Published: November 07, 2009 11:16 pm      

Case may expose lack of municipal oversight

NORTHERN CAMBRIA — State police say the allegations facing former Northern Cambria official David Suchar include selling a few of the borough’s manhole covers and fire hydrants to a private community and pocketing the proceeds.

A police affidavit shows that in April, authorities interviewed Earnest Lee Miller – a worker at Glendale Yearound, a private gated community. Police said Miller said he purchased several items from Suchar in 2007 and 2008.

The affidavit shows that Miller told police that he paid for the items by check, and said Suchar told him to make it payable to Suchar himself and Suchar would deposit the money in the employee retirement fund.

Police now say that Suchar instead deposited the check for $2,340 into his own bank account.

Suchar, until recently borough streets commissioner and supervisor of the two borough water authorities, faces charges of forgery and stealing about $85,000 in goods and cash from the borough.

Suchar, son of a Borough Council member, has been fired but has not commented on the specific charges.

“I don’t know where it begins and where it ends,” said Carol Jarvis, Northern Cambria’s mayor-elect. “There’s so much corruption, and the town has no money that it can afford to lose.”

Northern Cambria, formed from the merger of Barnesboro and Spangler in 2000, is one of the oldest communities at the northern tip of Cambria County.

All agree that the community cannot afford to be victimized by its own government. But ever since the charges were filed by state police, borough officials have been tight-lipped, and Solicitor Dennis Govachini at meetings has silenced residents who raise questions about Northern Cambria’s checks and balances.

A Tribune-Democrat public information request asking six questions regarding specifics of the borough’s ordering, delivery and payment procedures was answered this way by Northern Cambria Borough Manager Dee Nagle: “The Borough and both water authorities’ policies that are in place follow ‘generally accepted accounting principals (sic).’ ”

Nagle said the borough’s practices will be reviewed for any necessary improvements, and that borough auditors will make recommendations.

She would not specify what steps may be taken.

Whether Northern Cambria will conduct a special audit has not been determined, she said.

Govachini told The Tribune-Democrat that the borough may place a claim on the bond posted for Suchar.

Both Nagle and Govachini have declined to say what signatures were on the checks used to complete Suchar’s alleged purchases.

The state requires that the treasurer of a municipality sign each check, and specifies that additional signatures can be required by the local government.

Northern Cambria officials refused to say what, or how many, signatures are required on their checks.

Pennsylvania’s Ethics Law stipulates: “No public official or public employee can enter into a contract valued at $500 or more with their governmental body, unless the contract is awarded through a public process, including prior public notice and subsequent public disclosure of all proposals considered and contracts awarded.”

For municipalities in the Ebensburg area, one township requires two officials’ signatures on a purchase order, a signature on every delivery and two signatures on checks for payment.

In Ebensburg, the public works director may order items, but all invoices are seen by three different people.

“It’s not unusual for anyone to question any number of items,” Ebensburg Borough Manager Dan Penatzer said in describing his municipality’s system. “You have to have a system of checks and balances.”