OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford The Central Avenue entrance to SUNY Fredonia is pictured.

The village of Fredonia’s undercharge of the State University of New York at Fredonia for water has turned into an election season issue.

The billing error, which occurred in 2017-18, was used by Mayor Athanasia Landis to help build her case that Fredonia should not have a village administrator. She blamed the previous administrator, Richard St. George, who resigned in July 2018, for the undercharge. The Board of Trustees later abolished the administrator position.

A former colleague of St. George’s, ex-Village Attorney Sam Drayo, came to his defense and used the issue to butt heads yet again with Landis during Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting.

“There was a report in the newspaper that you said there was almost $300,000 undercharged to the village. You stated, according to the press, that this was not a clerical error, according to the auditors, it was a deliberate act,” he asked Landis during the public comments portion of the meeting. “Did the auditors claim that this was a deliberate act?”

“It just shocks me that any auditor would ascribe a motive,” he added.

“I didn’t say that, the auditors said that — you’re asking my opinion on that,” Landis replied testily.

“In the paper, you’re quoted that the auditors said it was a deliberate act. I don’t know of any auditors that would ever say that,” Drayo said.

Landis: “I’ll answer in my report, Mr. Drayo. This is a discussion now. Do you have anything else?”

Drayo: ‘Well, this a serious charge and I wanted to ask about it.”

“Of course it’s a serious thing. Absolutely serious. I’ve taken it very seriously. Anything else?”

“That’s it.”

Soon after in her mayoral report, Landis said, “I’m repeating what they (the village auditors) said. It was an undercharge to the college over two years of almost $300,000. I asked the question, ‘Do you think that was a deliberate act or a clerical error’? They said, ‘It was deliberate.’ They said, ‘He knew what he was doing.'”

“I’m not an a auditor, I have no idea what’s going on,” she added. “I take the word of an auditor at its value. Same thing, I’m a doctor. If you’re a radiologist, you did the X-ray, I believe what you say.”

“Hard to believe an auditor would ascribe a motive to a mistake,” Drayo chimed in.

“There is not a motive,” Landis said

“When you say deliberate…” Drayo said.

Momentarily flustered, Landis then said to him, “I’m repeating something, you try to accuse me of something, all right? I did not do that, I did not say that, I’m repeating what the auditor said to me. We know where the money came from. Clerical error means that we don’t add up things …

“Maybe he forgot both years to charge them, I have no idea what the motives are. I know that they were there. Don’t try to accuse me of anything.”

“Forgetting is not deliberate,” Drayo said.

“$300,000 over two years is a big amount to forget,” Landis said.

“You’re ascribing a motive to a mistake,” Drayo insisted.

“OK,” Landis said. “Still $300,000 taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers’ money. As I said, this is not my audit. I did not audit anybody.”

The audit in question, done by Johnson, Mackowiak and Associates, can now be seen on the village website. It was not publicly available on Monday when the meeting happened and Drayo also criticized Landis about that.

She said it would be made available, and added, “Last year was the first year after almost 10 years … that the audit became public. Before that, this board never accepted an audit, never passed a resolution to accept an audit.”

The audit is dated Jan. 2, 2019 and covers financial statements through May 31, 2018. However, it includes a cover letter to village officials, which states, “During our audit we became aware of a matter that is an opportunity for strengthening internal controls and operating efficiency.”

The letter goes on to say, “However, consideration should be given to implementing new checks and balances that would partially offset the internal control weaknesses discussed below. During the current year audit we noted that the annual water and sewer billing to SUNY Fredonia was calculated incorrectly and sent to the college for payment. To strengthen internal control, the employees who are responsible for billing should bill these related costs and the Village Treasurer should approve the invoice before it is sent out.”

Fredonia did not have a treasurer prior to St. George’s resignation in July 2018, as he handled those duties. The Board of Trustees subsequently hired Jim Sedota, a village administrator for 30 years prior to St. George’s term, as treasurer.

The OBSERVER sought a comment on the matter from SUNY Fredonia’s vice president for finance and administration, Mike Metzger, last week, but he was out of town. Returning a voice mail, he confirmed that there was a billing error and referred further questions about the matter to Sedota.

The OBSERVER tried twice to call Sedota about it on Thursday. The first time, he was said to be on another phone call and the second time he was reportedly in a meeting. He did not return a message left for him.