FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE: JANUARY 31, 2013
RE: PRESS RELEASE - CHIEF
SALZMANN
On January 24, 2012, we received a referral from Mayor Gallo of
the City of Kingston concerning time and attendance issues with respect to former Fire Chief Richard Salzmannn during
the years 2009 through 2011. Subsequently,
State Comptroller DiNapoli performed an audit of the Kingston Fire Department payroll
records in which they opined that Chief Salzmann had received $5,558.00 to
which he was not entitled according to the terms of his contract. That sum included payouts in excess of what
was allowed under Salzmann’s contract for compensatory time (overtime) and
vacation days. Following the Mayor’s
request, my office conducted an investigation into this matter. Our investigation revealed that, in addition
to the comptroller’s findings, payroll documents prepared by former Chief Salzmann
that had been filed with the City had been altered, which alterations would
have resulted in the former Chief’s receiving compensation to which he was not
entitled had not the City Comptroller uncovered these inaccuracies during his
audit.
Prior to modifications recently employed by Mayor Gallo the
compilation of payroll records for the City Fire Department was rather
rudimentary. Thus, our investigation was
complicated by a lack of payroll documents and a lack of checks and controls in
the compiling of said documents. These
are exactly the points raised by Comptroller DiNapoli’s report.
In 2009 the City renegotiated the Chief’s contract, in part, to
allow the payment of up to 80 hours of overtime payments per annum. Prior to this contract there was no provision
for the Chief to receive overtime payments.
In essence, the new contract allowed for the possibility of the Chief to
work in excess of 40 hours per week and receive overtime for same. If the Chief worked in excess of 80 hours
per annum overtime he would not be able to receive payment for same. In that event, he could exchange that
additional comp time, i.e. greater than 80 hours per annum, for vacation time.
The contract also provided that the Chief could have up to 37
days paid vacation per annum. If he
didn’t take the full allotment of vacation time, he could be compensated for it.
The vacation buyback was limited to
receiving compensation for no more than 30 vacation days per year.
In 2011, prior to the State Comptroller’s audit, the City
Comptroller observed what he felt were irregularities concerning the time
sheets submitted by Mr. Salzmann. He
explained his concerns to the Chief and asked him to review the time logs that
he had previously submitted and, if need be, to correct them. In essence, the City Comptroller believed
that the Chief had failed to properly account for the payout of seven vacation
days which, in effect, would have caused the City to overpay him for those
seven days.
Our investigation confirmed that the City Comptroller was
correct in his findings.
Instead of simply acknowledging the errors in the time log he
had submitted, we believe Chief Salzmann altered and resubmitted his vacation
accrual log for 2011. The resubmitted log
acknowledged the City Comptroller’s findings regarding the payout for seven
days vacation which he had taken but not included on his previously submitted
form. However,we believe he also altered
his records by “discovering” that he had claimed seven vacation days when he
was not actually on vacation and now sought to be compensated for the
previously claimed vacation days. In
short, the resubmitted payment logs netted out to zero.
We have reviewed both the State Comptroller’s findings and the
City Comptroller’s findings. We have
also met with former Chief Salzmann who offered a series of explanations for
the two auditors’ findings. Many of Mr. Salzmann’s
explanations, we believe, are plausible and remove much of this inquiry away
from a criminal prosecution. For
instance, Chief Salzmann claims, and we have confirmed, that the former Mayor
had expressly authorized the Chief to not claim some vacation days while the
Chief was admittedly on vacation, because, although not in the City, he was
called upon to work on Fire Chief matters.
A good example of this was in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane
Irene.
The matter of the filing of false payroll records, however, is
in my view criminal in nature and I have directed my investigator to file
criminal charges against Mr. Salzmann for four counts of Offering a False
Instrument for Filing in the Second Degree.
I compliment Mayor Gallo for his discovery of this matter and
the determined manner in which he has brought fresh transparency and
accountability to city government.
