By Brian Early
The Foster’s Daily Democrat
FARMINGTON, N.H. — Controlling behavior, not following protocol and people in positions not asking hard questions enabled the now imprisoned former Farmington fire chief to misappropriate more than $270,000 over a number of years that should have gone into town coffers.
Richard Fowler was sentenced July 1 in Strafford Superior Court to New Hampshire State Prison for 3 to 6 years and ordered to pay restitution for the amount he used personally, which is believed to be $216,109. The difference, although misappropriated from the town, was used to purchase equipment for the department.
This embezzlement is one of a few in recent years. In 2011, a former fiscal director for Somersworth Housing authority stole some $780,000 from the authority. In 2012, a former Dover school administrator stole more than $2,100 in student’s lunch money and $30,000 from vending machines.
How Fowler started taking money stems from a 2008 agreement between the town and Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where Frisbie would bill patients for Farmington Ambulance calls that involved a Frisbie paramedic. Frisbie would pay the town for the ambulance service. From 2008 to 2014, this amounted to $377,534. The town only received 28 percent of that money.
However, it was not the town that noticed irregularities. Instead, it was Farmington Deputy Fire Chief (now chief) James Reinert, who noticed irregularities in the Farmington Fireman’s Relief Association (FFRA) financial accounts, according to the investigation conducted by the Strafford County Attorney’s Office. The office investigated the matter, concluding in the conviction of Fowler. The following is information gleamed from a synopsis written by Strafford County Chief Investigator William Irving after he conducted interviews. These files were viewed by Foster’s Daily Democrat after Fowler was sentenced.
Next week’s article will look at what changes the town and the FFRA have made in the effort to prevent future occurrences of theft.
Investigation begins
The investigation began July 29, 2014, when Reinert and Farmington Police Chief Jay Drury met with Irving and Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi. Fowler had recently left the position of fire chief in Farmington to take the same position in Skowegan, Maine. Eleven days after the investigation began, Skowegan fired Fowler.
Reinert reported he believed “thousands of dollars were unaccounted for” in the Farmington Fireman’s Relief Association and suspected Fowler was the culprit.
Fowler was the fire chief for Farmington from 2004 until June 2014, and the town’s first full-time fire chief. A day before he was fired in Skowegan, Irving interviewed Fowler at the county’s office.
Fowler initially told Irving the Frisbie payments usually went to the town. Fowler said he had taken some of this money and deposited it into the FFRA’s account to be used for the purchase of equipment. “The chief said the town could not fund these items, so he decided to ... through the FFRA,” Irving wrote. “This was not done with the knowledge of town officials,” Irving wrote.
Later in the interview, Fowler told Irving, when the town approved the Frisbie agreement, the selectmen also approved the use of the money from Frisbie to purchase equipment for the department. In subsequent interviews with the town administrator and selectmen, all could not recall such an agreement, and the selectmen said they would have never agreed to such an idea. A review of selectmen minutes found no mention of an agreement.
Fowler also claimed he used money for conferences. Irving asked who approved the conferences. Fowler “said he approved his own attendance,” Irving wrote. After Irving presented Fowler with enough evidence, Fowler finally admitted to having a drug and gambling problem.
Richard Gladding, the former FFRA president and current member of the Farmington Fire Department, was initially notified of financial irregularities in February 2011, he told Irving. Former FFRA treasurer Roxanne Hodgdon told Gladding “there were some funny things going on in the accounts.” Gladding told Irving, according to the report, he approached Fowler about the discrepancy. Fowler told him he was using it to buy department equipment. “The chief said he was doing it and it was his issue,” the report said.
Gladding told Irving he had additional conversations about the money over the years, and the chief would always say he was buying equipment. “The chief offered no further information and again, Mr. Gladding did not inquire further.”
Hodgdon told Irving she “began seeing checks written to Chief Fowler. She was somewhat concerned, but she thought he was reimbursing himself for expenses.” She also told Irving she didn’t question the chief because she didn’t feel it was her place to do so. Instead, she brought it to the attention of Gladding.
Irving sifted through the FFRA’s “extremely disorganized and difficult to follow” treasurer’s files.
During the time Fowler was diverting money, Irving found FFRA had payments for airfare, hotels, restaurants, cellphones, vehicle repairs, PayPal purchases, a rental car and to a jewelry store, as well as several ATM withdrawals from both New Hampshire and Connecticut, and cashed checks made out to Fowler.
Hodgdon told Irving she would often give Fowler checks with her signature on it, and Fowler would fill out the rest. She told Irving she believed these were for department-related expenses, and she said she would often ask Fowler for receipts, but he would rarely give her any. She would have to figure out what the expenses were for from bank statements.
Michael Nadeau, the current secretary and treasurer for the FFRA, told Irving he first learned about irregularities of the accounts when Hodgdon’s husband passed away about three years ago. Nadeau said he offered to handle her role while she was away.
“But he was told by Mr. Gladding and Chief Fowler that Chief Fowler would take over the treasurer’s duties,” Irving wrote. "(Nadeau) thought that was odd, but let it go.”
Nadeau told the investigator about times when the group could use the money but were unable to do so. He mentioned a time when the FFRA discussed purchasing a vending machine. “Chief Fowler had strongly opposed spending money on the purchase,” Irving wrote.
Nadeau said he wanted to look at the accounts, because the group had to spend at least a little bit of money to “keep their status of a nonprofit organization,” the report states.
“Right after this meeting, [...] he was told by both Mr. Gladding and especially Chief Fowler to mind his own business and not to worry about the accounts and the money.”
Multiple FFRA members told Irving the only way organization money was supposed to be dispersed was through a majority vote during meetings. No one interviewed could recall any votes taken for the various disbursements Irving found in his investigation.
Nadeau would usually take notes at the meeting, and he would have recorded votes on expenditures, but he did not recall motions or discussion about the purchase of equipment, he told Irving. Nadeau “did recall fluctuations in the amount of the account and again thought this odd as they had not, to his knowledge, spent any money,” Irving wrote.
Nadeau “knew of no reason the FFRA would be issuing a check to Chief Fowler for thousands of dollars,” Irving wrote.
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(c)2015 the Foster’s Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.)
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