Attorney fires back on K-9 audit questions
WEST CHESTER » The attorney for the Chester County Sheriff’s Office is disputing a number of questions raised in a report by the county Controller’s Office concerning the finances of the sheriff’s K-9 Unit, calling them “egregious misrepresentations” of fact and attacking the controller’s motives for conducting an audit of the funds.
“Had the controller taken the least bit of time to ask any questions or conduct a proper investigation and audit, which any professional will agree includes asking questions concerning expenditures, receipts and accounts, or even attempted the slightest degree of professionalism to verify any of the information she forwarded to the press,” she would have been able to determine that
the questioned expenditures were valid, sheriff’s Solicitor Dawson R. Muth said in an email message sent over the weekend, and later posted on Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh’s Facebook page.
The controller’s report, obtained by the Daily Local News last week, notes a number of issues that were uncovered by the audit of funds raised by the Sheriff’s Office for support of the nine K-9 Unit teams over the past nine years, including — but not limited to — thousands of dollars spent on hotel stays, non-event meals, and automobile costs, including $4,200 for a “custom golf cart.”
“What is the controller’s goal here? To shut down the K-9 Unit? To go back to the days of waiting hours for Philadelphia bomb dogs to show up during bomb threats? To bring negative publicity to a county that has always prided itself on resolving problems with collegial cooperation?” Muth asked in his 1,300-word response to the controller’s report.
“Perhaps she should have been standing in the ruins of the Barclay Friends nursing home when K-9 Don, named the top cadaver K-9 in the nation two years in a row, helped authorities search for and locate one of the missing victims of the fatal fire, at NO COST TO THE TAXPAYERS!” Muth added, capitalizing the final words of the email.
Contacted Monday, Controller Margaret Reif said that Muth’s response, rather than correcting any errors in the report that her audit staff had produced about K-9 finances, largely confirmed her staff’s unease with the spending practices that were detailed in records made available to them after her office issued a subpoena for them, a subpoena that she maintains was only partially complied with.
“It is everything I’ve been saying all along,” Reif said. “They didn’t provide us with all the information we asked for, so we couldn’t complete the audit.”
Reif said that when her staff raised questions about the spending and lack of structural controls overseeing the K-9 funds, which totaled $198,000 over the span from 2015 to 2017, she was obligated to interrupt the audit proceedings and issue a report.
“Given the facts that we had and in consultation with my solicitor, we determined that the (Pennsylvania) County Code required us, at that point, to stop what we were doing and report our concerns to both the county commissioners and District Attorney Tom Hogan, which is what we did,” she said.
The back-and-forth comes as the county commissioners confirmed that they had reviewed the K-9 audit report and its questions, and that they agreed that it should be referred to law enforcement authorities for further investigation.
“The information that was turned over to the controller (from the sheriff’s office) is only partial information,” commissioners’ Chairwoman Republican Michelle Kichline said Monday. “I welcome a full review of all the financial documents related to this issue.” Asked if the report from Reif’s office made her concerned, Kichline answered, “Sure.”
“Anytime there is an investigation of anybody in the county, if there are questions that affect the running of the government we certainly support getting all the answers and making sure all the funds were appropriately used,” Kichline said. “If there is something that warrants an investigation, we certainly will be cooperative.”
“There were a lot of unanswered questions, because she (Reif) had asked for more documents than she received,” said Republican Commissioner Terence Farrell of the report. He said officials were taking a “two-pronged approach” to the matter, referring the information to Hogan but also opening a separate county review of matters Reif’s inquiry raised in what he called “a human relations perspective.” Farrell declined to comment on what those matters might entail.
“We will await the outcome of these investigations, to be clear as to what can be substantiated or what,” he said.
Vice Chairwoman Kathi Cozzone, a Democrat, said that what Reif did was within the authority of the county code.
“I agree with the controller that (her audit) certainly raises more questions than it answers,” Cozzone said in an interview. “I am interested in getting some answers.”
Reif and her staff began looking into issues surrounding the K-9 Unit funds that she said were raised, in part, though solicitations on the county’s website, www.chesco. org, in June. When Welsh declined to voluntarily submit to an audit of the funds, citing an alleged lack of authority of the controller to review what she considered private funds, Reif issued a subpoena for nine years of financial records of the K-9 Unit. After being provided with three years worth of records, Reif and her staff compiled a 10-page summary of their findings of the partial audit, which was first shared with Kichline, county Solicitor Thomas Whiteman, and then-county Chef Operating Officer Mark Rupsis.
Welsh is a longtime Republican official; Reif is a Democrat who took office in January after winning election last November.
The report was later sent to Farrell and Cozzone, and then turned over to Hogan for his review the week of Sept. 3.
On Sept. 10, Hogan sent letters to the state Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney in Philadephia asking those offices to take up a review of the issues the report raised. They “involve allegations of misuse and fraud regarding funds collected by the Sheriff’s Office for their K-9 Unit, but used for other personal and political expenses,” he said. Representatives of those offices have declined to comment on the matter.
In addition to raising questions about certain aspects of the K-9 Unit’s spending, the controller’s report also noted that there did not appear to be any formal or informal structure for how the funds were dispersed; that the Chester County Sheriff K-9 fund had not registered as a charitable organization as required by the state; had not applied for tax-exempt status although claiming it did not have to pay tax on certain transactions; and had about $40,000 in undocumented credit card purchases.
Muth, an attorney with the West Chester firm of Lamb McErlane, took issue with expenses that were identified as questionable in the report and that were later highlighted in a story published by the Daily Local News. After initially saying he would not comment on any specific allegations before the completion of an independent audit by an unidentified certified public accountant hired by the sheriff, he changed course and offered a lengthy response, citing what he called “personal attacks.”
Those expenses paid for by the K-9 Unit, according to the records, included $4,718 for a stay at the Hilton Baltimore in June and July 2015, during an annual conference of the National Sheriff’s Association when Welsh was sworn in as the body’s Sergeant-atArms; at least $5,290 for dozens of miscellaneous lunches and dinners over a three-year period paid for with a personal credit card; $4,200 for what the report referred to as a custom-made golf cart; $2,500 for tires and front and back winches on a privately owned pickup truck; and $579 for a one-night stay at the Quality Hotel in Exton in September 2017.
In his response, Muth said that the hotel stay in Baltimore covered the attendance of eight county sheriff deputies, “two of whom were accompanied by their K-9 partners,” at the conference in Baltimore. “For the first time in decades, the event, which offers a superb training and networking opportunity, was held in this region, making the CCSO’s participation affordable,” Muth wrote. “It indeed was an honor for the CCSO to be featured at and to make a presentation at a National Conference.”
Muth did not specify how the eight deputies attendance at the meeting related specifically to the K-9 Unit’s activities. The controller’s report stated that the spending, “appears to be a personal expense, and not K-9 related.”
He said the $5,290 cost of meals over three years included “a multitude of events, such as hosting regional K-9 trials and competitions – the kind of valuable training sessions that improve the quality of the CCSO’s award-winning K-9 teams.” The auditors report had said the meals, paid for with credit cards owned by Welsh and Lt. Harry McKinny, the head of the K-9 Unit who has a longtime personal relationship with Welsh, appear to be for “personal convenience” and “not K-9 related.”
“Yes, some of those funds were for meals for the K-9 deputies as a reward for their hard work and service,” Muth wrote. “They are on-call and frequently get called out in the middle of the night or work weekend events. Again, these costs were not paid for with taxpayer funds.”
The so-called “custommade golf cart” is another “gross inaccuracy,” Muth wrote. he said the vehicle in question is a used utility vehicle that was purchased with private funds and has been called into service at numerous community and K-9 events. “It has been used to transport people in medical emergencies out of crowded situations such as the Freedom Fest and other community events the Sheriff’s Office is called upon for security.” Muth said it had also been used for non-K-9 purposes, such as transporting county workers with health issues to their cars when the (Justice Center) parking garage elevator went out of service.
“It is not a ‘golf cart,’ it has a specific, legitimate function,” Muth declared.
He also said the mechanical work on a pickup truck was performed on a county-owned vehicle, which the Sheriff’s Office uses for unspecified special events. “It is a surplus specialty vehicle, purchased with private funds and then titled over to the county,” he said. But the response did not specify how the automobile is used for K-9 related duties, although the $2,500 in work was paid for with K-9 Unit funds.
Lastly, Muth said the $579 bill for a one-night stay at the Quality Hotel in Exton in September 2017 came from an event when the Sheriff’s Office took its turn hosting a Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Pennsylvania meeting. “The bill – again, at no expense to taxpayers – covered two nights for four deputies, who were working around the clock to ensure that the conference was successful and safe,” he said. “Again, no taxpayers’ dollars were spent on this endeavor.”
The attorney provided no specific information on how the deputies’ duties related to the K-9 Unit. The controller’s report states that the expense should be “further explained and documented,” since the information provided showed it to be a one-night stay without explanation as to whether it was business or personal.
Muth also criticized the Daily Local News for reporting the information contained in the controller’s report, calling the decision to publish the material “outrageous,” and the result of “piecemeal” leaks from the controller.
He suggested that the newspaper should have conducted its own review of the information questioned by the controller before writing a story.
“It’s outrageous to think that a report like this, filled with inaccuracies and assumptions was released, and even more outrageous that a newspaper would print it,” Muth said in the response. “A real audit is being done by a well-respected CPA in the area. I’m very confident that the results will indicate nothing improper, and I hope the Daily Local News will make sure that information gets publicized with the same prominence as the egregious misrepresentations to date.”