Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Council lets county workers off the hook

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 19:52:49 -0500

Council lets county workers off the hook

Saturday, November 23, 2002

By JOE CARLSON
The Express-Times

EASTON -- Several Northampton County employees exceeded their
monthly cell phone allowances, an exhaustive analysis of monthly bills
from hundreds of county-issued phones revealed.

But after evaluating the latest review from the County Controller's Office,
county council members said they didn't see evidence of outright
fraudulent use in the bills.

"I requested this study, and after looking closely at it, I don't see abuse in
these numbers," said Councilwoman Ann McHale.

The most recent analysis examined 116 cell phones, purchased within the
past year, under contract with Nextel.

The county also has more than 200 cell phones through Verizon, which
were the subject of a previous analysis. That review resulted in a scathing
report that concluded a lack of internal controls allowed thousands of
dollars to be paid on phones that should have been disconnected.

Questions about county cell phone expenses exploded in June after
revelations about former development Director Vince Dominach's
excessive use of his county cell phone.

In the three months before he resigned, Dominach rang up $1,632 in
charges on his county cell phone. He reimbursed the county $732 the
same day that he told County Executive Glenn Reibman that he intended
to resign.

As a result of the controversy, the Controller's office recommended
administrators establish and enforce an explicit policy on cell phone use.

The analysis also recommended administrators stop destroying the cell
phone records two months after the bills are paid. As a result, the full
itemized bills are now retained in the county disbursements office.

The analyses also found specific phones that had large monthly bills, but
neither concluded that the bills amounted to fraud.

"This is not to castigate an employee. This is to find out where money is
going," said Council President J. Michael Dowd.

Several officials including Controller John Schimmel have noted it would be
nearly impossible to determine whether calls were personal or
work-related simply by looking at the monthly itemized list of calls.

And even if employees were found to be making personal calls, they
wouldn't have been violating county policy, because there was no formal
policy.

All the same, Councilman Wayne Grube said he would like the
department heads to investigate why the cell phones under their watch
were posting high bills.

Reporter Joe Carlson can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail,
[email-masked].

http://www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1038045956264300.xml

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