Community Partnership’s building in Franklin Township. Holly Mead/ Special to the Eagle

Nearly three months after Butler County commissioners and state representatives called for a state audit of the nonprofit Community Partnership, Pennsylvania’s Department of the Auditor General is still considering whether or not it will grant the request.

In a letter recently acquired by the Butler Eagle, the department addresses concerns raised by Commissioners Leslie Osche, Kim Geyer and Kevin Boozel and state Reps. Aaron Bernstine, Tim Bonner, Marci Mustello and Stephenie Scialabba in an April news release.

“As we deliberate the potential of this audit, we would recommend other avenues that may be helpful to achieve a more immediate solution,” said the letter signed by F. Stephenson Matthes, chief counsel. “The office of the attorney general’s criminal law division or your local district attorney’s office can investigate and prosecute suspected improper activity.

“Furthermore, I’ve noticed that Community Partnership Inc. publicly posts their board of directors as well as their Form 990s, therefore, it may be worthwhile to engage individual board members for the information or clarification you seek.”

Since then, the commissioners have requested a meeting with the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development on Aug. 12 to discuss the situation, according to Geyer, who previously served on the nonprofit’s board.

“They’re the department which Community Partnership falls under,” Geyer said. “We will be meeting with their secretary to hear what their concerns are, and we’ll share our concerns and see how we can resolve those problems.”

An independent audit conducted on Community Partnership by Maher Duessel in 2023 raised a series of red flags for Butler County leaders, which led to the joint call for an audit this April that referenced “a pattern of financial mismanagement, transparency failures and violations of federal grant requirements.”

“Given the intermingling of federal and state funds, an examination of these funds creates unique challenges for our department,” reads the letter, dated on May 16, from Matthes. “We would also have to ensure that any audit objectives we might consider would not simply be a replication of the 2023 independent audit by Maher Duessel.”

His letter indicates a final determination will follow “in the near future.”

Sandra Curry, executive director of Community Partnership, told the Butler Eagle that the issues discussed in the 2023 independent audit have already been dealt with, and that she expects an updated independent audit for the following fiscal year to reflect that.

“Because we’re a year out, we probably will have dealt with anything that (Maher Duessel) might have found,” Curry said. “All of the what we outlined in our corrective action plan in our 2022-23 audit has all been implemented.”

Curry says that the information that the seven Butler County politicians are looking to have audited is long outdated.

“They’re not looking at anything current,” Curry said. “They’re not looking at current operations at all. The period they’re asking the state to look at was two years ago. … We’re a much different organization than we were then.”

Curry added that she has not had any direct contact with the Department of the Auditor General since the call for a state audit was announced.

Bernstine said state representatives were to meet with Community Partnership on July 7 at Scialabba’s office, but the meeting was canceled. He and Curry each said the other side was responsible for canceling the meeting.

A news release issued in April from the seven politicians involved also alleges that Curry canceled a planned meeting with Bernstine on April 11, claiming there was “no need to meet.”

However, Curry said the story behind the cancellation is more complicated.

“It didn’t appear that (the meeting) was necessary,” Curry said. “Bernstine called us out of the blue one day and asked for our board list … which is public, by the way. We went back to our advocacy organization, and they said, ‘Well, if that’s what he wants, you don’t need to go meet with him for that. Just send it.’ So we sent it. … We didn’t know that the audit request was coming.”

In May, after the Butler Eagle reached out, the office of the Auditor General declined to answer whether or not it had indeed begun the process of a state audit of Community Partnership. A search of the department’s records reveals that no such audit has taken place as of early July.

“We do not confirm whether an audit is underway, or the status of an audit, to maintain the objectivity of the audit process,” said a representative from the Department of the Auditor General.

Bernstine says that a state audit of Community Partnership is essential to ensure transparency in the way the organization, and organizations like it, have used state and federal taxpayer funds.

“If you look at who they’re supposed to serve, it’s those that are the most needy in our community,” Bernstine said. “It’s important that, No. 1, every taxpayer dollar is used wisely in our accounting, and No. 2, that those that have the most need are served. We want to make sure that happens all across Butler County.”

The independent audit by Maher Duessel — which is dated March 28, 2024, and covers the fiscal years ending June 30, 2022 and 2023 — found multiple material weaknesses in the nonprofit’s internal controls over financial reporting and major programs, and found that the nonprofit did not qualify as a low-risk auditee.

In particular, the audit resulted in five findings, including: a lack of segregation of duties processing cash, receipts and payroll; financial statements not being performed in accordance with accepted accounting principles; failure to comply with federal Community Services Block Grant requirements related to spending awarded funds within the specified time; and failure to comply with the requirements of the Community Service Block Grant Act by maintaining a tripartite board.

A “tripartite board” overseeing a CSBG-funded program’s membership must include low-income community members, private sector or community representatives and local elected officials. The Community Partnership was found not to have an elected official on the board.

In all five findings of fault, Community Partnership cited that the nonprofit agreed with the finding and would issue a corrective action plan. In a response letter issued in March 2024, Community Partnership executive director Curry said she submitted the corrective action plan.