Audit Objective
Did Town of Paris (Town) officials properly manage the billing, collection and enforcement activities associated with water and sewer user charges?
Audit Period
January 1, 2024 – October 29, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
Strong billing, collection and enforcement practices are essential to ensure that water and sewer operations remain financially self-sustaining, equitable to users, and do not place an undue burden on ratepayers. These practices also help establish transparency, maintain the public’s trust and can help prevent errors, irregularities, waste, legal non-compliance and fraud.
For 2024, the Town collected approximately $175,000 in water rents and penalties on behalf of the Sauquoit Water District (Water District), and approximately $256,000 in sewer rents, surcharges and penalties on behalf of the Oneida County (County) sewer district (Sewer District).
Audit Summary
Town officials did not properly manage billing, collection and enforcement activities associated with water and sewer user charges and the Town Board (Board) did not authorize the water rates. As a result, the rates and charges may not have been transparent to the public and customers lacked assurance that the water billings were accurate and appropriate. Additionally, the Board did not provide adequate oversight and guidance to the Town’s water and sewer clerk (Clerk), increasing the risk of errors or irregularities that could occur without detection. Furthermore, because billing adjustments were not adequately supported and properly approved, erroneous adjustments could be made and/or adjustments could be made to conceal improper activity.
We determined the following:
- The Board did not approve all the water billing rates the Clerk used to bill water customers.
- The Board did not provide adequate oversight or implement compensating controls to reduce the risk involved with the Clerk performing nearly all duties related to water and sewer billing. Additionally, the Board did not conduct annual audits of the Clerk’s records, as required by New York State Town Law (Town Law) Section 123, to oversee water and sewer billing operations.
- The Clerk inaccurately recorded 124 check payments totaling $21,657 as cash in the billing system.
- The Clerk assessed late penalties on 24 water customer accounts that were in arrears for only 25 days. However, Town Law Section 198(3)(d) only authorizes towns to assess late penalties for unpaid water charges that are in arrears for 30 days or longer.
- The Clerk used an inconsistent and arbitrary process to identify overdue water and sewer account balances to be re-levied. We determined that 30 customer accounts had unpaid balances totaling $6,624 as of September 30, 2024. However, the Clerk did not include 20 customer accounts with unpaid balances totaling $1,639 in the annual statement (re-levy list) delivered to the County for re-levy on the property owners’ tax bills.
- The Board did not approve 34 billing adjustments totaling $5,461. In addition, the Clerk did not have sufficient documentation to support the need for 26 billing adjustments totaling $2,640.
The report includes 13 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s billing, collection and enforcement activities associated with water and sewer user charges. 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 Office of the New York State Comptroller’s (OSC) 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 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.