• Stolen public funds: Municipal thefts in Central Mass. near $1M

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• By James F. Russell Correspondent
  
  Posted Jan. 2, 2016 at 5:14 PM
  Updated at 6:32 AM
  
  

  The indictment last month of a former Hubbardston woman brought to nearly $1 million the amount allegedly stolen in recent years by municipal employees in the area, and those thefts raise questions about how effectively local and state officials are dealing with these crimes of opportunity.
  

  Cynthia Washburn-Doane, who had been on the job a quarter-century, pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzling more than $500,000, starting in 2004, at the Dec. 23 arraignment before Judge Shannon Frison. However, no detailing of how the alleged crimes occurred was revealed in open court. Her next court appearance is scheduled on Feb. 8. No trial date has been set.
  

  Brimfield's former Town Treasurer, Kirsten Weldon, pleaded guilty a year ago in Hampden County Superior Court to stealing $80,868 from the municipality, was sentenced in April to 90 days in jail, and ordered to make restitution.
  

  A former Brookfield municipal clerk, Beth Conant, was sentenced in February to a year in jail, the result of a plea agreement, and ordered to make restitution. An investigation revealed she stole $43,947 from the town.
  

  And concerns about Marcia Langelier, 63 – the indicted former Barre tax collector charged more than two years ago with stealing in excess of $300,000 - that prosecutors say funded a casino gambling habit - began popping up no later than 2010, when town officials said there was $1.2 million in uncollected taxes.
  

  She resigned the next year when the town began a forensic audit, and she was charged with the crimes in 2013. Her alleged pilfering began around 2005, authorities say, but as of yet, no trial date has been set in Worcester Superior Court. A compliance hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22.
  

  In some instances in these cases, local officials were reluctant to tell the public what was going on when they first suspected trouble and declined to provide information to shed light on what was happening. Prosecutors who were called to investigate also disclosed little to explain the problems, saying they did not want to jeopardize the probes, even as litigation in one case has dragged on for years.
  

  The most recent indictments in the region extend a troubling pattern of public corruption from the not-too-distant past. A former Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical School District treasurer/business manager, Paul R. Blanchette Sr., was convicted in 2001 of stealing $5.46 million from the 10-town district. An ex-Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School business manager, Anthony J. Katter Jr., was convicted of embezzling $1 million from the district in 1993.
  

  Besides prosecution, there remains the question what is being done to address the latest fraud cases in the region and whether recommendations from the state Department of Revenue to help communities end the fraud are being followed.
  

  A spokesman for the DOR, Daniel S. Bertrand, said the agency has developed a number of “best practices” they share with the commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns. They include the need for annual audits. The DOR also strongly recommends that local officials, such as tax collectors and treasurers, who handle money, be appointed instead of elected to ensure qualified individuals and accountability in those offices.
  

  Some cases take longer to investigate and prosecute than others, but resources are not the reason for the pace of these probes, assures Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.
  

  Explaining the delay in moving the Barre case along, Paul Jarvey, spokesman for Mr. Early, said Ms. Langelier did not procure legal counsel right away, despite “being ordered by the court to do so. When an attorney was appointed for her, she wasn't satisfied with his work and a new lawyer had to be appointed. She also filed a motion to dismiss. That is certainly her right, but it accounts for part of the delay.”
  

  Attempts by the Telegram & Gazette in 2012, via public records requests to obtain the management letters to Barre’s annual financial audits from 2005 onward, were rebuffed.
  

  The town’s counsel, in August 2012, said that portion of the document is not a public record. The counsel, attorney James Baird, cited a state law that states: “Memoranda or letters relating to policy positions being developed” are exempt, to deny the request.
  

  However, the DOR, in a four-page letter detailing best practices for cities and towns, related to audits, says otherwise: “State law requires communities to submit completed audits to the DOR Director of Accounts . . . It should be noted, as well, that an audit report is a public record.”
  

  On Wednesday, the newspaper submitted to the DOR a public records request for the management letters involving the Barre audits.
  

  “Effective use of the audit report recommendations can assist the community in improving its financial controls and practices. The result will be protection of community assets, potential upgrades in a community’s bond rating, and increased public confidence in the government,” the DOR says in the letter, which is titled “Annual Audits.”
  

  The agency “encourages communities to have an independent audit performed by a certified public accountant each and every year.”
  

  However, in smaller communities that receive less than $500,000 from the federal government, there is no requirement for an independent audit, the DOR letter says.
  

  The independent audits are contracted by the board of selectmen. Barre, Brimfield and Brookfield have three-person elected boards; Hubbardston's has five members.
  

  An acknowledgment there may have been substantial looting of Hubbardston town coffers occurred when then-selectman Matthew Castriotta, at a candidate’s forum in May 2014, mentioned problems with ex-tax collector Ms. Washburn-Doane. He did not provide additional information during that event.
  

  At the time, Mr. Early's office would only confirm an investigation had begun, and Town Administrator Anita Scheipers acknowledged Ms. Washburn-Doane had abruptly resigned but would not elaborate, saying it was a confidential personnel issue.
  

  The newspaper made a public-records request last year to obtain the Washburn-Doane resignation letter, but the administrator refused to provide it. However, Ms. Scheipers, at the time, said the collector’s resignation was related to revelations from a Scanlon & Associates town audit that discovered tax collection rates substantially less than the norm.
  

  While law enforcement is often reluctant to provide information during investigations to prevent harming a potential prosecution, part of the reason the public is often in the dark is a failure for local government officials to obey public records laws.
  

  According to a watchdog group, the public records laws should be reformed to eliminate a perception that it is OK to keep the public in the dark, according to the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
  

  “A lack of transparency is a problem,” the MFA’s executive director Paul Craney said in an interview.
  

  “Crimes with taxpayer money being taken is wrong and egregious,” he said. “We need to streamline how the public can obtain information – there has to be best practices to keep the cost low.”
  

  The MFA website describes the organization as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to improving the quality of life in Massachusetts by advocating for fiscal responsibility and good government solutions.”