At least $75,000 missing from senior center

By Colin Tiernan
Douglas Budget
Via Wyoming News Exchange
 
DOUGLAS — “The IRS man came into the senior center, flashed his badge and said, ‘Where’s our money?’” Converse County Aging Services Board Member Faye Perry said. That’s when the board learned something was amiss in their finances. 
CCAS learned of the missing funds in early August, a couple weeks before the primary election when voters approved the Senior Citizens Service District. After that, the more they dug, the more money they found was missing. 
Marnie Zamora, the former CCAS bookkeeper, has been charged with embezzling from the centers using 19 forged checks. But those 19 checks, including five totalling nearly $5,500, were apparently just the tip of the financial iceberg for CCAS, which operates the senior centers in Douglas and Glenrock. 
So far, officials say, they have discovered far more missing: At least $75,000 is simply gone, and even more money is unaccounted for, according to CCAS Board Chairman Doug Johnson. The internal and police investigations are ongoing. 
As bookkeeper, part of Zamora’s job was to send payroll taxes to the IRS. 
“The reason we fired her was because of the Internal Revenue Service, about employee payroll taxes,” Johnson said. An investigation into CCAS’ books began after that. Johnson said he cannot share the specifics of the missing funds until the investigation ends. 
The money Zamora allegedly spent on her personal mortgage payments is separate from the missing IRS payments, officials cautioned. 
“The issue brought up in the paper with Marnie, that’s a different issue compared to the IRS,” former board member Helen Romero said. “One is taking money from the senior center and one is not making payments that needed to be made.” 
“As far as the IRS goes, she just did not pay that,” Johnson said. “I don’t know where that money went or even if it’s missing.” 
Some senior center members met with the Converse County commissioners Tuesday to address the missing money. Johnson and other CCAS officials were not present but several were interviewed by the Douglas Budget separately. 
Commission Chairman Rick Grant said that Zamora allegedly manipulated the books, which in this case were kept on an accounting software program. 
“When it came time for the meeting she’d go back and correct those and pass out the corrected copy,” Grant said. “So checks and balances matched what the board was looking at, until we started getting calls from the IRS or the tax entities or whoever it may be.” 
While the forged checks dated back to March 2018, the investigation is showing missing funds beginning before this year, Perry said.
CCAS hasn’t had a full audit in five years. “We’ve had little ones, but not full-fledged ones,” Perry said, “which really just touch(ed) the tip of the iceberg.” 
The board wanted an audit, members said. They voted for one last year. “It was never done,” Johnson said. “We even went as far as hiring a person. None of the paperwork from the center, that she (Zamora) was in charge of, ever made it to the person going to do the audit.” 
Johnson said that, after approving the audit, the board asked Zamora at subsequent board meetings how the audit was progressing. 
“We would ask her at our board meetings why the audit was not being done and she just didn’t know,” Johnson said. “And we talked to the person going to do the audits and she said, ‘Well, I’ll have it done on such and such a date.’ She never indicated to us that she did not have any of that paperwork, either.” 
While what happened after that is in dispute, several board members said the cost of doing a full audit, as opposed to a less expensive financial review, was discussed as CCAS was feeling the financial pinch of shrinking revenues. 
Tuesday, Cheri Reese asked the commissioners whether CCAS’ financial difficulties were a result of Zamora’s actions. 
“No, I think there’s a bigger underlying problem there,” Grant said. “The programs that were offered to you, I don’t think were ever jeopardized. It was those additional funds that went to pay payroll tax, some of those other funds that weren’t getting passed on, that now come back to this existing budget, so now we have to make up that difference.” 
Grant said that the alleged embezzlement might affect CCAS through this year’s budget but wasn’t responsible for overall financial difficulties. 
The commissioners pointed out that, with the implementation of a special district, which was passed in the August primary election, audits will now be required and financial oversight will be stricter. 
Back in June, the Budget published a story describing the financial difficulties experienced by CCAS, and the then-proposed special district. Zamora initially agreed to provide the Budget with CCAS financial records, but didn’t, despite several requests. 
A new board will be formed in November as part of the new special district. Those board members, who will be begin serving in January 2019, will be responsible for handling funds. The special district money won’t start to flow in until December 2019. 
“You trust your bookkeeper, and it’s the director’s responsibility to work with your bookkeeper and keep up on it,” Perry said. 
CCAS Director Nancie Fink declined to comment for this story.