Byron dinged in state audit for poor record keeping in town court

A state Comptroller's audit of the Town of Byron found what might be deemed sloppy bookkeeping in the town court.

While no money is alleged to be missing, several traffic tickets may have gone unpaid.

The audit report dings the town for not conducting annual audits of the court to ensure its books are balanced and items are sufficiently recorded.

Going back to 1985, 629 tickets issued in the Town of Byron are still listed as "pending," including 11 in the 1980s and 84 in the 1990s.

Auditors selected 25 tickets at random to determine what happened to them and found that 13 were either dismissed, a fine was paid, or the case was transferred to another court even though they were still listed as pending with the DMV.

Seven tickets had not being enforced by the court until auditors inquired about them, according to the report.

When fines are not paid on tickets, they are supposed to be reported to the DMV as "scofflawed," and that apparently did not happen with these tickets.

"Every town justice is required to present his/her records and dockets at least once each year to be examined by the Board, or by an independent public accountant," according to the report. "In conducting the review, it is important for the Board to determine whether the Court has effective procedures to ensure the Court’s financial transactions are properly recorded and reported, and that all monies are accounted for properly."

Typically, there is some segregation of duties in a town court, but in Byron, according to the report, the justices (Daniel DiMatteo and James Lamkin (for most of the period of the audit)) performed all of the accounting and reconciliation duties themselves.

"The lack of segregation of duties make the annual audit even more important, however, Town officials failed to provide sufficient evidence that annual audits of the Justices’ books and records were conducted," the report reads.

In response to the audit, the town board informed the Comptroller's office that it will create the position of court clerk and hire a person for the job and perform annual audits of the court records.