Housing authority awards secruity contract
The Fayette County Housing Authority board voted Thursday to award a $40,000 contract to the Uniontown Police Department to conduct patrols at its properties in the city. Under the contract, city police will provide additional patrols at East View Terrace, White Swan Apartments, Marshall Manor, J. Watson Sembower Terrace and other scattered sites.
Authority executive director Thomas L. Harkless said that officers will actually walk through the elderly apartment complexes at White Swan and Marshall Manor.
Board solicitor Jack Purcell noted that there have been increasing problems in the elderly complexes.
While other municipalities have contracted with the authority in the past, Harkless said this is the first time Uniontown will be doing so.
Harkless said there was discussion about Uniontown police patrolling Crossland Terrace and Bierer Wood Acres, too, but there was an issue because those housing projects are in South Union Township. The township is under the coverage area of the state police.
“With summer right here, we feel this is the right time to do this,” Harkless said.
“It’s a good service,” said board treasurer Beverly Beal.
Beal, board vice-chairman Ernest DeBlasio, assistant treasurer Robert Onesko and secretary Nancy Sutton all voted in favor of the motion.
Board chairman Harry Fike abstained in the vote because he said his brother, Ed Fike, is the city’s mayor.
The contract starts June 1, and runs through May 31, 2009, and provides for a one-year option to renew it, based on money being available.
After much discussion during the meeting, the majority of the board voted to hire a Philadelphia-based financial consulting firm for a period of one year, with an option to renew the contract for two one-year periods.
Asher & Company Ltd. will work with the authority on an as-needed basis, and the one-year contract will cover the fiscal year-end closing. While the fiscal year ends on June 30, it takes several months to complete the necessary accounting paperwork to submit to the federal government.
New rules and regulations could extend that completion time, said Brian Alten, a senior manager with Asher & Company.
The firm, Alten said, does a lot of work with housing authorities across the country, and is familiar with the ins and outs of the complex financial rules that govern authorities.
Asher has been working with the authority since last year when an audit revealed the authority’s former financial consultants did not keep proper records.
HJ Financial Group handled the housing authority’s books for more than four months after the authority’s finance director left her position last year.
At last month’s meeting, an auditor who reviewed the authority’s financial records for the 2006-2007 fiscal year indicated that there were “significant problems” with them.
Jamie Dinsmore, an auditor with McClure & Wolf, said in April that the situation worsened after former finance director Sonya Over’s departure in April 2007 because no one took over for months and no one was available at the authority to oversee the fee accountants from HJ Financial Group. The new finance director, Steve Middleton, later took over and helped to clear up the records.
As part of an action plan to handle the deficiency, Dinsmore said his firm is recommending that the policy and procedure manual be updated so employees other than the director are aware of what needs to be handled so the accounting functions get done. Dinsmore said other recommendations include looking at qualifications of fee accountants.
Dinsmore said inexperienced people, employed through HJ Financial were sent to work with the authority. As an example, he said a month’s worth of tenant rents were not posted to the computer’s general ledger. He said a recommendation to counter this type of problem is to cross-train people in the business department.
Dinsmore said the deficiency was a result of circumstances that included a loss of the former controller, the time it took to get the position filled and the fact that the people who were being relied on didn’t get the job done.
Harkless said controls and procedures have been put in place since the audit was completed.
The authority was ultimately reimbursed $13,000 for 150 hours of improper work done through HJ Financial.
“Thirteen thousand (dollars) is nothing compared to what we paid out to them, and then to get a bad report,” Beal said of HJ Financial. Beal previously has said that the firm was paid nearly $194,000 from May 2007 through March.
Alten said that will not happen under Asher’s watch.
He also addressed concerns that Asher has taken over PHA Finance, which is a part of HJ Financial Group. Alten told the board that Asher bought the brand of PHA Finance, but assured the board that none of the accountants responsible for what occurred at the housing authority would be working with them again.
The Asher contract would have expired at the end of this month. Beal initially moved to advertise for consulting services again, giving Asher a chance to bid again. She later modified her motion to advertise again, but extend Asher’s contract with the authority until the end of the June to cover the end of the year.
However, that would not have covered the year-end fiscal closing and the motion failed for lack of a second.
Harkless said that advertising again puts the housing authority further behind.
“I don’t want anything to fall through the cracks,” he said, noting that not having financial paperwork in order could cost the authority money.
“We’ve already fallen through the cracks,” Beal replied.
Onesko said he was concerned that not hiring Asher for at least one year would be akin to “putting us behind the eight ball again.”
He made the motion to hire Asher at the rate of $155, $115 and $80 per hour for the various levels of service they provide.
“I think this will get us back on track without losing time,” Onesko said of the hiring. He noted that would also give Asher time to prove its value to the authority.
DeBlasio seconded his motion, and all but Beal voted in favor.
The housing authority’s next meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. June 12 at the authority’s office.
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