No charges
Civil suits pending for McCartney, Marturano

VOORHEESVILLE — The Albany County District Attorney has found no basis to prosecute two retired Voorheesville school administrators whom the state comptroller had accused of "inappropriately" paying themselves $216,000.
After months of investigation, District Attorney P. David Soares wrote in a June 22 letter to the school’s attorney that his office had concluded ""no theft of federal funds occurred and that criminal liability cannot be assessed against Drs. McCartney and Marturano."
At a press conference on Jan. 24, Comptroller Alan Hevesi had accused former Superintendent Alan McCartney and former Assistant Superintendent for Business Anthony Marturano of authorizing payments to themselves without the school board’s knowledge or approval. Joseph Pofit, the school board president at the time who lost his reelection bid in May, said at the conference that the board was "outraged" the former officials would purposefully manipulate people and internal controls to enrich themselves.
Soares says that the school district’s "weak internal controls" are what likely led to the problems.

The Enterprise obtained a copy of the June 22 letter from the district attorney’s office on Wednesday. It is addressed to Norma Meacham of Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, LLP, an Albany law firm.

Voorheesville Superintendent Linda Langevin told The Enterprise last night that the district is still pursuing its civil suits against McCartney and Marturano. She said the board spoke with Meacham in executive session Monday night and all of the board members agreed to continue with the suits.
Soares’s letter states, "We determined that the contracts between the Board of Education and Drs. McCartney and Marturano likely violated New York State contract and education law and contained impermissible provisions; however, they did not violate New York State penal law. The contracts were negotiated in good faith and we believe they properly reflect the intent of the parties."
Soares’s letter goes on to say, "Dr. McCartney submitted a large vacation buyback upon retirement. It appears Dr. McCartney believed he was entitled to payment for his full annual vacation allotment because he was employed on the first day of the fiscal year. The district and Dr. McCartney disagree as to whether he was entitled to the full year’s vacation despite his retirement in July. The contract is ambiguous. This is a contract dispute over which our civil courts have jurisdiction."

After repeated requests under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, The Enterprise earlier obtained copies of the contracts from the school district and found many ambiguities, including questions on which copies of contracts were valid.
"I didn’t know which was the correct contract," Langevin told The Enterprise last night. "Some of the language was ambiguous."
She declined to comment further on the contracts because of the pending litigation; the truth, she said, "will come out in that venue."
Asked if the board’s posture had changed, since its earlier stance of outrage, Langevin said, "They have seen the letter and are reflecting on it."

When The Enterprise, on Wednesday, called the new board president, David Gibson, elected Monday, for comment, he referred questions to Langevin.

Gibson did say in a prepared statement, transmitted to The Enterprise via e-mail by Langevin, "This has been a long and arduous process for the entire school, and particularly the district office. Although there were internal controls that were weak, actions have been implemented to correct those problems"."
Langevin described the overall feeling of the board and district as one of "relief."
"Voorheesville is an excellent school district with wonderful people," she said. "It is in everyone’s best interest to complete the task we need to complete and move forward. It is a relief to know there was no criminality involved."

Langevin said what worried her most, through the whole ordeal, was the effects on the children in the district.
"They have stood up under the pressure and done very well," she said. Referring to the announcement of no criminality, she said, "I was hoping this would come before the graduation" but at least now those graduated seniors will know.

Civil suits to proceed
The district filed the two suits, one against each retired administrator, in January, on the same day as the press conference, to try to recoup the funds. The court papers say that, by reason of the board’s "longstanding fiduciary relationship" with McCartney, it relied on him "for information and overall management of district personnel."

Board members took no responsibility for approving many of the payments. They claimed that McCartney and Marturano where purposely deceitful, and well aware what they were doing was not allowed.

When McCartney’s and Marturano’s contracts were up for renewal, the lawsuits allege, in 2002 and 1999 respectively, both men convinced the board that they were entitled to being reimbursed for unused sick time, so the board, through resolution, approved paying them extra money in their salaries over the course of three years before retiring. This also boosted their retirement packages, the school district claims in the suits it filed.

Hevesi said that McCartney, who retired in July of 2005, paid himself an extra $127,388 over the course of his 16-year tenure.

Marturano was accused, by Hevesi, of collecting $89,069 over the 11 years of his employment, until his retirement in 2002.
He steadfastly denied wrongdoing from the start. "I cannot say in strong enough terms, I did not do anything improper," Marturano told The Enterprise in January, the day after the press conference. "I’m shocked and surprised by the whole thing"My good name is now mud.
"Dr. McCartney and I were devoted to that school," Marturano said from Port St. Lucie, Fla., where he moved after retiring.

McCartney, who lives in Voorheesville declined throughout the ordeal to comment to the press on the advice of his lawyer, he said. Yesterday, he did not return a call from The Enterprise.

DA’s view

The three-page June 22 letter from Soares details the case’s background and the district attorney’s investigation. In response to multi-million-dollar fraud and embezzlement uncovered in the Roslyn School District on Long Island, the state legislature mandated the comptroller’s office to audit every school district in New York.

Voorheesville, with an annual budget of about $19 million, was selected as one of the first districts outside the downstate region to be audited.
"By late fall, the Comptroller uncovered weak internal controls and questionable expenditures amounting to more than $216,000 in its initial phase of the audit," the letter says. "The Comptroller also identified the former Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, Drs. Alan McCartney and Anthony Marturano, as the wrongful recipients of much of the funds."
During the early months of the audit, the Voorheesville School Board engaged attorney Dennis Curtin of Harris Beach PLLC "to pursue civil action against Drs. McCartney and Marturano," the letter states. "In December 2005, the District issued demand letters to each of the alleged wrongdoers. Drs. McCartney and Marturano engaged attorneys to defend themselves."
After the press conference on Jan. 24, Pofit and Curtin met with the district attorney’s office "and requested that our office investigate and prosecute Drs. McCartney and Marturano for larceny, fraud, and official misconduct," the letter says. "They claimed that the Board of Education had been defrauded by Drs. McCartney and Marturano through a conspiracy that included the former School Business Official and Current Assistant to the Superintendent for Business."

This last is a reference to Sarita Winchell who was earlier cleared of wrongdoing and, after a brief hiatus, returned to her job.

The district attorney’s Public Integrity Unit investigated the matter; spokesperson Rachel McEneny said the unit was created by Soares and this was one of its first investigations.
"In early February 2006," the letter continues, "the Albany County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant at the home of Dr. McCartney and secured computers, financial records, legal papers, and calendars. The computer records were delivered to the New York State Police for forensic analysis"," the letter says. "Also in February 2006, the United States Department of Education Inspector General provided three Special Agents to assist in the investigation and analysis of the records obtained from the District."
The special agents and an assistant district attorney interviewed the past president and vice president of the school board and various school officials. The district’s $17 million capital project was also investigated and "no irregularities" were discovered, the letter says.
The letter goes on, "Along with the Voorheesville Central School District’s current superintendent, Ms. Linda Langevin, we discovered through interviews and analysis two distinct periods accounting for the majority of the questionable expenditures. Both of these periods had either a change in personnel responsible for tracking vacation days and payments or an absence of the person responsible for making the accounting entries at the end of the fiscal year."
The letter concludes, "The Office of the Albany County District Attorney agrees with the finding of the Office of the New York State Comptroller that weak internal controls at the Voorheesville Central School District likely led to the unjust enrichment of Drs. McCartney and Marturano."

New controls

Langevin went over some of the many controls the school district has implemented since the comptroller’s investigation began.
There are now a separation of duties, she said. "We no longer have one business office employee going through a procedure from beginning to end," Langevin said.
And, she went on, "Supervision is done now in a very directed way by the assistant superintendent for business."

Also, for vacation and sick time, each administrator now signs off.
"There’s a safety net, if errors are made in entering data, a supervisor oversees that," said Langevin. "I sign off on all payrolls."

Twice a year, every district employee has to show up in person and sign for a paycheck, said Langevin.

Additionally, recommendations outlined by Betty Cure of the New York State School Boards Association, covered by The Enterprise earlier, have been implemented, Langevin said.

Cure and an internal auditor will meet on July 24 as a follow-up and report to the board on their findings in August or September, she said.

Langevin, whose specialties had been in special education and curriculum development, has now taken accounting courses, she said.
"I need to have a thorough knowledge," she said. "There’s no sense in having another set of eyes look over things unless they’re an informed set of eyes."
She concluded, "We’re not going to be another Roslyn. We’re going to find closure and go on from here."