New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the following local government and school audits were issued.

Chappaqua Central School District – Fixed Assets (Westchester County)

District officials did not properly monitor and account for the district’s fixed assets. Officials maintained incomplete and inaccurate records and did not perform a physical inventory count since 2018. Of the 164 assets reviewed, 148, worth $220,708, were not recorded on the district’s original asset list and 18 assets worth $25,022 did not have asset tags, as required. Twenty-five disposed assets were not removed from the district’s original asset list. Also, officials could not determine whether four assets were disposed of (sold) or retired (obsolete). The district’s fixed asset policy did not require, and officials did not perform, a periodic inventory count or an unannounced asset count for district departments.

Williamsville Central School District – Financial Management (Erie County)

The board and district officials did not properly manage the district’s fund balance and reserves. As a result, the district levied more taxes than needed to fund operations. The board and district officials consistently overestimated general fund appropriations from 2018-19 through 2021-22 by a total of $47 million and appropriated $22 million of fund balance that was not needed or used. Officials also adopted annual budgets during the same period that gave the impression that the district would have operating deficits totaling $38 million when it actually had operating surpluses totaling $40 million, for a difference totaling $78 million.

Stamford Central School District – Fund Balance Management (Delaware County)

The board and district officials did not effectively manage the district’s fund balance. As a result, they were not transparent with taxpayers, and the district levied more taxes than needed to fund operations. The board overestimated appropriations from the 2019-20 through 2021-22 fiscal years by an average of $1.4 million (14%) and planned to use fund balance to cover operating deficits when the district realized operating surpluses. Surplus fund balance exceeded the 4% statutory limit in two of the last three fiscal years by approximately $700,000 (6.8 percentage points) and $1.9 million (18.7 percentage points). Four of the district’s 11 reserves were not reasonably funded, or used to pay related expenditures, during the last three fiscal years. For example, the retirement contributions for employees reserve balance of $602,749 was sufficient to cover expenditures for five years.

Bayport-Bluepoint Union Free School District – Nonstudent Network User Accounts (Suffolk County)

District officials did not establish adequate network controls for nonstudent user accounts to help prevent unauthorized access. As a result, the district has an increased risk of unauthorized access to and use of the district network and potential loss of important data. In addition to sensitive information technology (IT) control weaknesses that were confidentially communicated to officials, auditors found the database coordinator did not disable 281 nonstudent network user accounts that are unneeded or unnecessary to prevent unauthorized access and use.

Village of Suffern – Budget Review (Rockland County)

Based on the results of our review, auditors found that the significant revenue and expenditure projections in the 2023-24 proposed budget were reasonable. Estimates for metered water revenues and sewer rent revenues appear overestimated and should be reviewed by the board. The village’s tentative budget includes a tax levy of $12,090,011, which is within the limit established by law.

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