MONTICELLO — An audit of the Town of Thompson released last week by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli criticized the town board for its lax oversight of Gary J. Lasher, the former Thompson Comptroller.

Lasher resigned in May and subsequently was hired as treasurer in the Village of Monticello one month later.

Mayor Gary Sommers in June appointed Lasher to serve as Treasurer in the Village of Monticello through early 2020 to replace Melissa DeMarmels, who is the current comptroller in Thompson. Lasher was later given additional duties to function as village administrator, mostly for writing and securing grants. Sommers is the acting village manager.

Reached Monday morning, Sommers said that he had not read the audit, but that Lasher - during his interview process in May - did warn the village board that the Thompson report might be negative. Lasher, who is on vacation this week, could not be reached for comment at press time.

But Sommers said that any criticism of Lasher in the Thompson audit might have more to do with “other aspects in the interplay between the comptroller and (town) board that may have contributed to that. “I can only judge him by performance here, which has been top notch. He has cleared up many (long standing) issues that we had with our finances,” Sommers said.

Sommers also said he credits Lasher with successfully shepherding the village board through the 2018-2019 budget process and for being able to keep the tax levy at two percent.

“We are lucky to have Gary Lasher in Monticello,” said Village Trustee Carmen Rue. “He is doing great work cleaning up messes from before he came on board.”

But Comptroller DiNapoli's report on Thompson - which covered January 1, 2016 through July 24, 2017 - makes multiple references to Lasher's performance including withholding too much monies from employee paychecks that could impact their New York State retirement accounts and paying members of the Board an additional $525 each.

As part of the audit, the state's examiners interviewed Lasher and members of the village board, which meets tonight at 7:30 p.m.

“The comptroller (Lasher) told us that he had not received training on many of the topics discussed in this report,” the audit said. “However, the supervisor (Bill Rieber) told us he offered and encouraged the comptroller to attend as much training as necessary.”

Here are the verbatim key findings of the Thompson audit, which can be found at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/towns/2018/thompson.pdf:

- The board did not provide adequate oversight of the Comptroller's duties to ensure that they were completed timely and accurately, which ultimately cost the Town $7,955 in late fees and uncollected amounts.

-The board did not adequately segregate the Comptroller's duties and ensure that proper controls were in place over cash receipts and disbursements.

-The comptroller did not properly account for Town operations timely or accurately.

While Lasher was employed by the Town of Thompson, the audit said that it found 120 instances of employee payroll withholdings totaling $9,060 that were not remitted to the appropriate vendors (e.g., New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) contributions and loans, medical insurance and life insurance) nor returned to the employees. This money, the audit said, remains in the town's bank account.

The State also found that the Thompson Board “did not ensure that the comptroller completed his duties in an effective manner.

“Specifically, we found the (Town of Thompson) Comptroller:

-Filed six NYS tax payments late resulting in penalties totaling $3,100.

-Deposited 11 checks totaling $3,800 which were returned by the bank due to insufficient funds in the paying account. The Comptroller did not charge the payers of the 11 checks the return check fees totaling $255 and did not pursue outstanding payments due totaling $2,100.

-Issued 119 checks from bank accounts that had insufficient balances to cover them, for which the town was charged $2,500 by the bank for insufficient fund fees.

In addition, although the board reviewed monthly abstracts, the comptroller did not ensure that the abstracts contained all disbursements made during the month. For example, the state comptroller's report found 94 checks issued during the audit period totaling $1.3 million that were not reviewed or approved by the board.

Supervisor Rieber acknowledged that the board's oversight of Lasher was “lacking” and did mention the “new comptroller” (DeMarmels) in rectifying some of the problems. Rieber also said in a June 29 letter that he would involve his confidential secretary to work with DeMarmels - and that the town would reduce the number of bank accounts it uses to keep better track of its finances. He also acknowledged that he, for the most part, trusted Lasher's “verbal explanation” of the nature of journal entries provided by the comptroller.

Reiber said the town's corrective action plan is under development.

“Our new comptroller is working hard to put proper systems in place and we have afforded her any and all assistance needed during the transition phase,” Reiber said. “Moving forward, Thompson tax rates are down approximately 10 percent over the past two years and we expect similar reductions going forward. We have a very healthy balance sheet with an excellent Aa3 credit rating with Moody's. We look forward to robust economic growth, a better quality of life and a lower cost of living in Thompson for the foreseeable future.”

The audit calls for the Town to provide “a written corrective action plan (CAP)” that addresses the findings/recommendations and “provided to our (Comptroller's) office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of General Municipal Law.”

On May 7, Thompson Deputy Supervisor Scott Mace called an emergency meeting to accept the resignation of Lasher under a “mutual termination agreement.” (Lasher was first appointed in 2008 after the retirement of Brenda Galligan, according to former Town of Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini). In that same meeting, the Board hired DeMarmels for the balance of 2018; she had resigned as village treasurer on April 27.

Lasher, who in May was a contract treasurer for the village, had been praised by Sommers for his work stepping in after DeMarmels' departure.

As for Lasher's service in Thompson, Cellini said “I don't believe we ever had a bad audit from 2008-2013.”