Trumbull auditor suggests Public Works changes
TRUMBULL — Changes to overtime approvals and cash handling policies were among the handful of recommendations made by town auditor Therese Keegan following a routine examination of the Public Works Department.
Keegan, who presented her findings to the Board of Finance last week, prepared the report through a series of interviews and observations, and by reviewing documents with Public Works Director George Estrada and Finance Director Maria Pires.
The department, which includes highway, building maintenance and vehicle maintenance divisions, plus the transfer station, employs 63 full-time and two part-time employees and has an annual operating budget of just under $10 million.
In her report, Keegan noted seven specific findings, and included recommendations to address them. The first of these is the practice of allowing some high-ranking employees to approve their own time for payroll purposes. This situation is not unique to Public Works, she wrote.
“The superintendent of parks and the director of buildings and facilities maintenance, direct reports of the director of Public Works, are able to ‘self-approve’ their time,” Keegan wrote. “These individuals are eligible for overtime.”
The self-approving capability also exists in the town administration, human resources, finance and police departments, Keegan wrote. The situation is especially concerning for employees who are capable of earning overtime, she added.
“Employee time may be reviewed by someone other than a direct supervisor, but should ultimately be approved by the direct supervisor or delegated to a knowledgeable employee of a tier higher than the reporting employee,” Keegan wrote.
Keegan’s second finding was the staff ’s sporadic bank deposits. The town’s cash receipts policy dictates that deposits be made at least every seven calendar days, and within one day of accumulating $500. But her review showed that staffers tended to make deposits as time allowed, sometimes only monthly. The $256,298 that the department collected in the time Keegan reviewed went to the bank in 12 deposits, she wrote.
In response, department personnel said they believed the cash receipts policy applied only to cash, not checks. Since installing a credit card machine at the transfer station, cash receipts were minimal. The staff agreed to make deposits at least every seven days in accordance with the policy.
Other recommendations Keegan made included overhauling the fee structure at the transfer station, computerizing the facility’s bookkeeping, creating “oncall” town employees to assist the department in times of need such as snowstorms, consolidating the town’s vehicle inventory, and billing the school budget for maintenance work on Board of Education properties.
The board received her report with few comments, although board members did briefly discuss the fact that the town’s vehicle fleet rose from 151 to 166 in the 12 years from 2007 to 2019. Almost all of that increase was in the police department, which saw its fleet increase from 44 to 61 vehicles. In addition, the town has been purchasing SUVs to replace cars, meaning the number of town-owned cars dropped from 52 to 19, while the number of town-owned SUVs rose from zero to 64 in that same period.
Estrada clarified that the number of vehicles in use around town remained relatively consistent. The numbers had increased due to the backlog of vehicles that were due to be auctioned off or sold for scrap.
“Apparently, the town has not done this in some time,” he said. “So there will be a purging and I imagine you’ll see a reduction in some of the actual numbers.”
Keegan agreed, pointing out that when town-owned vehicles reach the end of their useful life it falls to the highway department to inspect them and prepare them for auction or the scrapyard.
“They don’t always have the manpower available to spend to inspect the cars, so they get behind on them,” she said.