O'side sanitary district subject of second audit

A second audit of Sanitary District No. 7 claims the district’s board provided poor oversight over internal operations and found three employees performing work out of title.

The audit, released Dec. 30, was former Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman’s second audit of the district, and focused specifically on the district’s internal procedures and controls. Weitzman claimed the three employees in question performed duties outside of their job titles, avoiding the civil service requirements for those jobs.

“The district made up its own rules for a small group of employees, while the majority of the laborers in the sanitary district had to play by the rules,” Weitzman said in the audit, adding that the salaries paid to those employees were higher than the typical range for the jobs they were performing.

Weitzman’s audit also claims the district did not seek proper approvals to use funds to fill a spending gap in 2006 — money he said could have been used to lower the tax rate. Sanitary District No. 7, which provides trash collection six days a week for more than 10,000 residents and more than 900 commercial businesses in Oceanside, is funded by taxpayers. According to Weitzman, residential and commercial property owners paid an average of $678 in taxes for garbage collection in 2008.

Jerome Cline, an attorney for the district, claimed the audit came with a bias against the special sanitation district. He said all of the employees in question have years of experience and are very well qualified for their positions. He also objected to the comptroller’s claim that the board lacks sufficient oversight, explaining that the five-member board carefully reviews each decision. The complete audit, as well as a full response from the district, can be found on the comptroller’s Web site, at www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Comptroller/Audits/index.html

This was Weitzman’s second audit of the sanitary district. The first, released at the end of October, examined the district’s employee benefits and compensation. The first audit alleged nepotism and favoring of employees, and focused specifically on benefits awarded to district officials, including the current general sanitation supervisor, Charles Scarlata, and the former general sanitation supervisor, Michael Scarlata, Charles’s father. Weitzman said he hoped the audits would encourage greater oversight of the sanitary district’s budget.