Goochland tries to recoup funds after utilities office screw-up

AMY CONDRA MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: January 9, 2009

-- Goochland County is working to recoup the final $22,000 of $157,000 in undeposited checks found in the county utilities office.

"Most of the checks couldn't be submitted because they were stale," said Director of Finance Myrtis Quarles, whose department took over utility billing on Jan. 5. "To my knowledge most were reissued."

The county is working out a payment schedule with those whose checks did not go through and still need to be resent, according to County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey.

"We will work with people to get this paid off as soon as possible, in a way that is not detrimental to their budget," he said.

The checks for utility-connection fees were as much as two years old and were found during an independent audit in November of the county utilities office's operations in 2007 and 2008.

The departure of Goochland County's utilities director, W. Doug Harvey, coincided with the audit report.

Goochland Supervisor William E. Quarles Jr. said that it was his understanding that the amounts on the undeposited checks varied widely and that they were written both by individuals and contractors.

At a closed meeting last month attended by the five supervisors, Wolfrey and County Attorney Andrew R. McRoberts, Supervisor Ned S. Creasey presented a letter of record that detailed concerns about how the county is being managed.

In the letter, Creasey noted that more checks were discovered after the original audit and that one dated back to 1999.

Supervisor Quarles said Creasey's letter will be forwarded to Commonwealth's Attorney Claiborne Stokes for review and analysis.

"The county's assets were not being managed properly," Quarles said. "We want to make sure that the people who are responsible are held accountable for these issues."

He said that it will be up to Stokes, after he receives all of the materials, to determine if there is a conflict of interest and if a special prosecutor should be appointed to the case.

Stokes said yesterday that it did not appear the county would need to appoint a special prosecutor.

In addition to fiscal management, Creasey asked for an investigation into the utility department's management of water and wastewater systems. He wants a complete audit of the utilities department to be conducted by an independent audit firm.

That was the view shared by Ann James of Oilville, who spoke to the supervisors at their meeting this week.

James elaborated on the "never-ending spider web" of issues with the public utilities department that even residents knew was in disarray.

"If the community knew of the irregularities, how did the Board of Supervisors and county administrator not know about them?" she asked. "'Hope' and 'change' were the key words in the November Presidential election. We can have no less here in Goochland. Pandora's box has now been opened."
Amy Condra is the editor of the Goochland Gazette.