Town of Gaines – Town Clerk/Tax Collector (2021M-172) | Office of the New York State Comptroller

Issued Date

March 18, 2022

Audit Objective

Determine whether the Town of Gaines (Town) Clerk/Tax Collector (Clerk) adequately performed her financial duties.

Key Findings

The Clerk did not adequately perform her financial duties. The Clerk did not:

Deposit collections in a timely manner.
Perform bank reconciliations.

The Board also did not perform an annual audit of the Clerk’s records, as required by New York State Town Law Section 123.

Key Recommendations

The Clerk should:

Deposit all collections within the required timeframe.
Perform bank reconciliations to help ensure all money is properly accounted for.

Except as specified in Appendix A, Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action. Appendix B includes our comment on an issue raised in the Town’s response.

Background

The Town is located in Orleans County (County) and is governed by an elected five-member Town Board (Board) including the Town Supervisor (Supervisor). The Board handles the general management of operations.

The Clerk collects fees for a variety of purposes, including licenses and permits issued, and vital records. She is also responsible for collecting water rents billed quarterly to Town residents and businesses. Generally, all fees received by the Clerk are the property of the Town, County or State and must be promptly remitted to the appropriate parties.

The Clerk, who also serves as the Tax Collector, is also responsible for collecting and remitting real property taxes to the Supervisor and County Treasurer (Treasurer).

Quick Facts
2021 Real Property Taxes
County	$1,439,449
Town	624,357
Total	$2,063,806

2020 Water Rents	$341,015
2020 Clerk Fees	$15,123

Audit Period

June 1, 2020 – August 12, 2021