Woodhull Fire District needs to replace a fire engine estimated to cost about $1 million, but its commissioners have no written plan to pay for it, according to a state audit. The district is already making roughly $47,000 in annual payments on a tanker-truck bond through 2032, putting its long-term equipment needs at the center of a broader review of financial oversight.
The Office of State Comptroller's audit, issued Sept. 18, found the five-member board did not conduct required annual examinations of its secretary-treasurer's records, adequately review some bills before payment, or adopt a fund-balance policy and multiyear financial and capital plans. The district is based in Woodhull in Steuben County.
The findings concern how the board checks spending and prepares for future costs. Auditors compared bank statements with the secretary-treasurer's records for 2025 and found that she generally recorded and reported financial activity accurately. The report did not find that district funds were stolen.
Expensive equipment, limited planning
As of Dec. 31, 2025, Woodhull had $30,278 in unrestricted fund balance and $138,652 in a capital reserve, the audit found. The unrestricted balance equaled 21% of the district's 2026 budgeted spending. The board had no written policy setting targets for those funds or explaining when reserves should be built or used.
The board chair told auditors the next major replacement would be a fire engine about 15 years old and estimated at $1 million. He said he did not have a plan for the purchase because he did not know how the district could afford it. He described an earlier informal five-year capital plan and an equipment-replacement schedule kept “in our heads,” but auditors found no current written multiyear plan.
The secretary-treasurer said reserves were funded by moving leftover surpluses into them, rather than by an annual budget appropriation. She cited reluctance to raise taxes and the tanker-truck debt as barriers to building reserves. The audit did not recommend a specific tax increase or financing arrangement; it called for written projections of future equipment, operating costs, revenues and reserves so the board can weigh those choices before a replacement becomes urgent.
During 2024 and 2025, district revenue totaled $654,579 and disbursements totaled $655,496. Those two-year operating totals are separate from the estimated price of the future engine and the existing tanker bond.
Bills paid without adequate review
Auditors examined 55 of the district's 250 vendor payments from 2024 and 2025. They found that commissioners did not adequately review 14 payments totaling $19,737, about a quarter of the payments in the sample. The sampled payments were selected from four months, so the finding should not be treated as a rate for every district purchase.
The largest was $11,552 for flood repairs to a district-owned pavilion. Auditors found no evidence that the board sought the competition required by its purchasing policy, received adequate supporting documents, or approved the bill before payment. A $3,500 playground repair was also paid before board approval and without documentation of a competitive process. The secretary-treasurer said flood damage made the work urgent, but auditors found no board resolution explaining why normal purchasing steps could not be followed.
A $3,129 fire-equipment purchase lacked documentation of competition. The secretary-treasurer told auditors only two nearby companies sold the equipment and one would not provide a quote. The board also paid $75 for a restaurant gift card for a retiring commissioner before reviewing the claim; the restaurant belonged to another commissioner. The report did not make a finding that the purchase involved fraud, but included it among payments that lacked timely board scrutiny.
Seven utility and postage payments totaling $978 were paid before approval, and three payments totaling $503 included $37 in sales tax that the tax-exempt district should not have paid. Auditors said commissioners did not routinely examine canceled checks, leaving them unable to independently verify that payments went to the right vendors in the correct amounts.
Annual audit and training were missed
State law requires fire district commissioners to examine the secretary-treasurer's books and records annually. Woodhull's board did not request the check registers, bank statements, reconciliations, canceled checks and vouchers needed to do that review, the audit found. The board did receive monthly budget and revenue-and-expense reports, but did not verify them against the underlying bank records.
The chair attributed the lapse to new commissioners' inexperience and a lack of required fiscal-oversight training. All five commissioners had yet to complete that training when auditors reviewed the district, although the two newest members, who took office in 2026, were still within the law's 270-day completion period. Auditors said independent review is particularly important in small districts, where financial duties can be difficult to divide among employees.
Comptroller staff recommended nine changes, including annual audits of the treasurer's records, training, approval of claims before payment, documented competition for purchases over $3,000 under district policy, avoidance of sales tax, and written reserve and capital plans.
In a Sept. 8 response included with the report, board Chair Stephen Cady said he and the treasurer agreed with the findings and were working with commissioners on a corrective-action plan. State law requires the board to send that written plan to the comptroller within 90 days of the report. The audit does not establish which recommendations have been completed since the district responded.
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