By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — Fire commissioners who chose hotels for convenience rather than cost. A volunteer fire company whose cardholders approved their own charges. A small city whose auditor told state examiners he filed a financial report he knew was wrong so it wouldn’t be late again. A county where one employee was listed as both requester and approver on most wire transfers tested.
Those are the findings of four audits of Western New York public bodies released over the past two months, three by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s office and one by Erie County Comptroller Kevin R. Hardwick. None found theft. Each found that the people responsible for public money weren’t checking it the way the law or their own policies require.
Snyder: 97 percent of the dollars lacked support
The Snyder Fire District, which serves part of the Town of Amherst, spent about $1.9 million on 751 claims from January 2024 through August 2025. State auditors sampled 137 claims worth about $367,000. They found that 115 of them, worth about $357,000, or 97 percent of the dollars examined, “did not have sufficient documentation to support a proper audit and should not have been approved and paid for,” the report says.
Eighty claim packets worth about $292,000 lacked the signatures of at least three commissioners. Thirty-nine worth about $101,000 lacked evidence of required quotes. Lodging on 13 claims went over federal GSA rates, which the district’s own travel policy requires, costing about $8,500 extra. “All five Commissioners told us that they selected hotel accommodations based primarily on convenience rather than cost,” the auditors wrote. Members also received about $1,200 in excess per diem payments, which the state recommends the district recover.
Auditors found the spending itself was for district purposes, apart from the excess travel costs, and the board seized on that. “We are pleased that the audit concluded the claims reviewed were for appropriate District purposes,” Chairperson Patricia M. Hudson wrote in the board’s response.
The board said it has tightened its handling of signatures, quotes and receipts, but it “respectfully disagrees with the characterization that it ‘did not perform a thorough and deliberate audit’ of each claim.” It also disputed that commissioners had told auditors they didn’t know the signature rule. The comptroller’s office replied that its auditors interviewed each commissioner individually and documented those statements. It said neither the chair nor the treasurer objected when the draft was reviewed with them on July 10.
Twin District: cardholders approved their own purchases
In Lancaster, the Twin District Volunteer Fire Company charged $255,200 on company credit cards from January 2024 through July 2025. The company is funded mainly through a contract with the town that paid it $1,113,212 in 2024 and $1,142,785 in 2025.
The company’s policy put the board in charge of reviewing card activity. Instead, the audit found, the board “relied on card holders to monitor usage and review and approve their own purchases.” Auditors flagged 140 purchases worth $25,950 that lacked adequate receipts. They included 33 purchases worth $14,932 for member entertainment, such as golf outings. Three purchases worth $1,161, at a warehouse club, a local restaurant and an online retailer, could not be supported at all.
The company had no travel policy. Had it used federal per diem and lodging rates, it could have saved about $12,000 of the $29,929 it spent on meals and hotels for conferences and training, the auditors estimated.
Board Chairman Keith Kerl wrote that the company has adopted a new card policy requiring board approval before payment, and a travel policy. He noted that “within the scope of this audit, no evidence of fraud or deliberate misuse of Company funds was identified.” He asked the state to consider “the unique nature of our organization,” a company that, he wrote, has served Lancaster for more than 80 years through volunteers who give their time “often at considerable personal sacrifice.”
The comptroller’s office answered that its audit “cannot be used to conclude there is no fraud, theft or professional misconduct in the Company’s operations.”
Olean: ‘knowing it did not contain accurate information’
The most serious findings came from the City of Olean in Cattaraugus County. The audit found the general fund’s unrestricted fund balance fell about $454,000, or 16 percent, over five years. It stayed below the city’s own policy from 2021-22 through 2024-25. The former Council president and former mayor told auditors the Council “could not agree” on how to fix it.
Auditors found the city’s books were wrong. The city auditor netted expenses against revenues and booked about $932,000 in solar energy revenue as an expense. He also understated ambulance billing revenue by about $200,000. Annual financial reports for three years were filed 27 to 187 days late. The auditor “told us that he had filed the 2024 AFR knowing it did not contain accurate information because he did not want the report to be late again,” the report says.
The Council also approved about $6.6 million in unbudgeted transfers into its capital projects fund over five years. Some of that money paid for routine costs such as tree pruning and street maintenance. Auditors said the practice “hid the City’s true operating costs.”
Mayor Amy B. Sherburne, who succeeded the former mayor this year, accepted all 10 recommendations. “The City of Olean acknowledges and agrees with the findings and recommendations outlined in the Audit Report,” she wrote. “The City takes the findings seriously and is committed to strengthening its internal procedures, controls, and oversight.”
Erie County: one person, both buttons
Mr. Hardwick’s office reviewed how Erie County’s Cash Management Unit invested and moved county money in 2024. In its Oct. 8 report, it credited the unit with earning far more as interest rates rose. Interest on the accounts reviewed rose from about $209,000 in 2021 to $26.8 million in 2024 and $24.7 million in 2025.
The controls lagged behind. In 29 of 36 wire transfers tested, the same person was listed as both requester and approver. The same was true for all 36 internal transfers tested. Templates limit where wires can go, but the report warns they do not prevent “an incorrect amount” from being “entered and released without independent review.” The unit also lacked written electronic-banking procedures. It did not document weekly collateral checks required by county guidelines, or its reasons for letting balances at M&T Bank and NYCLASS exceed a $200 million concentration guideline.
The county’s Sept. 30 response “indicates general agreement,” the comptroller’s office wrote, and promises a second approval step for transfers and new written procedures.
In an email to The Buffalo Chronicle, Deputy Comptroller for Audit Mary Nytz-Hosler pointed to the final audit report on the comptroller’s website, which includes the response as an appendix. In that Sept. 30 letter, Deputy Comptroller Timothy C. Callan wrote that the Accounting Division “expresses general agreement with the report” and will “take steps to establish an additional level of approval for wire transfers and internal transfers.” He wrote that the division will also develop written procedures and “recommend changes to the County’s Investment Guidelines to reflect practices and bank protocols.”
What fixes look like
The three bodies audited by the state are required or encouraged to file corrective action plans within 90 days, and the comptroller’s office urges boards to make them public. The fixes are cheap: GSA travel rates, a second approval on every claim and wire, and accurate reports filed on time. The Chronicle is asking Olean, the Snyder Fire District, Twin District and Erie County for copies of their plans.
Featured photo: The Snyder Fire Department hall on Main Street in Amherst. Photo by TonyTheTiger via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Updated October 20, 2026: This story was updated to include comment from Mary Nytz-Hosler, deputy comptroller for audit in the Erie County Comptroller’s Office.
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