John Marks

The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)

(TNS)

Chester County found a consistent pattern of mixing public and private money, payroll problems and deposits into an unknown bank account related to the Richburg Fire Department.

As a legal case against former fire officials proceeds, county officials are turning their attention to making sure those activities never happen again.

“This is all about accountability,” said Chester County Council Chairman Pete Wilson. “And it’s not always comfortable. It’s not always easy.”

Council heard a two-hour report Monday night detailing the failings at the fire department related to its finances over the past five years. The county hired an independent firm to review the case that led to indictments of three officials on six counts related to misusing funds.

Gov. Henry McMaster suspended Chester County Councilman John Agee last month for his alleged role. Agee faces two counts of conspiracy to commit obtaining goods under false pretense. The former Richburgh Fire Department chief allegedly bought vehicles for personal use that were supposed to be for the department.

Former Chief Stewart Tyson Melton was charged with three counts of misconduct in office and two counts of obtaining signatures by false pretenses after he allegedly sold Agee two police pursuit vehicles he bought from state surplus after claiming they were for the fire department.

Melton also allegedly took public money by misrepresenting the department’s response after Hurricane Helene. Former department Zachary Daniel Gibson faces one count of misconduct in office for the same incident.

Court dates haven’t been set. While Agee’s name came up several times Monday, the independent review of fire department finances is unrelated to the ongoing legal cases, Wilson said.

“The criminal investigation and the indictments that came from it are not—have never been—the responsibility of this council,” he said. Fire department findings show financial concerns

Last September, two whistleblowers submitted complaints to the county alleging misconduct by then-Richburg Fire Chief Melton, Assistant Chief Michael Ehrmanntraut and Gibson.

The allegations included inflating volunteer rosters to meet grant eligibility thresholds, misusing volunteer incentive and tax credit programs, falsifying incident reports and EMS billing, obtaining federal and state funding under false pretenses and delegating certified duties to unqualified staff.

“There was a lot of information and details that came out about the lack of financial transparency surrounding asset purchases, and ultimately some undisclosed accounts,” said Tommy Morgan with the Camden-based Smith Robinson, the law firm hired to review the case.

The county started the review last October. It removed 10 bankers boxes of records from the fire station, generating more than 11,000 pages of documents. More than 57,000 files and emails were taken from two laptops.

Personnel and training files, bank and credit card statements, accounting records and meeting minutes were among the items reviewed.

The review included 15 interviews with whistleblowers, current and past fire department officials, volunteers, county employees and neighboring fire department contacts. Reviewers twice met with state law enforcement and the state attorney general’s office.

Agee and Melton declined to be interviewed, Morgan said, as did Stephanie Broom who served as an accountant for the fire department. Broom is Agee’s daughter. Fire truck purchase causes financial questions

In one instance, the review found the fire department purchased a $74,000 truck using personal loans and an unofficial bank account prior to the county approving money for the purchase. That was one of several issues showing a “clear and consistent pattern of co-mingled funds,” said Holly Carr, auditor with public accounting firm BDO USA.

The review found Agee had an active role in department finances, something that isn’t typical for a county councilman.

In the past three years, 93% of the new or modified transactions in the fire department’s QuickBooks account were made by Agee or Broom. Agee made more than 54% of them. Often, Agee made the initial entry and Broom modified it.

“It could be corrections,” Carr said. “It could be for a variety of reasons.”

The county recently dissolved the fire board and took over accounting for the department. County officials were initially told there were five financial accounts related to the department, according to staff. Within a few weeks there were 10 confirmed accounts.

The fire department overstated hours worked on payroll, according to county officials. Some employees weren’t set up in the retirement system, while some wages weren’t properly reported to the state or federal government, according to the review.

Some part-time employees got full-time benefits, according to the county, and the fire department didn’t follow county procurement policies to make purchases. The county allocated $2.9 million to the fire department in the past four years.

The Richburg department is one of 11 units that serves Chester County through its rural fire program. County officials look to improve fire service

Details in the review were especially disheartening, Wilson said, given how emphatic Agee has been in recent years that he doesn’t meddle in fire department affairs.

The 54% of fire department accounting transactions the past three years that Agee signed off on tell a different story, Wilson said.

“He would say, I keep a distance,” Wilson said. “Am I right? So this is a really striking number to me, because he was not keeping a distance.”

Recommendation from the review released Monday include bringing personnel and financial decisions from the department under the county, using the same county rules other public departments would.

“It’s all about holding people accountable, and this council still has a lot of work to do to make sure that happens,” Wilson said.

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