Settled McCartney V 146 ville reach agreement
Settled
McCartney, Vville reach agreement
VOORHEESVILLE Alan McCartney is hoping to put the past behind him.
McCartney, the former superintendent of the Voorheesville School District, and Anthony Marturano, the former assistant superintendent for business, were accused in January of 2006 by the state comptrollers office of inappropriately paying themselves $216,000.
A second audit released in November said that McCartney charged nearly $12,000 in personal expenses to the district in the two years prior to his July, 2005 retirement. Marturano was not accused in that audit and he has consistently asserted his innocence while McCartney has declined to comment to The Enterprise.
The school district brought legal action against the two men in an attempt to retrieve the money; it announced Monday that a settlement has been reached with McCartney. Negotiations with Marturano are ongoing.
Both McCartney and Marturano counter-sued the district, school-board President David Gibson confirmed at Mondays meeting.
"I really would rather just get past it," McCartney told The Enterprise on Tuesday. "We have our settlement."
Gibson said at Monday’s meeting that the settlement is "an agreement not to disclose in public," but it could be obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request. The Enterprise submitted a FOIL request for the documents on Tuesday, and has not yet heard back.
Superintendent Linda Langevin said yesterday that The Enterprises FOIL request had been submitted to the school districts attorney, who will notify McCartneys attorney.
"That’s not unusual," said school board Vice President C. James Coffin of the "not to disclose in public" nature of the agreement. "That’s the agreement that was reached by the attorneys." Coffin did agree that the matter was of public interest.
In a memorandum from Langevin to the school board, dated Aug. 14, the costs to the school district at that time were outlined, and totaled nearly $102,000.
On Monday, Langevin said that it seemed unlikely the school districts legal fees will be covered by insurance.
Following the first audit announced by former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, an investigation into the allegations was conducted by Albany County District Attorney David Soares’s office. It found that there was no basis to prosecute the two retired administrators. Soares said the school district’s "weak internal controls" are what likely led to the problems.
Following the November audit, Soaress spokesperson, Rachel McEneny, told The Enterprise that the case was being reviewed. "It will go to the Public Integrity Unit of this office," she said at the time. A call made Wednesday to the district attorney’s office was not returned.
"A lot of effort has been made to improve our processes over the past year," Gibson told The Enterprise yesterday. "We’re glad to be tying up these loose ends, so we can turn more of our attention to issues like educating our children."
