Auditor sends out letters about recovery

The mayor said he told the auditor in 2004 that he and others were being overpaid.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- Certified letters from the state auditor have been sent to between 25 and 30 current and former salaried city employees saying that "possible" findings for recovery may be issued against them for being overpaid in 2003 and 2004.
Mayor Daniel C. Mamula, who received one of the letters, said that if the findings are issued they could have far-reaching consequences for the city beyond the individuals' having to repay the money.
Auditor Tina Morell confirmed that she received copies of the certified letters sent to the individuals, but said she could not discuss details until after the state audit is made public.
In Mamula's case, the amount he was overpaid for the two years, according to the state auditor, was $972.68. Mamula and city Law Director Carol Clemente Wagner discussed the issue Wednesday following a city council meeting.
The mayor said he told Morell early in 2004 that he was being overpaid, and wrote letters to her in 2005 again stating the problem and noting it had not been corrected.
In a report to council dated June 8, 2005, Wagner said the state auditor had directed the city to proceed with the correction of the pay and collection of overpayments.
However, she said Morell refused to reduce the employees' pay for the remainder of the year to recover the overpayments until the state auditor instructed her to do so.
At the time, the state auditor said that if the city had a process in place to fix the problem before they arrived in June 2005 to begin the regular audit for 2003 and 2004, there most likely would not be a problem, Wagner said.
Damaging ramifications
But, because the problem was not fixed, and the overpayments continued, not only will some employees be faced with coming up with hundreds of dollars to repay the city, the city faces potentially damaging ramifications.
For instance, in the letter Mamula received, the state auditor said that a person against whom an unresolved finding for recovery has been issued is "precluded from receiving, from a state agency or political subdivision, a contract for goods, services, or construction, paid for in whole or in part with state funds."
"That scares the hell out of me," Mamula said. Translated, he said, it means that all of the money the city receives from the state, such as grants, could be frozen.
This snafu also has ramifications for payroll deductions such as Public Employees Retirement System, Medicare, and income taxes, said Wagner. "How do we resolve that? How do we make these people whole?" she asked.
Mamula said he is frustrated because it never had to come to this.
The mayor admitted that he and Morell are political adversaries, but he said that doesn't mean they should not communicate and work together for the good of the city.
Previously Morell said there might be findings for recovery for overpaying employees, but she said she had been instructed to do nothing until the audit was completed and released.
She blamed the pay system that Struthers used, which included "lag" pay in January for money earned the previous year.
However, the former auditor, Mary Ellen Jones, said in a letter to Morell that there had never been a finding for recovery while she [Jones] was in office, nor since the council ordinance establishing the pay system passed in 1974.
Mamula believes it may be as simple as Morell's failing to encumber the money for the "lag" pay in the year it was earned. That would have made everything come out right and provided a paper trail for the state auditors, he said.