AUDIT VOTE COMES WITH CONTROVERSY
PHOENIXVILLE » Over the objections of a former board president, and facing accusations of sweeping a forensic audit of district finances “under the rug,” the Phoenixville Area School Board acknowledged receipt of its annual audit Sunday.
The unusual emergency combined workshop/voting meeting was held Sunday afternoon to conform with a state order that all school buildings be closed Monday, according to Phoenixville School Board President Blake Emmanuel.
The vote was necessary, and more controversial than an annual audit usually is, because of two major issues facing the district.
The first, and the reason the board said it moved forward, is an opportunity to save taxpayers money by refinancing $78.1 million in bonds and saving as much as $4.5 million in interest payments in the process.
The second is the long-delayed forensic audit of the district’s finances, initiated in September the wake of the resignation of former business manager Chris Gehris.
Since the investigation was announced, its status and the due date for its findings have become a staple of Phoenixville School Board meetings.
Among the things discovered is an over-payment of per capita tax revenues to Phoenixville Borough that should have remained with the school district.
Several speakers from the audience, and board member Ayisha Sereni, tried to pry out more information about the contents of the forensic audit before voting to acknowledge the annual audit.
However, Sereni could not get a second to any of her motions, although she tried, with no success, to get the board to hold off voting until board member Lori Broker returned to the room in apparent hopes that Broker might second her motion and force a vote.
Sereni was trying to get a vote on a motion to make public the contents of the forensic audit as it stands now.
However, it was unclear, given that it’s an ongoing investigation, whether such an action is legal.
Lisa Longo, who the board’s president in 2018 but is no longer in office, urged the current board to hold off voting on the annual audit.
Longo, who said she has been an auditor, said she had at least 20 questions about the annual audit. “These numbers need to be validated,” she said.
But Emmanuel said the board has a “fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers,” to move ahead with a bond refinancing that has the potential to save so much money.
According to Richard Fazio, the district’s interim business manager, a total of seven bonds are being refinanced in a twostep process.
The first step involved $22.8 million in borrowing, and the second another $55.3 million.
The board has already authorized the refinancing to move forward and it will proceed within the next six weeks, he said.
Superintendent Alan Fegley said the board had to acknowledge receipt of the annual audit in order for the refinancing to move forward.
He said he recommended to
the board that it simply “acknowledge receipt” of the audit rather than “accept it,” which suggests agreement with the contents, “because, as you can see, we have some conflict on the board.”
There was also some conflict from the audience.
Several speakers questioned the holding of the meeting on a Sunday without publishing an advertisement in the newspaper, which is required by law.
“Transparency is a dirty word to this board. You people should be ashamed,” said one speaker.
“This is reprehensible,” said resident Chris Bowen. “We need transparency on this audit. We need to talk about what happened in October. You are trying to sweep this audit under the rug.”
Fegley said because it was an “emergency” meeting, advertising is not legally required, although he said it was posted on the district’s website and Facebook page in an attempt to “to share it as broadly as possible.”
Others objected as well when a motion to limit discussion on any agenda item to three minutes was discussed and adopted, although it is worth noting that discussion on a motion to limit discussion to three minutes took about 10 minutes.
Emmanuel said the meeting was moved and debate being limited “not to limit transparency but to expedite our work so as not to put people at health risk.”