Petty Cash

Mayor James L. Usry denied yesterday that he improperly used funds from his $1,000-a-month municipal petty-cash fund, and said he was confident officials would find no evidence of misuse. Usry's expense-account records from the time he took office in May 1984 to the present were subpoenaed in December and January by a state grand jury investigating alleged corruption in Atlantic City. After the city refused to let reporters examine the documents, the Press, an Atlantic City newspaper, filed suit seeking access.

When City Council President John F. Street and Councilwoman Anna C. Verna met over lunch last year with Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, they ordered out: three lobsters and three seafood platters from the Philadelphia Lobster Co., and salad from the Wall Street Deli. The $55.44 bill was paid with Council's petty cash, an account whose vouchers reflect the appetite, tastes and, some Council members say, the hard- working nature of the city's governing body. Last fiscal year, City Council spent more than $8,000 on meals, snacks and beverages for repasts during budget hearings and morning and evening meetings of the Philadelphia Independent Charter Commission, according to vouchers filed with the City Controller's Office.

The Police Department is investigating "the state of the petty cash fund" of the borough in the years 1988 to 1992, Borough Solicitor William Pugh 5th said last night. Pugh declined to be more specific about the scope of the investigation or who might be its targets. The petty cash fund was found to be "in disarray" after an audit was performed last year, he said. Neither Pugh nor any council members would give details on the amount of money in the petty cash fund during the four-year period.

All right, whodunit? Who swiped the mayor's petty cash fund? Just the facts ma'am. (Cue the theme music: Dum da dum dum.) Friday, Jan. 22, 1988. The keeper of the petty cash for Mayor Goode, one Regina Albergo, files a form titled "Report of Loss Due to Shortage, Theft, Damage or Irregularity. " Someone, she said, had heisted $165.02 from the fund. The box was supposed to be locked. The door from the office leads to a hallway patrolled by police officers. Thinking that there may have been a bookkeeping problem, the administration did not report the incident to police, a spokeswoman for Mayor Goode said.

Fired Norristown Police Chief Thomas Stone is a victim of borough hindsight, his attorney argues. After five years without an audit, he says, the borough dismissed Stone for depositing drug-evidence money into a petty-cash fund. The mayor and the borough administrator and solicitor argue that Stone deliberately disobeyed their recent orders and went against standard procedures for cash evidence as set by the state Drug Forfeiture Act. Those arguments were aired in a three-hour session Thursday night, the third before the Norristown Civil Service Commission, which is hearing Stone's appeal of his May 18 dismissal.

In an uncharacteristically brief meeting - only two hours - Thursday night, the Abington Township Board of Commissioners voted to hire a new zoning-board solicitor and to rehire a retired township employee. The new solicitor is Bruce J. Eckel. Eckel was reappointed just last month as a member of the Zoning Hearing Board. As zoning solicitor, he replaces John T. Acton, who last month became solicitor for the township. As zoning solicitor, Eckel will earn about $10,500 a year.

A longtime employee of a Warwick clothing-catalogue company has confessed to stealing $220,000 from the firm over five years, state police said yesterday. Winifred Mannion, 63, of Elverson, told police last month that she had "taken the money so that her children could have a better life," according to a police affidavit. She was arraigned last week before District Justice James V. DeAngelo on charges of theft and receiving stolen property. Mannion was released on bail and faces a preliminary hearing on Friday.

She embezzled more than $234,000 over six years, prosecutors said, and spent most of the money at Acme Markets, Wawa, and occasionally restaurants. "Nothing exotic," said G. Michael Green, the Delaware County district attorney. Marianne J. Rossman, 55, of Clifton Heights, yesterday was charged with 24 counts of felony theft, arraigned, and released after posting bail. Authorities allege she embezzled from a doctors' practice in Ridley Park, the Cardiovascular Group, where she had worked as a bookkeeper since 1991.

As the FBI broadened its investigation of the Sheriff's Department to include thousands of dollars in petty cash expenditures for auto repairs, City Council yesterday continued to press for its own inquiry. Council voted unanimously to hire a legal consultant to help direct an investigation of the Sheriff's Department by Council's Legislative Oversight Committee. The vote came after the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, which is directing the FBI inquiry, expressed concerns that a Council investigation, with its public hearings, could jeopardize the FBI probe.

Because of the city's financial troubles, there is no free lunch - at least not at the City Planning Commission. In the latest symbol of the city's plunge into penury, members of the commission have been told to bring their own lunch to meetings. The word went out yesterday in a memo from Barbara J. Kaplan, the executive director. In the past, the nine commissioners have helped themselves to cold cuts, cheese and sodas while the staff briefed them on the agenda. No longer.

She embezzled more than $234,000 over six years, prosecutors said, and spent most of the money at Acme Markets, Wawa, and occasionally restaurants. "Nothing exotic," said G. Michael Green, the Delaware County district attorney. Marianne J. Rossman, 55, of Clifton Heights, yesterday was charged with 24 counts of felony theft, arraigned, and released after posting bail. Authorities allege she embezzled from a doctors' practice in Ridley Park, the Cardiovascular Group, where she had worked as a bookkeeper since 1991.

Buy a box of plain white envelopes - and get a free seven-piece barbecue set? That, in effect, is what happened in the city Commerce Department, according to an audit released yesterday by the City Controller's Office. Digging into its petty cash fund, department employees have purchased binders, cellophane tape, and other office supplies from vendors that do not have negotiated city contracts. That inflates the bill to buy those supplies, such as a container of envelopes that cost $29.90 from an unauthorized vendor vs. $13.26 from the city-established supplier.

Fired Norristown Police Chief Thomas Stone is a victim of borough hindsight, his attorney argues. After five years without an audit, he says, the borough dismissed Stone for depositing drug-evidence money into a petty-cash fund. The mayor and the borough administrator and solicitor argue that Stone deliberately disobeyed their recent orders and went against standard procedures for cash evidence as set by the state Drug Forfeiture Act. Those arguments were aired in a three-hour session Thursday night, the third before the Norristown Civil Service Commission, which is hearing Stone's appeal of his May 18 dismissal.

The chief of police sat at home yesterday as borough administrators began an investigation into why $1,300 cash confiscated as evidence in a drug case ended up in the department's special fund. Mayor Ted LeBlanc, who suspended Chief Thomas Stone with pay Friday, said he did not expect the investigation to be completed for one or two weeks. It was prompted after Montgomery County District Attorney Michael D. Marino looked into the matter last week, later calling it a violation of protocol, not a criminal act. "We don't want to go off half-cocked.

A longtime employee of a Warwick clothing-catalogue company has confessed to stealing $220,000 from the firm over five years, state police said yesterday. Winifred Mannion, 63, of Elverson, told police last month that she had "taken the money so that her children could have a better life," according to a police affidavit. She was arraigned last week before District Justice James V. DeAngelo on charges of theft and receiving stolen property. Mannion was released on bail and faces a preliminary hearing on Friday.

Carmine DeSopo, superintendent of Burlington County Special Services School District and GOP candidate for the Seventh Assembly District, yesterday answered Democratic charges that he has mismanaged the district's money by daring anyone to punch a hole in his bottom line. DeSopo said that he has saved taxpayers $100 million during his 23 years with the district, and that if anyone can prove otherwise, "I'll eat my hat. " He saved, he said, by renovating instead of building; streamlining his administration; using staffers and students themselves to improve and maintain the facilities; and providing a quality education for the county's mentally and physically handicapped students at a cost far below that of private schools.

The former assistant executive director of the city's AIDS Task Force testified yesterday that numerous petty-cash receipts and checks that Francis J. Stoffa made payable to himself were for items never used or needed by the agency. Roger D. Armstrong, who was Stoffa's assistant director, testified that none of Stoffa's purchases of magazines and books, with titles including What Color Is Your Parachute? and The Commanders, were at the agency at 1642 Pine St. Armstrong said that although his own name appears on an agency receipt as purchasing a $22.49 book, The Commanders by Bob Woodward, he said he never heard of the book and did not buy it. Stoffa, who was executive director of the city's oldest AIDS service agency for eight years before resigning in April 1994, is accused of stealing more than $200,000 from the agency and using it for personal benefit.

Admitted embezzler Susan W. Minnett came to Burlington County Superior Court in Mount Holly yesterday, her duffel bag packed for her imminent trip to prison, and told officials she was ready to pay back $1,000 of the money she had taken. That leaves her with $249,000 to go. Judge Donald Gaydos sentenced Minnett, 48, of Berlin Township, to three years in prison, and ordered her to pay back at least $250,000 of the $425,000 that prosecutors say she stole from her employer, Food Sciences Corp.

Bucks County authorities have charged two male students at a Fairless Hills Catholic high school with vandalizing the school March 18, causing more than $10,000 in damage, and stealing $4,200 in audiovisual equipment and cash during the spree. Identified only as a 17-year-old senior from Levittown and a 16-year-old junior from Langhorne, the boys were charged in petitions filed Thursday in Bucks County Juvenile Court. Authorities said both face charges of burglary, criminal trespass, receiving stolen property, theft, institutional vandalism and conspiracy.

A Berlin Township woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $425,000 - money prosecutors say she spent on lavish trips and other luxuries. She faces up to three years in prison and also could be ordered to pay back the money. Susan W. Minnett, 48, the former bookkeeper for Food Sciences Corp. of Mount Laurel, pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking on Monday, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Riley. Minnett is to be sentenced on June 2 by Superior Court Judge Donald Gaydos.