Following the arrest last Monday of a former Town of North Hempstead employee for allegedly embezzling $98,000 from the town’s Solid Waste Management Authority, town officials defended the absence of a comptroller for 12 of the 20 months during the alleged theft.
North Hempstead spokeswoman Carole Trottere said even if a permanent comptroller was in place, the alleged theft could still have taken place.
“People that are intent on stealing are going to steal,” she said. “The only thing we can do as a government is make sure procedures and policies were in place to catch those incidents.”
“Wherever there is money, there is someone sitting there and figuring out how to get it,” Trottere added.
After former comptroller Kathleen Mitterway left the town post in August 2014, the town hired former Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman as a financial consultant, but Trottere said his role was not to perform the comptroller’s duties.
“Howard was an outside contractor but he wasn’t brought in to do the comptroller’s duties,” Trottere said. “He did things with the financial and comptroller’s office as far as bond sales and helped with the budget, which was a huge thing that need to be worked on.”
She added that Director of Finance and Deputy Supervisor Aline Khatchadourian handled comptroller duties during that time.
Helen McCann, 51, of Roslyn Heights, pleaded not guilty to second-degree grand larceny and second-degree corrupting the government charges.
McCann began working for the town in 1998, and in January 2014 was transferred to the Solid Waste Management Authority to serve as an administrative assistant.
Between May 11, 2014 and Jan. 11, 2016, it is alleged that she embezzled $98,862.91 from the Solid Waste Management Authority.
The alleged embezzlement was discovered by the town comptroller’s office in mid-January four months after Averil Smith began working for the town as its permanent comptroller.
Employees who work at the Solid Waste Management Authority facility handle cash payments and garbage scale records, which they then bring to the authority’s administrative offices once collected.
An administrative employee then deposits the cash into the authority’s Chase Bank account and sends a memo to the Town Comptroller’s office detailing the amount received and attaching bank deposit slips.
Beginning Jan. 26, 2014, McCann was responsible for receiving and depositing the money, according to Nassau County DA Madeline Singas’ office.
The DA’s office is still investigating the case.
A financial expert has criticized the cash-only policy at the Solid Waste Management Authority’s drop-off site.
“It would have been better if they collected it by credit card,” Alex Dontoh, Director of the Master of Science in Accounting program at NYU’s Stern School of Business, told Newsday. “That would have added another layer of protection.”
At Tuesday’s board meeting, the board passed a resolution implementing a credit card processing service at the transfer station.
