Audit Objective 

Determine whether Village of Penn Yan (Village) officials properly approved, monitored and controlled overtime costs of water treatment plant (WTP) employees. 

Key Findings 

Village officials did not properly approve, monitor or control overtime costs of WTP employees. As a result, water customers may have been unnecessarily burdened with unneeded overtime costs and higher pension costs associated with pensionable overtime earnings. For the period June 1, 2021 through November 22, 2024, we determined that: 

• The WTP operators worked three different schedules that incurred significant overtime costs totaling $338,108, which annually ranged between 28 and 32 percent of the total wages paid of approximately $1.1 million.
• The current Chief Water Operator accounted for the majority of the non-weekend overtime hours and 63 percent of these costs totaling $89,667. 

Additionally, the Department of Public Works (DPW) Director and Deputy Director did not approve overtime hours prior to the WTP operators working overtime as required by the Village’s employee handbook. 

Recommendations 

The audit report includes six recommendations which, if implemented, would assist the Board of Trustees (Board) in containing excessive amounts of overtime being charged to ratepayers. 

Village officials agreed with our findings and recommendations and indicated they have initiated or plan to initiate corrective action. Appendix C includes our comment on an issue raised in the Village’s response.