Nov 30, 2020 5 min read

Two Donegal Township supervisors have appealed the board of auditors’ findings and surcharges totaling $34,549 to Washington County Court.

Of that amount, auditors attribute $29,310 to Kathleen Wright Croft and Edward W. Shingle Jr.

Another $4,369 surcharge names, along with Croft and Shingle, 2019 supervisors Michael Smith, Thomas Greaves, Douglas Teagarden and Tammi Iams related to the cost of police services provided to Buffalo Township.

Donegal’s elected auditors, Lee Rodgers, Linda Geric and Kathleen Gilmore, filed a 2019 annual municipal audit and financial report with the Clerk of Courts Oct. 13.

In their separate appeals, Croft and Shingle claim the board of auditors violated the state Sunshine Act by not convening a public meeting to approve the audit and any findings before submitting it to the supervisors.

The largest single amount, $17,959, stems from pay for former township secretary Heather Wood, in Social Security and Medicare deductions, wages and “unenumerated ‘legal expenses.'”

Shingle claims Wood began working from home on March 21, 2019, due to a fight that broke out between secretaries at the township office. Shingle, former chairman of the board of supervisors, says he sent Wood home with pay until the full board could discuss the incident in a closed session at a previously advertised public meeting.

Croft said she was “at most, present at the township office for these events” and she denies sending Wood home.

By the time the March 25, 2019, meeting was held, one supervisor had quit while Teagarden “sat in the audience to deny the board a quorum,” Shingle maintains in his appeal.

The auditors do not state exactly how long Wood worked from home before her position was eliminated in August of that year. They called her working-from-home time “short” and “with no board approval.”

“The veracity and legality of these charges is factually and legally disputed,” Shingle claims in his appeal. “This is not a surcharge-able action.”

A surcharge of $11,351 against Croft and Shingle is related to their dealing with road crew compensation hours.

Shingle claims the circumstances surrounding this amount took place in 2018, was handled through arbitration, and was not subject to surcharge the following year.

“It is inconceivable that (Shingle) can be surcharged individually, jointly and severally for the legal fees, arbitration fees and court costs. .. that he had no more hand in causing than any other supervisors, if not less,” his appeal said.

Croft said in her appeal that she voted against taking the arbitrator’s decision to Washington County Common Pleas Court.

The $4,369 stems from the auditors’ interpretation of a 5-year-old contract between Donegal police and Buffalo Township. This surcharge is leveled collectively against the members of the board serving in 2019.

“The board of supervisors let the chief of police prepare and submit invoices to Buffalo Township,” the auditors noted, at $42.23 per hour, an amount above contracted rates.

Shingle said police services were paid during “the entire contract from 2016 to 2019, therefore there is nothing the (the auditors) can point to in 2019 to claim a surcharge.”

Croft claims, “This particular surcharge targets a long-standing contract dispute between certain supervisors, the township solicitor and other board members,” and takes the same position as Shingle that there is nothing on which to base a 2019 surcharge.

From Croft alone, the auditors are seeking an additional $868 for the costs of a subpoena and township legal fees so the auditors could question her under oath.

Croft claims she appeared with her attorney, and the auditors then instructed her to sign an “oath of witness,” which included a non-disclosure agreement and refused to proceed with questioning in the presence of her attorney and Shingle.

Her appeal called a non-disclosure agreement for a public audit and potential surcharge inappropriate and unconstitutional because they are “matters of public concern.”

Croft and Shingle asked the court to dismiss the surcharges against them; require that the auditors file a corrected audit and conform with the Sunshine Act; and reimburse them for reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred to pursue the appeal.

Croft’s appeal called her “an outspoken supervisor” who “has continuously pressed the board of supervisors for transparency, especially in matters related to personnel, finance and police…. The majority board of supervisors has taken measures to exclude (her) from functioning as an elected township supervisor and retaliated against her.”

Croft and her husband, Samuel E. Jr., initiated legal action against the township, Supervisors Tammi Iams, Richard Fidler and Richard Martin, and Solicitor Lane Turturice in a federal court in September.

Her appeal in Washington County Court claims the surcharge is part of a “continued campaign of intimidation” against her.

Shingle’s six-year term began in January 2018, and Croft is serving a two-year term that expires in December 2021.

Although they chose just a few years ago to expand the number of seats on the board of supervisors to five from a longtime three, Donegal residents voted Nov. 3 to revert to the board’s original size.

Washington County Elections Director Melanie Ostrander said in next year’s local election, three supervisor positions will appear on the ballot, one for a six-year term, one for a four-year term and one for a two-year term.