Hamburg boosts oversight following finance director’s guilty plea

TOWN OF HAMBURG, N.Y. (WIVB) — A local town is making changes after their former finance director used a town credit card for personal items and was fired from her post.

Hamburg Supervisor Randy Hoak said a series of changes are underway in response to the criminal case, including a new electronic time clock system that went into effect.

Last year, the former Hamburg Finance Director Samantha Tarczynski pleaded guilty to making personal purchases with the town credit card totaling about $2,000 in items such as area rugs, a luggage cart and tote bag.

Tarczynski was fired from her job under the previous administration, and was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.

The New York State Comptroller’s Office has officially released its audit on the matter — adding that the town made improper payroll payments of more than $19,000 to Tarczynski and said the board did not provide enough oversight. The state’s audit also says the directors of personnel approved their own overtime pay totaling more than $5,000.

After reviewing credit card statements, state auditors said they found 164 transactions totaling $79,571 that was not supported with appropriate documentation.

“We did not find widespread fraud, abuse or anything of that nature the comptroller’s audit was able to show us some locations some policies where the town can look to really update, strengthen, and enforce our policies,” Hoak said.

Hoak said the town has brought in a new finance director and is working on drafting a new credit card policy and that, there’s a new timekeeping policy and software that will require employees to swipe in when they start work.

“When it comes from your own employees, it really eats away at the trust the people have in town government and I’m confident that these policies will allow us to prevent this from happening in the future absolutely,” Hoak said.

Timecards will need to be approved by departments and then at the town level — no longer will paper be used.

The Town of Hamburg plans to send the State Comptroller’s Office a Corrective Action plan in the next couple of months.

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