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No Accounting for Best Practices?
Is the Norvell Township Clerk, Jeff Oswalt, in over his head due to his unwillingness to learn the township accounting software?
At the March 13, 2024 Board Meeting, Clerk Oswalt will be asking for assistance with the General Ledger in what he calls the need, “…to straighten our books out.”.
At the February 14, 2024 Board Meeting, Clerk Oswalt laid out reasons why the Board should hire an accountant to assist him with working out bugs with the Norvell’s General Ledger. Oswalt stated that when he took over, he found documents suggesting that past clerks felt a need to hire an accountant to straighten out the books.
Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), NorvellTimes.com asked Clerk Oswalt, who is also the Norvell Township FOIA Coordinator, for the records that he referred to. Clerk Oswalt replied to the FOIA request stating “A search of the township records failed to locate the requested documents. The documents would have a retention of one year as general documents. The documents mentioned dated from pre 2020.”
So if these records actually did exist when Clerk Oswalt first took office, why would he destroy them instead of presenting them to the Board to make a case for needing help? If there truly was an accounting issue, shouldn’t Oswalt have presented this matter to the Board within the first few months of taking office? Considering the importance of proper accounting practices, isn’t it a dereliction of duty to not correct this issue immediately?
If the books really need ‘straightening out’, why did Oswalt wait almost three years to finally pursue hiring an accountant for a fix? He took office on 11/20/2020. Why would he be content in having a messed-up accounting system for so long?
It is also quite telling that the Clerk, as keeper of the township’s public records, cannot produce any board minutes from previous Board Meetings where the previous clerks brought up the need for an accountant. Could it actually be that previous Clerks didn’t have accounting issues and Oswalt finds himself still not knowing how to use BS&A, the Township's accounting software, over three years into his term?
Treasurer Deserre Sauers took Oswalt to task at the February Board Meeting stating that there are already support mechanisms in place that the township pays for. Sauers expressed her willingness to offer her assistance to correct the situation.
Treasurer Sauers explained:
- BS&A (The Accounting Software Vendor) got everything set up according to the chart of accounts.
- There are no issues with financial reconciliation or numbers.
- The township pays for computer support for each office.
- If the township has a financial or ledger issue, help is a click away.
- Help for learning the program is available online.
- The Clerk can take training sessions, or BS&A will come out to the office.
- Help with journal entries is a phone call away.
- The township pays for support. Training is available.
- Norvell is too small to need an accountant.
- The Treasurer is glad to help the Clerk with any reconciliation issues.
With “Help is just a click away.”, as Sauers stated, and with all the mentioned support options available, why does Oswalt need to use taxpayer resources to pay for extra support? If he needs extra support, he should pay for it out of his own pocket.
Sauers also noted that Oswalt was ‘blocked’ from violating the Norvell Township Purchasing Policy.
Oswalt already paid $400 to Timothy Griffith for accounting services back in July of 2023. The exchange between Sauers and Oswalt suggests, Oswalt was going to spend more money without Board approval, until “It was blocked.”, as he put it. Who actually blocked it? When was it blocked?
At the February 2024 Board Meeting, Ethics Policy and Purchasing Policy Violation Complaints were filed against Clerk Oswalt and Supervisor Sutherland for a different matter (Read that story here). The township procedure for adjudicating these complaints is still an unknown as such a process was never included in the Ethics Policy when it was passed 4/1 back in 2017.
The Board has yet to make public what the township process is for handling such complaints despite requests from NorvellTimes.com to find out what the procedure is. So much for “believing in transparency” as Supervisor Sutherland and Clerk Oswalt have claimed over and over again.
One of the most important roles of elected officials is their fiduciary duty in overseeing the security of township assets. Clerk Oswalt seems to think he is above adhering to township policy. One could ask, where is the concern by the rest of the Norvell Board?
See the entire video of the Board discussion on this topic in its entirety below.
This story will be updated as new information is discovered.
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