The Butler County nonprofit that once served as the county’s food bank contractor again finds itself under scrutiny from local elected leaders, after a second consecutive independent audit turned up weaknesses in the nonprofit’s accounting.

The Butler County officials — who earlier this year called for an audit of Community Partnership by the Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor — reiterated concerns this past week after an the latest audit performed by Maher Duessel showed four findings similar to the previous year’s audit.

The recent audit, dated July 25, 2025, covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, and notes four findings of fault with the nonprofit’s accounting. All four were repeat findings from the audit, also performed by Maher Duessel, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023.

State Rep. Aaron Bernstine, R-8th, told the Butler Eagle on Wednesday, Aug. 6, that he was “appalled” by what he saw, going so far as to call this audit “significantly worse” than the previous audit due to the unsolved issues.

“They are getting a massive amount of their money from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Bernstine said. “They have clear material deficiencies in their processes that have not been resolved.”

A statement included in the most recent audit indicates Community Partnership received $679,000 in government contributions for the year ending June 2024.

Bernstine, the other three Butler County representatives in the state house and all three Butler County commissioners had called for a state audit of Community Partnership in April, citing the red flags that Maher Duessel uncovered in the fiscal year 2023 independent audit. They claimed “a pattern of financial mismanagement, transparency failures and violations of federal grant requirements.”

Community Partnership director Sandra Curry declined to comment when the Butler Eagle reached out on Tuesday. Curry previously told the Butler Eagle that the issues discussed in the 2023 audit were already been dealt with and that she expected an updated audit for the following fiscal year to reflect that.

Community Partnership functions as part of Pennsylvania’s Community Action Partnership, which is made up of nonprofit and public groups operating on a federally funded Community Services Block Grant with a mission to “ensure the causes and conditions of poverty are effectively addressed and to strengthen, promote, represent, and serve the Community Action Network.”

On its Form 990, the Butler County-based Community Partnership describes its mission as, “To mobilize partners to create transformative change.”

According to the nonprofit’s 2024 annual report, the nonprofit’s move to the former Artisan Catering Company property, at 781 New Castle Road, Franklin Township, midway through 2024 “laid the groundwork to transition the property from a restaurant to a resiliency hub” to offer interconnected physical, social, vocational, and environmental needs.

Earlier in 2024, Community Partnership provided supplemental food for over 11,000 Butler County residents while running the Butler County Food Bank, according to the report. Through June, the nonprofit coordinated the receipt, storage and distribution of commodity food for three federal food programs: The Senior Food Box program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the State Food Purchase Program, the report said.

The effort supported 33 food pantries and five community meal provides before operations were transferred to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank in the last half of 2024, according to the report.

Curry has said that Community Partnership still manages monthly food distributions at Lernerville Speedway and the Butler Farmers’ Market, along with the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank.

“The mission is to transform communities and improve the lives of people with low incomes,” Curry has told the Butler Eagle.

The annual report also notes the organization runs a Produce Cart that recorded $10,000 in sales in 2024, offers mini-grants to veterans with farms, and partners to offer the Fresh Bucks program that allows income-eligible individuals to receive $150 worth of coupons to be spent at Butler Farmers’ Market.

The recent audit indicated Community Partnership had failed to prepare financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles; failed to properly segregate the duties of cash disbursement and cash receipt; and finally, failed to comply with the requirements of the Community Service Block Grant Act by maintaining a tripartite board.

In a corrective action plan attached to the end of the 2024 audit, Curry detailed the measures that were being taken to address the findings. These included hiring two additional staff members to segregate the functions of cash disbursement and cash receipt, as well as hiring a new permanent accounting vendor.

The plan states that Community Partnership split from its original accounting vendor in 2022 and used a temporary accounting vendor from the start of 2023 to June 30, 2024 — the period of time covered by the recent audit. A new accounting vendor based in Pittsburgh was eventually selected.

The last of the findings indicates the nonprofit doesn’t maintain a tripartite board, or a board with public officials, low-income community representatives, and representatives from private or other major groups in the community.

On this, Curry said in her plan, “CP acknowledges that the elected official component of the board remains difficult to fill.”

Board members, as listed on the organization’s website, include Robert Shook, Roy Remone, Alyssa Mainhart, Chuck Stowe, Dr. Rhonda Clark, Rich Wilson, Tom Thompson, Bridget Galli and Shanea Clancy.

Butler County Commissioner Kim Geyer — who previously has served as Community Partnership’s board chairman — said earlier this week that she doesn’t believe that the corrective action plans in 2023 or 2024 have translated into any visible, concrete action.

“They had a full fiscal year to take corrective action and get their books in order and obviously chose not to,” Geyer said. “Unfortunately, it was not until a May 16, 2025, letter to the Auditor General … did any action begin to result.”

Bernstine said the issues he has encountered with Community Partnership are unlike any he has encountered with any other nonprofit in his district, which covers parts of two counties.

“I work very, very closely with a lot of nonprofits, not only in Butler County, but also in Lawrence County,” Bernstine said. “In my entire time in the legislature, this is the only organization that has been this negligent with taxpayer dollars.”

The three county commissioners, along with Curry, will meet with Rick Vilello, deputy secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, to discuss the situation.

Independent audits for Community Partnership before 2023 are not available on the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, where independent audits are publicly posted.

However, the text of the independent audit for another local nonprofit entity — the Butler-based Alliance for Nonprofit Resources — for the 2021-22 fiscal year notes that Community Partnership was once working in partnership with it.

As such, financial information for Community Partnership was included in ANR’s audits before 2023. In addition, before May 2022, management of ANR also oversaw Community Partnership.

“ANR is involved in related party activity with … Community Partnership, Inc.,” reads the audit. “In May 2022, common management was disbanded for Community Partnership. As such, Community Partnership will no longer be considered a related entity beginning in fiscal year 2023.”

According to ANR’s entry in ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, none of its independent audits from 2010 to 2024 turned up any evidence of material deficiencies.

Community Partnership’s 2024 audit notes that Butler County did not renew its contract with it to manage the county’s food assistance programs. The contract was still in effect at the time of the fiscal year covered by the recent audit.

“Certain grant contracts with the County of Butler were not renewed in the amount of about $165,000, which includes donated commodities,” the audit reads. “While these contracts had contributed to the Partnership’s operational scope, management does not expect their termination to effect (sic) the Partnership’s ability to continue operations.”

“At this point, the county no longer contracts with Community Partnership due to the nature of the findings noted in the year ended 2023 that did not result in corrective action,” said county Commissioner Leslie Osche.

Following the loss of the contract, Community Partnership moved to a new office on New Castle Road in Franklin Township in July 2024, leaving its old space on McCune Drive in Butler Township, which was leased from the county.