Hinsdale selectmen order audit of townclerk's office
By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff
HINSDALE — Selectmen have ordered an audit of the town clerk’s
office after an internal investigation found possible mismanagement there.
Chairman Michael J. Darcy said the two-month investigation, which
recently concluded, found several questionable practices taking place under
Town Clerk Tammy-Jean Akeley, including how money associated with motor vehicle
registrations was handled, behavior toward customers and unannounced closings
of the office.
According to the investigation, Akeley has been collecting both
her salary and a $2.50 fee paid by residents who pay the state portion of their
motor vehicle registrations through the town, Darcy said. She isn’t allowed to
collect both under state law, he said.
State law says if the agent collecting the motor vehicle
registrations is on salary to a town, the fee goes to the town. If the agent
isn’t, the agent can collect the fee.
Akeley, who is paid $18,409 a year, is considered on salary, Town
Administrator Jill E. Collins said Tuesday.
The investigation was discussed publicly for the first time
publicly the selectmen’s meeting Monday night. It’s too early to tell how much
an audit of Akeley’s office will cost, Collins said.
The $2.50 agent’s fee had been going into an account for state
fees, and then going back to Akeley at the end of the month, Darcy said.
The town collects about $12,000 in agent’s fees per year, and it’s
believed that Akeley received about $120,000 to $150,000 of those funds during
her tenure, he said.
“It was during our research that we came across this,” he said.
“I’m not privy to what happened with other town clerks, but I know the previous
town clerk was only getting fees and a small stipend.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Akeley said she is allowed to
collect both her salary and the fees.
“Originally when I took over 13 years ago, (the town) paid me to
do town stuff. I also issue plates and decals, and I’m allowed by law to collect
the $2.50,” she said.
Akeley was scheduled to appear before selectmen at the meeting
Monday at 7 p.m., but didn’t attend. She was in the tax collector office, where
she ended up working until 9:30 p.m., she said.
This practice of collecting both a salary and the agent’s fees
wasn’t something that came into question until the internal investigation,
Darcy said. Selectmen have since stopped it, and are looking into Akeley
possibly paying restitution to the town. The restitution could only be
collected for the past three years, according to state law, he said.
Selectmen were looking at how the town clerk and tax collector
positions could be kept separate when they found some disparities and began an
investigation, Darcy said. Akeley has been town clerk for years, and became tax
collector this year after being elected to the position in March.
It’s a failure on both the part of the town clerk and the
selectmen that this situation wasn’t addressed sooner, Darcy said.
While the town does have an annual audit, auditors wouldn’t have
picked up on these types of issues, Collins said.
Selectmen also said that funds collected in both offices weren’t
being deposited in a timely manner. Darcy said that any deposit being made by
the tax collector’s office equaling $1,500 or more needed to be deposited
within a day of receiving it, according to state law and town policy.
“We had a lapse of time of a two-week period where no deposits
were being made, and we have just found out there was a significant deposit
that was not made for 20 days,” he said.
Selectmen are also concerned that the money collected in the town
clerk’s office isn’t being kept separate from the funds collected by the tax
collector, he said.
“Hopefully one of the parts of this process will be for us to get
a better handle on the control of that process, and making sure we are able to
feel secure with where the money is at all times,” he said.
Akeley said she has been keeping the two offices separate, and
trying to make deposits as quickly as she can. Until recently, she had been
running the tax collector office alone because Deputy Tax Collector Maria Shaw
had been out with a fractured hip. With Shaw back at work, the tax collector
office is open more hours, Akeley said.
Another concern of the selectmen was how Akeley was treating
people coming to the town clerk and tax collector offices.
The board recently received a citizen complaint about Akeley
allegedly telling a customer to “kiss my (expletive),” Darcy said.
She had also taken nine days off in the past four months with no
notice, he said.
Akeley said she tries to let people know when the town clerk and
tax collector offices will be closed in advance, and there was one instance
when she was sick and had to call in at the last minute.
“It’s nice to hear from a handful of people who are upset with
me,” she said. “I probably have a stack of papers of people I have helped
single-handedly.”
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