Delaware County (NY), the one that claims that it does not have inventory of equipment bought with taxpayer money, bought new cars. Where did the old ones go?

In May of 2015, a scandalous audit of New York State Comptroller showed that Delaware County, NY allowed its social workers to use County-issued cars as their own, and allowed their workers to sell good cars "for scrap" for $350 to their friends, see the complete official audit report here.

Despite the audit, and even despite the allegedly pending at this time FBI investigation, the Delaware County did not become more diligent or cautious with taxpayer money.

The Delaware County adamantly claimed in response to my FOIL request that it does not have inventory (which means, it does not do accounting) of printing and scanning equipment bought with taxpayer money. 

Considering that the audit of the New York State Comptroller found in May of 2015 that Delaware County allowed its workers to

• not only use County cars for their own (which I personally observed when I still lived in Delhi, when social workers dropped off their kids on the Legion field for various sports activities, stayed to watch the game and then loaded their kids back into County cars to transport them home),
• but also to sell good County cars for scrap to their family and friends, and considering the trick of "surplus sales" with printing and scanning equipment that Otsego County has been caught doing recently -

the lack of inventory of printing and scanning equipment can only suggest that printers and scanners in Delaware County are also sold for peanuts to family and friends, and that's why the inventory is not available, at least for FOIL requests.

Then, Delaware County also claimed that its monthly cell phone bill is on 321 pages - that is in a poor rural County

• with under 50,000 people,
• with a population that continues to dwindle while the government, and the taxes, continue to grow, 
• a County considered the 10th worst to live in in the United States, with 2nd highest heating and cooling costs in the country, seconding only Alaska. 

While many people at high levels of the County government ran recently, and a new, but not so new, insider Acting County Attorney Amy Merklen was recently installed, it appears that Delaware County continues to buy new expensive equipment, while not having a proper accounting of what happened to the old equipment.

Recently I received a tip from Delaware County, NY, with the following pictures:

The reader also sent me a message indicating: "lately we have been noticing a whole line of new cars for the county & the police, the licenses plate have the lettering AH OR AD as well as the line of cars seem to be of a higher class, not your standard government car like the Nissan SUV *(PATHFINDER) in this pic which happens to be bought from a dealership in Ulster County.

 

Village police has two new unmarked vehicles One is a all Black, I think it's a Dodge Challenger & the other one I will have to ask what the make is".

As a Delaware County taxpayer - even though I do not reside in the County, I have to pay County taxes on the properties we have in the County - I have a question that I will surely be asking the brand-new Delaware County Chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors - did Delaware County struck a gold mine somewhere?

• Horses for crowd control in a ghost County?
• $7,000 imported police dogs?
• 321 pages of a County cell phone bill?
• A lot of county officials resigning - and no inventory of taxpayer funded equipment?
• And now - Nissan SUV new county cars?

Smells like a lot of rats to me.

I will make sure the feds will know about this new and exciting development in Delaware County history of use of taxpayer money.

And, of course, I will publish what the County says NOW to FOIL requests, to specific questions -

1. were these new vehicles purchased at a competitive price at a public auction, or again without public bidding, and, likely, with kickbacks to County officials who were in charge of buying these vehicles?
2. was buying these new cars within the County budget?
3. what funds were used for new cars?
4. who specifically, which County officials have got those new cars?
5. how many cars were bought?
6. what cars and how much was paid for each?
7. where did the old cars go -

was there a public auction?  Did they go to the highest bidder?  Or were they, as in the "good olden times" distributed amongst family and friend, as "scraps".