Fawn Township works to fill rarely used 3-member board of auditors

It meets only once a year with one purpose, but Fawn Township's board of auditors' membership will be decided by a lottery.

Dave Montanari, township supervisors' chairman, said the board has not really functioned as an auditing group for almost two decades.

He said that's because the township has hired third-party auditing firms that do a more comprehensive job on the annual audits than a board of laypersons could, which is permitted under state law.

“We haven't had an auditing board do an audit for about 18 years,” Montanari said.

He said the only reason for the board to exist in Fawn, as required by the Second Class Township Code, is to set the wages for the supervisors for the times they work as roadmasters, performing public works duties such as plowing and salting roads in the winter.

The board's only meeting occurs after the supervisors' reorganization meeting at the beginning of the year.

Being a part of the three-member board is something that apparently is not popular with residents, as no one filed to run for the three available terms in the last election or staged a write-in campaign.

However, two residents whose names were written in on at least one ballot have agreed to fill two of the three terms, the two-year and four-year terms. However, Township Secretary Pam Ponsart said she has not received official word from the county on that yet.

Montanari said the reason for the drawing, which will be held by the Allegheny County Bureau of Elections, is because four people received a vote for the remaining term, which is for six years.

He said the way the process works is the county will contact them to confirm their interest. If they are interested, Montanari said they will be assigned a number and included in the drawing, which must be held before the supervisors meet to reorganize Jan. 2.

According to Montanari, for most of the last 18 years, the board has been made up of two of the auditors from the old board who were reappointed by the supervisors each year because nobody has been interested in running for it.

The last time the auditing board increased the roadmaster wages was about three years ago, when it bumped the hourly rate to $11.25. It had been at $10 for years, Montanari said.

Tom Yerace is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.