Tallman Fire District Audit Raises Questions About Propriety of Former Treasurer’s Actions

BY CHERYL SLAVIN

At a special meeting called on September 17, the Board of the Tallman Fire District heard the results of an audit it had commissioned after discovering numerous irregularities in the methods used by its previous treasurer, Roberta Doremus.

Conducted by the Pinsky Law Group, the audit revealed that Doremus had failed to keep proper records of purchases, inequitably and possibly improperly administered the Fire District’s life insurance policy, signed checks to herself or on her own behalf, had Fire District mail and property delivered to her house and in other ways engaged in practices which led the auditors to state that “it is our overall opinion that the methods used by the treasurer were insufficient to guard against fraud, impropriety or abuse.”

Bradley Pinsky, one of the attorneys who conducted the audit, did point out that since Doremus’s departure and the election of a new board, many of the poor accounting methods and policies have been fixed. He did recommend, however, that the board continue to investigate the conduct of its previous treasurer in order to determine whether anything can be done to correct the problems caused by her past actions.

Full report next week