Audit Objective
Did Village of Youngstown (Village) officials maintain leave records and make payroll payments that were accurate, properly approved and adequately supported?
Audit Period
June 1, 2023 – June 24, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
Payroll payments, including regular salaries and wages, overtime and payments to employees for unused leave accruals or other benefits upon separation from service, represent a significant portion of a village’s annual budget. To properly control and account for these costs, village officials must ensure employees only receive the compensation and benefits approved by a village board to which they are entitled, and time records adequately support and document employees’ hours worked, and leave earned and used.
For the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Village’s budgeted appropriations totaled $2 million, with employees’ salaries, wages and benefits accounting for approximately $800,000 (40 percent) of the total.
Audit Summary
Village officials did not maintain leave records or make payroll payments that were accurate, properly approved and adequately supported for all six of the Village’s full-time employees and one part-time employee. As a result, in certain circumstances, employees received leave accrual payouts, used leave hours and accrued compensatory time without proper support or approval. Additionally, employees were not always paid accurately.
Specifically, Village officials extended collective bargaining agreement (CBA) benefits to four employees without first ensuring that there was Village Board (Board) authorization to extend the benefits. This resulted in two employees being paid $9,802 in leave accrual payouts without proper approval or support.
Village officials did not approve 273 leave request forms, resulting in a total of 1,524 unapproved leave hours. Additionally, two individuals who previously worked in the Clerk-Treasurer title credited themselves with compensatory time without oversight or approval from another Village official. In total, we identified four employees who accrued a total of 313 hours of compensatory time without employment contracts, a local law or Board resolution authorizing such benefit.
Furthermore, Village officials made inaccurate payroll payments to three employees totaling approximately $2,500 between June 1, 2023, and January 25, 2025.
The report includes 10 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Village’s leave accrual and payroll processes. Village officials generally agreed with our findings and indicated they plan to initiate corrective action.
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 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 Clerk’s office.