Comptroller: Village of Catskill clerk-treasurer made accounting errors totaling $1.7 million

CATSKILL, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Accounting errors totaling to $1.7 million were made in the Village of Catskill from June 1, 2022, to January 31, 2024, according to an audit report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The audit found that the clerk-treasurer did not keep accurate accounting records and did not provide those reports to the village board for approval.

The audit revealed several inaccuracies, including a failure to reconcile bank balances with general ledger cash balances and comply with general municipal law to file annual financial reports with the state comptroller.

Additionally, the reports state the clerk-treasurer did not properly account for three bank accounts totaling $1.1 million as of May 31, 2023, leading to the possible error.

"As a result, the transparency of the Village’s financial operations was reduced, and the risk that unauthorized or inappropriate transactions could occur and go undetected increased," the key findings of the report states.

According to the comptroller’s office, the board president is responsible for supervising the clerk-treasurer’s duties. The current board president Joseph Kozloski was appointed to the position in April 2024 after former board president Peter Grasse III lost his bid in a re-election race.

In a letter submitted to the comptroller’s office following the report, Kozloski attributed office staffing changes as a cause of the errors.

The board-appointed clerk-treasurer is the chief financial officer responsible for receiving and disbursing funds, maintaining accounting records, and preparing monthly and annual accounting records. During this audit period, there have been two clerk-treasurers in the position.

The former clerk-treasurer, Lisa Cope, resigned on May 17, 2023. The current clerk-treasurer, Anna Signoretti, was appointed on June 14, 2023.

The report determined that the former clerk-treasurer made balance sheet posting errors. “For example, we determined $195,000 of interfund loans were recorded incorrectly; the fund receiving the advance was recorded as providing the advance and not as the fund receiving the advance,” the report states.

As a result of this error, fund assets in four different locations were understated. Those were:

• General fund assets were understated by $203,594, and liabilities were understated by $341,276;
• Water fund assets were understated by $405,629 and liabilities were understated by $30,029;
• Sewer fund assets were understated by $42,578 and liabilities were overstated by $39,923;
• Capital project assets were understated by $613,329 because the cash balance in one of the five capital project bank accounts was not accounted for in the general ledger.

According to the village, they are working to fix the errors. Kozloski told NEWS10 they will keep making improvements.

"We have implemented many of their suggested policies/practices already," Kozloski said in an email. "We will keep doing so until all are done as time goes by."

In Kozloski’s letter to the Comptroller’s office, he wrote they have begun implementing changes. The first change was requiring the clerk-treasurer to provide the board with the operating statement, by fund, for monthly review.

He also said the village is working with outside accountants to start adjusting journal entries to correct the recording errors made by the former clerk-treasurer in the 2021-22 fiscal records. Once those are corrected and filed, they will work on the next year’s reports.

Signoretti told NEWS10 the village had no further comment.

To see the full report, visit the State Comptroller's Office website. The documents and information are located under the audits of local governments tab.