New auditor wants something to do

Peggie Williams

During their January 13 meeting, Carroll Township supervisors met new township auditor Frank Snyder, the only person who ran for and was elected to the position. Snyder wanted to know how soon supervisors will make appointments to fill the other two auditor positions for which no one ran, so they could start working. Township Secretary Faye Romberger explained that there was very little for the auditors to do since the township uses an accounting firm to do the actual audit. Their duties consist of establishing the bond amount for the treasurer and setting the salaries for township supervisors should they ever need to assist the road crew.

“Back when I started here in 1987, the budget was only about $250,000, and the elected auditors actually did the audits,” she said. “But as the budget grew, and no one ran for the auditors’ office, the job went to a professional firm.” The current Carroll Township budget is just over $3.2 million dollars. Snyder insisted that according to a 73-page manual sent to him by the state of Pennsylvania, the auditors were supposed to more than that.

Township Solicitor Duane Stone explained that elected auditors were no longer used anywhere and the concept was so out of date that the Pennsylvania State Association of Townships has asked the state legislature to eliminate the positions all together.

Snyder said he didn’t think he’d been elected “to just rubber stamp an audit I’ve never seen” but if those are the supervisors’ wishes, he felt they should talk about “where to go from here.” He suggested that he and any other auditors could work in unison with Smith Elliott, Kearns & Company, LLC, the company that was appointed earlier that meeting to do the audit for the 2019 audit. The township approved advertising for persons to fill the open auditor positions, but Supervisor Brian Schmick informed Snyder that they had done that for the four years that he has been on the board and no one had ever stepped up.

In other business, supervisors reviewed their options for the traffic light design that might be installed at the intersection of Route 15 and Mountain Road/Harrisburg Street. Township Engineer Phil Brath presented supervisors with two different design options. Their preference, which was the most uncomplicated design, will be forwarded to PennDOT for consideration.

For more information see the January 23, 2020 edition.