Commissioners in two counties acting on job training reimbursement
Washington County commissioners plan to take formal action today to reimburse the state Department of Labor and Industry for a share of questionable expenditures at the Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency Inc. over four years.
L&I scrutinized the agency’s expenditures and determined it is owed $168,437.
Washington County’s share is $77,481, while Greene County’s is $18,528. The controller’s office in Beaver County was processing a check for $72,428, which is to be mailed Friday.
The figures are based on each county’s population.
Beaver County commissioners are not scheduled to meet until next week, so they are expected to ratify the payment at a future meeting, said Chief Clerk Tracey Patton.
The total amount, revealed in July, is 15 percent of the $1.13 million in spending L&I questioned in its preliminary findings in January. The audit found most of that amount, over a four-year period, was used to cover salaries for two presidents – David Suski, who left in June 2014, and his successor, and Linda Bell, who retired in March – and other staffers.
The job-training agency uses federal, state and local funds to help residents of all income levels from Washington, Greene and Beaver counties through a number of job-related programs. The agency is the fiscal agent for the Southwest Corner Workforce Investment Board, which is not part of the governments of those counties, but is overseen by a panel of the counties’ nine commissioners, called Chief Local Elected Officials.
Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi, after an agenda-setting session Wednesday morning, said the action was being taken in accordance with a memorandum of understanding among the three counties for job training and related programs.
“All the three counties did was contract with (the agency) to handle that,” Maggi said. “They were literally just another vendor that the counties used.”
The Department of Labor and Industry began an audit of the agency in the spring of 2014 for fiscal years 2010 through 2013.
Oversight of Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency was the responsibility of a five-member board, the commission chairman said. Asked if Labor and Industry might have other revelations, Maggi said, “They’ve given us no indication if it’s a continuing probe. If I had to guess, I would say it’s probably done at this point. I’m not privy to all the information.”
Thursday’s action might not be Washington County’s last related to the audit.
“We’ll see what position we’re in and what steps we have to retrieve taxpayers’ dollars,” Maggi said.
The Greene County commissioners last month approved the payment to the workforce reinvestment board, although the figure will be revised slightly downward during the board’s voting meeting this morning. The commissioners are expected to revise the meeting minutes to change the payment to the Department of Labor and Industry to $18,528, which is $674 less than what was approved at their August meeting.
The repayment amount is less in Greene County than in the other two counties due to population and use of services, Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said Wednesday.
Greene County Bureau Chief Mike Jones contributed to this story.