By Erik German
Newsday
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
SELDEN, N.Y. — A special Suffolk County grand jury is investigating financial improprieties in the Selden Fire District related to shoddy record-keeping and excessive spending on conferences in Las Vegas and other cities over a five-year period, according to two witnesses who have testified.
Suffolk District Attorney spokesman Bob Clifford declined to give details but confirmed that a special grand jury with a six-month term was empaneled in November. That followed Newsday’s disclosure of spending and accounting problems in the district.
Experts said fire districts often face state comptroller’s audits but seldom are the subjects of criminal probes.
“A criminal investigation is extremely unusual,” said William Young, president of the New York State Association of Fire Districts.
One witness called by the grand jury said prosecutors asked about allegations that commissioners paid family members $75 for rides to airports, then falsified receipts for more expensive limousine rides and pocketed the difference.
“You have no idea what goes on,” the witness told a Newsday reporter.
A second witness said prosecutors inquired about conference spending habits by two sets of commissioners dating back five years.
A Newsday story on Nov. 1 disclosed that Selden commissioners have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars at dozens of conferences in Las Vegas, Orlando, Fla., and other cities over the last decade. Commissioners acknowledged routinely writing receipts on business cards, a practice the state comptroller discourages, and spending portions of their food allowance on alcohol, a nonreimbursable travel expense in New York State.
Selden is in the top 10 percent of Long Island fire districts in terms of population served and budget, which is $3.99 million.
Witnesses said at least six Selden residents with connections to the fire district have testified before the grand jury so far, including George Bopp and Salvatore Isabella, both fire department members; Judy McGregor, the wife of Fire Commissioner Thomas McGregor; Diana Santora, daughter of former Commissioner Robert Santora; Joanne Benzing, who shares a home with Commissioner Joseph Parenti; and fire district Treasurer Jeffrey Bailes.
All witnesses have been given immunity as a matter of state law and are not targets of the investigation, said Raymond Perini, the Hauppauge attorney representing the fire district. Commissioners have referred all requests for comment to Perini.
“We’re not at a point where anybody can comment,” Perini said. “We’re in the middle of the investigation, we don’t know where it’s going, and any person or record that’s subpoenaed we’ll turn over immediately and cooperate fully.”
Newsday contacted five of the six witnesses — Diana Santora did not return a written message seeking comment — and all declined to publicly discuss their testimony.
“It’s been really stressful,” Judy McGregor said at her front door Wednesday.
The scandal in Selden has cast a spotlight on fire districts, a layer of government that until recently has operated with little oversight. Indeed, some Selden volunteers say their efforts to raise funds for the department have been stymied by allegations against district officials.
“When the volunteers go door to door for donations, they’ve been getting doors slammed in their faces,” said a 36-year department veteran.
While fire departments are staffed by volunteers, fire districts are the governmental side of the operation. Fire commissioners, like school board members, are elected to unpaid boards that set department policy. The five-member boards levy taxes, approve budgets, buy equipment and even purchase land.
Although outside fiscal scrutiny of fire districts is relegated to state comptroller audits, recent state legislation requires greater accountability from districts, following a 2005 Newsday investigation. Most of those laws take effect this year.
Commissioners in Long Island’s 132 districts generally serve five-year terms, with one coming up for re-election each year. In Selden, Robert Santora — whose excessive conference spending Newsday detailed last year — was not re-elected commissioner in December.
Details of the allegations
A special grand jury in Suffolk County is investigating, among other things, whether Selden Fire District commissioners falsified expenses for limousine rides to airports and pocketed the cash. Other financial improprieties related to trips to conferences, uncovered by Newsday in November, include:
Commissioners acknowledged routinely hand-writing expense receipts on business cards, a practice discouraged by the state comptroller.
Commissioners acknowledged spending portions of their food allowance on alcohol, a nonreimbursable travel expense in New York State.
One commissioner spent $4,361 on conference meals and incidentals in 2005, more than four times what he would have been allotted by federal per diem guidelines recommended by the state comptroller’s office for traveling fire officials.
One commissioner who spent $1,045 on “miscellaneous” expenses in 2005 said it was for tips; federal guidelines would have allowed him $57 total.