Audit Objective
Did the Town of Windsor (Town) Board (Board) properly manage its highway garage capital project (Project)?
Audit Period
March 1, 2022 – October 24, 2024.
We extended our audit period forward to December 31, 2024 to document the change in Town Supervisors (Supervisor).
Understanding the Program
The elected five-member Board, composed of the Supervisor and four Board members, is responsible for the general management and control of the Town’s operations and finances including overseeing and managing capital projects. The Board must ensure that projects are properly planned, procured and managed, funding is appropriate and costs are kept within the approved budget.
The Town includes the Village of Windsor (Village) which requires the Town to separately account for and use the funds of town-wide (TW) and town-outside-village (TOV) residents. TW funds are used for the benefit of residents of an entire town, including a village. TOV funds are used only for the benefit of residents in the portion of the town outside of the village. Consistent with language set forth in New York State Town Law (Town Law), it has been the view of the New York State Office of the State Comptroller (OSC)1 that construction costs of a town-owned building is a charge to TW residents rather than TOV residents.
In March 2022, a fire at the Town’s highway garage resulted in a total loss of the structure and the equipment stored inside. The Town secured funding totaling $7.5 million to construct a new highway garage and began reconstruction in 2022 at a total cost of $6.7 million.
Audit Summary
Although three Project construction contracts totaling $4.8 million were properly procured, the Board may have made material alterations to bid specifications for two other contracts totaling $1.2 million, which brings into question whether they were properly awarded. Additionally, although not required by the Town’s procurement policy (Policy), the Board could have solicited some type of competition and documented the results to help provide assurance that one professional service contract totaling approximately $382,000 was obtained under the most favorable terms and conditions possible and without favoritism.
When Town officials do not seek or properly document competition, taxpayers have less assurance that purchases are made in the most prudent and economical manner, without favoritism and in compliance with applicable statutes.
Furthermore, Town officials partially funded the Project with $1.5 million in TOV funds and did not have adequate documentation to support how the funds were used or that the appropriate tax base was charged. Therefore, we question whether TOV fund balance was spent on the construction of the Town-owned highway garage. If the money was expended to pay for the highway garage, it has been the view of OSC that construction costs of a highway garage should be derived from TW funds. Otherwise, when TW funds are not used to construct a Town-owned building, taxpayer inequities can occur as the costs are disproportionally placed on TOV residents.
The report includes three recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s capital project management.
Town officials agreed with our recommendations and, their response is included in Appendix B.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the State Comptroller’s authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law (GML). Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report should be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of the GML. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review in the Town Clerk’s office.
1 See, e.g., Opn St. Comp. No. 81-14