GREENVILLE, Pa. - Greenville Borough Council decided not to take steps towards pursuing a forensic audit of its Fire Service Fund and Stormwater Utility Fund at a regular meeting Monday.

“I think we set a dangerous precedent if every time somebody makes an allegation about something with the finances, that we go out and spend tens of thousands of dollars to conduct an audit,” said Councilor Brian Shipley prior to the vote. 

The motion to authorize Borough Manager Jasson Urey to draft bid specifications for the audit, as recommended by the Budget & Finance Committee, failed by a vote of 5 to 2. Mayor Paul Hamill and Councilors Anne Butcher, Evan Hereford and Linda Zuschlag joined Shipley in voting against it, while Deputy Mayor Jean Carr-Fisher and Councilor Chad Bromley voted in favor. 

The action followed allegations made at a Nov. 24 meeting by Greenville resident Joel Rinella, who noticed transfers of surplus money from the Fire Service Fund and Stormwater Utility Fund to the Capital Reserve Fund in several of the borough’s annual budgets. 

Rinella accused the borough’s administration of misusing the funds, since the transfers were made from restricted funds to an unrestricted fund, even going as far as to call for Urey’s resignation. 

At Monday’s meeting, Rinella walked back some of his harsher rebukes, publicly apologizing to Urey and saying he does not believe anyone in the borough has deliberately misused funds. Still, he supported the audit, and said it was “disappointing” to see it voted down. 

“I think that there may be, say, misapplication of policy here. There may be some shortcuts being taken,” Rinella told 21 News. “I made a specific point of saying none of this is going in anybody's pocket here. … Things are just being misplaced.”

Urey said in an interview that Greenville’s finances are all above board, citing its annual audits, and explained that the borough is still limited in its use of Fire Service and Stormwater Utility Fund money even after it is transferred to the Capital Reserve Fund. The transfers go into specific accounts, he said, that are less liquid than the main funds but generate higher interest. 

“It's just an extension of the operating account,” Urey said. “But instead of leaving all that money — like, if you're saving to buy a fire truck, and you want to save a million dollars, instead of leaving it all in your operating account and drawing a 1.25% interest rate, you put it in a money market account, which is like 4.5% right now.” 

In explaining his “yes” vote on Monday’s motion to draft the audit bid specifications, Bromley told 21 News he wanted to “silence the critics” and show the “extreme” cost burden it would put on taxpayers to do a forensic audit, but did not believe there had been any inappropriate action taken.

Despite the vote, Rinella said he does not plan to stop asking questions about the borough’s finances anytime soon.  

"We've got a new board coming in, the committees are going to be restructured, so next year, I think we'll pick it up again,” Rinella said. “To be honest with you, I don't know if a forensic audit would have even answered all of these questions. … But there's still avenues to be taken.”