Within one year, more than $9,000 of the Scarborough Football Club’s expenditures were attributed to petty cash. Two different checks were written to cover the middle school cheering coach stipend of $1,250 – one to the coach and one to cash.
These are among the “series of questionable financial transactions” in the club’s records that Town Council Chairman Jeff Messer has pointed out. Those records include large checks made out to cash and questionable ATM withdrawals.
The Scarborough police, in an investigation of the club, has subpoenaed financial records from October 2001 to the present. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the investigation.
A review of documents, including checks, bank statements and club financial reports provided by Messer, shows discrepancies within those records.
Messer, a former club board member, and a former treasurer, Colette Mathieson, had previously brought questions about the financial records to the board.
At a Scarborough Football Club meeting Monday, former board members said the board addressed the concerns when Messer brought them up, and the board, including Messer, voted in June 2005 to accept the explanations provided by former treasurer Gary Garrison.
Messer said he did not pursue his concerns for fear the club would fall apart.
In the fiscal year-end treasurer’s report from March 2004, according documents provided by Messer, Mathieson said she had a hard time making accurate reports because she wasn’t always informed of the transactions that were being made through the club’s account.
“It is very frustrating going online and seeing many debit charges that the Treasurer wasn’t aware were taking place,” she said in the report.
In April 2006, Messer sent an e-mail to then club president Randy Hitchcock and the club’s board, asking for an explanation of transactions he found questionable.
Hitchcock founded the club in 1997. He and his wife, Cheryl, ran the football and cheering booster clubs until June when they resigned and moved to North Carolina. The Hitchcocks declined to comment.
Because Mathieson resigned as treasurer in November 2005, and current treasurer Brenda Smith was new to her position, Hitchcock elicited the help of Garrison, who responded to Messer’s questions in an e-mail a month later.
Messer questioned a few club expenditures for 2003-2004. According to documents, on Dec. 12, 2003, a check was made out to cash for $1,250 to pay for the middle school cheer stipend. Three days later, the expenditure list shows a check for $1,250 made out to Leigha Disantoon, the middle school coach, was cashed.
In his e-mail, Garrison does not address the fact that two different checks were written to pay the stipend. He simply said, “the check should have been made out to the person, but was not” – a practice that “will be corrected in the future.”
Another check made out to cash that Messer questioned was for $3,000 in May 2005, a time when Messer said there is no football or cheering activity.
Messer said the club’s by-laws require two signatures to be made on any check exceeding $1,000. Randy Hitchcock’s signature is the only one that appears on the check, according to documents provided by Messer.
Messer listed three other checks made out to large amounts of cash in 2005.
Garrison said in his e-mail that the cash checks were used for petty cash payments. He said $6,000 was taken out in petty cash in the 2005-2006 year. He said $5,318.94 was spent, and the rest was returned.
Later that month, Garrison provided a complete fundraising income statement for 2005-2006. In that statement, more than $9,000 in expenditures is attributed to “Petty Cash for President/Officer.”
In February 2006, before calling the club’s finances into question, Messer requested a list of expenditures from the cheering boosters, which shared an account with the football boosters until last year.
Messer said the expenditure report was provided by Cheryl Hitchcock, who was also the former high school cheerleading coach.
In May 2006, Messer requested another list of expenditures, for both cheering and football. Between the two reports, there were several discrepancies, he said.
Randy Hitchcock’s signature appears on a check for $1,972.33 in August 2005. The memo on the check indicates the money was to reimburse charges made on an American Express card.
On a separate list of expenditures supplied by Messer, high school football helmets, camp supplies and “cheer radios” are listed as the purchases made on an American Express card. According to Messer, “cheer radios” are the stereos used by the team.
In other documents provided by Messer, a separate report lists stereos as being purchased in October 2005.
In March 2005, two money orders for $400.90 and $316 were listed as the winter weight room stipend and a club expense, respectively. In the cheering report, the same amounts on the same dates are charges for awards and banquet supplies.
In addition to the transactions he is questioning, Messer said he was also concerned about the accounting of cash at club events.
“An event like the Scarborough Cheer Invitational would have over $20,000 in cash from admissions, flowers, T-shirts and concessions. Only one person was counting the cash and making the deposit,” Messer said.
Though Messer said some booster club board members took offense to his questioning of the financial records, others, he said, were supportive. Regardless, he said he felt it was his duty as a board member to raise concerns.
“I operate under the premise, innocent until proven guilty. Hopefully, the police investigation will uncover the truth. I do know, however, that the police do not seek subpoenas unless they have some credible evidence,” Messer said. “Time will tell.”
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