the Inspector General’s report and I’m pleased that we have arrived at the same conclusions independently,” said Erasmus.

Over several months, Reynolds’ failure to pay the city’s bills or release money for sewer repairs and the renovation of Memorial Field has threatened the city’s finances. The city faces fines by state and federal agencies for inaction on the sewers and Memorial Field.

The city’s economy has also been hurt by Reynolds’ inaction because local vendors that provided services to the city have gone unpaid for months.

A copy of Knapp’s report is posted at: http://cmvny.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IG.Report.02-25-19.pdf

A copy of Erasmus’ letter is posted at: http://cmvny.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Attachment_2G.pdf