Williamsport Williamsport has 30 days to reimburse the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for $1.4 million it claims it owes for financial mismanagement.
In a letter to Mayor Derek Slaughter, FTA’s chief financial officer, Theresa J. Kohler, stated that the debt was caused by the conduct of William E. Nichols Jr. Nichols was River Valley Transit’s (RVT) previous general manager.
The state attorney general’s office in Dauphin County has accused Nichols with stealing and tampering with records. He is charged with embezzlement of almost half a million dollars in federal, state, and local funding.
His preliminary hearing has been waived, and he is scheduled to appear in court in February, according to the court docket.
According to Kohler’s letter, the FTA, with the help of a Maryland-certified public accounting firm, undertook a special assessment of grant agreements with the city for the July 1, 2015, to December 30, 2020 period and found that the city owes $1,483,706.
According to that review, RTV paid $27,815 on a gazebo that isn’t being used as a bus stop, made $871,370 in ineligible drawdowns, and spent $584,519 on unapproved uses, she added.
Among the problems the FTA discovered with the city were inadequate records of the expenditure of cash and the amount of time staff members spent on planning.
Furthermore, drawdowns totaling about $300,000 were declared ineligible due to the inclusion of indirect charges, for which the city lacked an approved rate.
A salt shed and siding on two buildings, one a former transportation museum that is now being used as a temporary police headquarters with City Hall condemned, cost the city $584,5198, according to the financial analysis.
A grant for the construction of three bus stops provided the funding for the gazebo in the Nichols Place neighborhood. According to Kohler, the $27,815 must be reimbursed because the gazebo serves no transit purpose.
Similar to the statewide grand jury presentation that resulted in Nichols’ charges, other conclusions were as follows:
According to the letter, the city produced copies of two emails showing that Nichols would sign procurements on his own, as though he had complete authority, but infrequently took them before the city council as needed.
Kohler informed the city that the debt would become delinquent, interest would be assessed, and the FTA would impose additional administrative fees if the $1.4 million was not paid back within 30 days.
Slaughter said he had forwarded the letter to the city’s lawyers and had no more comments. The city has 30 days to ask that the amount and legitimacy of FTA’s claim be reviewed.
The regional bus service is no longer run by the city. With effect from July 1, 2022, it established the River Valley Transit Authority.
When Nichols began his first term in January 2020, Slaughter dismissed him.
In addition to managing RVT, Nichols oversaw the parking authority, served as the city’s finance director, and served as the administration director under Mayor Mary Wolfe from 2004 to 2008.
The criminal case’s declaration of probable cause is rife with accusations of financial mismanagement, falsified invoices, and phantom workers.
The grand jury concluded that Nichols was essentially his own boss with little effective monitoring because the city permitted him to hold these positions for such a long time.
According to the report, mayors and municipal councils frequently showed deference to him and hardly questioned his budget suggestions for financial management directors because of his extensive institutional expertise and power, which dates back to the 1980s.
The following are some of the accusations made against Nichols, who was mayor eight times:
Attorney General Michelle A. Henry stated at the time of the accusations that there is no proof Nichols utilized any funds for goods or personal gain.
Stories by
John Beauge