Goochland utilities department cleanup continues

Goochland County Utilities department issues run deep Scope of record-keeping problems surprised officials

The Goochland County utilities department has found most of its missing money, but now it's looking for its infrastructure.

As auditors begin a probe into years of utility finances, county officials are discovering just how deep the hole is in the department's record-keeping.

Community Development Director Don Charles, who assumed oversight of the department in December, said he is now working to identify revenue, expenditures and even basic utility infrastructure such as pipes, pumps, valves and manholes.

"I'm surprised at the depth of the fiscal administration and management issues that we're going to have to address," he said. "I never thought it would run as deep as it is."

Charles took control of the department amid a shakeup that saw the dismissal of the utilities office's manager and director and culminated in the resignation of 23-year County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey on Feb. 1.

That came after the discovery of nearly $200,000 in utilities checks that had not been deposited over more than five years. Most were found in cabinets, folders and a storage-room safe.

Now, Charles is working with staff toward an overhaul of the department -- a task he says is like starting from scratch, given the lack of records and organization.

Lane B. Ramsey, the former Chesterfield County administrator who took Goochland's helm in February on an interim basis, says the scope of the task has surprised him.

"I think Goochland is like many small localities across the state from an operation standpoint, doing things more on a day-to-day basis than planning things out and organizing things and documenting things," he said.

"Many times that happens because when a department is under stress to get things done and get a system built, they might tend to let the more administrative things not be done as they should be."

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Only recently has the utilities department been able to determine how much water the county is purchasing from Henrico County, and it is still trying to determine where it all goes and whether it is all accounted for, Charles said.

"That very fundamental information is something I thought, frankly, I'd be able to put my hands on fairly quickly, and I find that there was no system in place to do that without almost some black magic," he said.

Records show that Henrico provides about 3,000 gallons of water a day to Goochland at a cost of nearly $30,000 a month.

"The challenge is reconciling that purchase with, 'Where does it all go?' and 'Do we account for it all?'" Charles said. "I think all of that information exists historically on certain pieces of paper, maybe in certain files, some of it in people's minds, but there's been no comprehensive system where we can open up a file and look at it."

Until five years ago -- the same time checks began going undeposited -- Goochland's public water service grew slowly from its humble beginnings in the 1960s.

Since 2004, when a $63 million water and sewer district in eastern Goochland went online, the number of water-meter accounts has more than doubled from 500 customers to 1,100. That number -- roughly equivalent to three densely populated city blocks -- is still only a fraction of the total for neighbors such as Henrico, which has about 95,000 meters.

When Doug Harvey, the former utilities director, was hired as the county's sole engineer in 1989, he made $45,000. By the time of his dismissal last year, he was making $94,500.

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David Owen, president of the Goochland-based home-builder Boone Homes, knows about the utility department's problems. His company issued checks for $33,200 on three occasions starting in 2006. They finally cleared this year.

"Several times we'd go up there to pay and they'd say, 'Well, you've already paid that.' We knew we hadn't and finally we'd get it straightened out, but they were just overwhelmed and not sure how to run a utility company," he said.

In an interview with The Goochland Gazette last week, Harvey said he didn't know about the undeposited checks until they were found. He indicated that the former office manager, Sharon Swift, was responsible.

"I think [Swift] was overwhelmed at work and didn't let anyone know," he said.

By the time the checks were found, Harvey already had dismissed Swift for reasons he said were unrelated to the undeposited checks.

Swift, however, told The Gazette that she didn't know any details about the checks.

"I'm not sure what they were for, because I don't know what checks were held," she said.

A new countywide cash-handling policy was adopted by the Board of Supervisors this month. All but $3,601 of the undeposited $197,224 has been collected by the county, but new challenges continue to emerge.

"I think the critical issues are being addressed. For instance, I don't think you'd ever see checks being put in a file again," Ramsey said. "We are doing a lot of cross-checking to make sure that connection fees that have been paid throughout time on the system are actually customers that we're billing."

The accounting firm Keiter, Stephens, Hurst, Gary & Shreaves will begin a forensic audit of the department's finances early next month.

Commonwealth's Attorney Claiborne H. Stokes will oversee that investigation, which could cost up to $50,000. A comprehensive countywide audit costing about $15,000 also is set to begin in coming months.

"I can't say that there was any thieving, but if there wasn't, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen," said Board of Supervisors member Ned S. Creasey. He added that he thinks things could worsen, casting doubts on the quality of the infrastructure that has been built in recent years.

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Board of Supervisors members last week began interviewing candidates from a field of 70 for the position of county administrator.

Goochland resident and government watchdog Ann James says things can only improve -- and they are.

"It's still a mess and it never should've happened, and they've got nobody to blame but themselves because they weren't tending to business," she said. "But I think things are looking better. The public has a better feel for what's going on."

Charles, who now oversees the utilities department, agreed.

"The days of secrets are over," he said. "We're pretty comfortable that we've put out a lot of the major fires. Now we're deeper into the more systemic matters of, 'How do we keep it from happening again?'

"But it didn't get this way overnight," he added, "and we're not going to fix it overnight."

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .

Goochland Gazette editor Amy Condra contributed to this report.