How Much Did She Spend Without Approval from Mayor or Council? City Hall trying to recover $320,000 in Attorneys Fees She gave to Former Deputy County Executive Jay Hashmall
DA Rocah Investigating, NYS Comptroller DiNapoli Issue Brutal Report, Former Deputy County Executive Jay Hashmall Paid $300,000 in Taxpayer Funds Not Approved by the City Council
NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli issued a scathing report against former Mount Vernon Comptroller Deborah Reynolds, who during a two-year period between 2018-2020 changed back accounts, started paying some bills and invoices without the approval of the Three member Board of Estimated, made up of the Mayor and the Council President, started making electronic payments to some vendors in an effort to elude watch of the City Council and two Mayors (Thomas and Howard), did not pay many vendors, incurring overdue fees, court judgements and fines that also tarnished the financial reputation of the City, and spent more than $320,000 on legal fees to defend her against all of the accusations listed above, all of which were confirmed by DiNapoli’s audit.
“The lack of operational controls and failure by the former city comptroller to complete basic financial functions contributed to Mount Vernon’s fiscal crisis,” DiNapoli said. “It is time for city officials to turn the page and overhaul their fiscal operations. I am encouraged by the response of Mayor Patterson-Howard and the city council and urge them and the new city Comptroller Darren Morton to act immediately to implement our recommendations.”
Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said, “I believe the report accurately confirms the dire concerns and challenging issues we’ve endured since the beginning of this administration. The audit report is proof and documentation of gross negligence by former Comptroller Reynolds. I believe this audit report showcases a lack of transparency, lack of segregation of duties, manipulation of policies and the need for further criminal investigation by the New York State Attorney General and Westchester County District Attorney.”
Mayor Patterson-Howard called for an investigation one year ago. Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s office said after the comptrollers’ report was issued that “We are aware of the OSC report. The OSC report presents very serious issues and the community is understandably concerned. Since we are in the midst of an ongoing investigation, we will have no further comment at this time.”
DiNapoli’s 55 page report details numerous instances of improper expenditures by Reynolds. DA Rocah’s investigation will determine if any of Reynolds actions rise to a criminal offense. DiNapolli’s report, which can be read in its entirety at
shows how Reynolds created a financial system of payments, bank accounts, and online transfers, that she used to without payments to some vendors while paying others. Millions of dollars in transactions were made by Reynolds without the required approval of the Mt. Vernon Board of Estimate, made up of the Mayor, Council President and Comptroller. A majority of the Board of Estimate is required to make any payments. Reynolds unilaterally decided to circumvent the Mount Vernon City Charter to concoct this scheme.
“The former Comptroller did not properly or transparently account for all non-payroll disbursements. Her failure to provide financial information or perform her duties resulted in the untimely payment of claims and litigation. As a result, the City’s reputation with its vendors was damaged and the City paid for additional, potentially unnecessary, disbursements related to litigationm,” writes DiNapoli.
Reynolds made more than $150 million in unauthorized electronic transactions. Some of these transactions were legitimate payments of bills and invoices for services provided to the city. But the way in which Reynolds created the new system of payments, around the authority of the Mayor and City Council, resulted in more than $1.2 Million in late fees or lawsuits against the city for lack of payment, that the taxpayers of Mt. Vernon must pay for.
Reynolds also decided on her own to spend $281,000 on a firewall and cloud based management system without the approval of the Mayor or the City Council. And Reynolds used this new system to hide payments or lack of payments to the Mayor, City Council and Department heads, who did not know whether vendors were getting paid.
DiNapoli’s audit also found that Reynolds created a wire trasnfer system of electronic payments for expenditures with a bank without the approval of the Board of Estimate.
Reynolds claim that eveything she did was to protect the taxpayers is disputed by Mayor Patterson-Howard who said that DiNapoli’s audit “raises serious concerns about how much money has truly been moved around in the miasma of (Reynolds’) office.”
One inncoent person, and Veteran, who got caught in Reynolds web of financial deception was Kristyn Vanderberg-Reed who was promoted to a position in City Hall that gave her a raise from $59,000 to $90,000. The raise was approved by the Board of Estimate, but Reynolds never gave her the salary increase, claiming that it would be a waste of taxpayer money to do so. Vanderberg-Reed had to sue the city for her salary increase.
But while there were some innocent victims of Comptroller Reynolds, there were others who benefited from her nefarious financial oversight. Attorney Jay Hashmall represented Reynolds in the many challenges to her conducting financial transactions without the lawful approval of the Board of Estimate.
Hashmall is the former Deputy County Executive under Andy Spano. Hashmall was paid $327,938 for his services to Reynolds. But a court ruled that the City of Mount Vernon and its taxpayers did not have to foot the bill to defend Reynolds for her questionable financial actions.
“On September 27, 2021, the Court held that the City’s statutory scheme was disregarded by the former Comptroller when retaining outside counsel. Further, the Court held that “[t]o empower all public officials to retain independent counsel, whenever it is deemed desirable, effectively unilaterally empowers them to create municipal debt to the detriment of the public,” according to DiNapoli’s report.
The payments to Hashmall were not budgeted by the Mayor or Council. So what accounts did Reynolds use to pay Hashmall? “We received numerous complaints from City officials regarding the former
Comptroller’s use of outside counsel, including questions regarding the permissibility of their retention and where the funds were coming from to pay her outside counsel, given that the City’s budget did not include appropriations for such expenses by the Finance Department,” writes DiNapoli.
Reynolds used money from the Law Departments budget, and for budgeted funds for Labor Counsel and outside counsel, to pay for Hashmall. Reynolds also used “Unauthorized Electronic Disbursements of $223,545 to the former Comptroller’s outside counsel were made through unauthorized electronic disbursements,” according to the audit.
On February 19, 2021, the City commenced a lawsuit against the former Comptroller, the law firm she retained, the primary attorney who has represented her,” writes DiNapoli. The lawsuit continues to try and recoup some of the money paid to Hashmall.
Our headline asks if Comptroller Reynolds stole money from the taxpayers. The next question is how much money did she cost the taxpayers of Mount Vernon? We count more than $2 Million from above, the most ridiculous being, “$11,699 for work performed to replace a bullet proof door within the former Comptroller’s office,” according to DiNapoli’s report.
The question that DA Rocah must determine is whether Reynolds actions rise to a crime or are just incompetence.
