Published: August 06, 2008 09:56 pm      

NIAGARA FALLS: Money theft probed at parking ramp

Anonymous tip claims $7,000 stolen from city ramp

Niagara Falls officials have requested a police investigation into the alleged theft of money at the city’s Rainbow Boulevard parking ramp.

An anonymous letter was sent out this past week claiming a city employee stole over $7,000 in revenue from the downtown ramp during the July 4 weekend. The letter, signed by a “concerned citizen and taxpayer,” offered no further details about the possible theft, but was enough to cause a stir.

City Administrator Donna Owens said she received the letter Tuesday and that Department of Public Works Director David Kinney has contacted the police department to investigate the claims.

“There were several allegations made in the letter,” Owens said. “If it turns out there is anything there, we will take appropriate action.”

Kinney said the amount of money specified in the letter made it necessary to solicit a formal investigation. However, he doesn’t think city officials would’ve missed a $7,000 discrepancy when looking over the ramp’s revenue reports.

“I’m totally lost at this point, but we’re taking an active approach to this,” Kinney said.

Police Superintendent John Chella said a report has been filed and the case will be assigned to detectives for investigation.

“Right now, it’s just an allegation,” Chella said. “It’s an anonymous letter, but the city is taking the claims seriously.”

In addition to Owens and Kinney, the letter was sent to Mayor Paul Dyster, Council Chairman Samuel Fruscione and the local media.

Fruscione said he has not discussed the details of the claim with Kinney, but said he believes the potential for theft is a possibility due to the system used at the ramp. He pointed out a similar incident back in 2006 when a ramp employee was caught stealing money.

“There’s nothing really in place to prevent something like this from happening,” Fruscione said. “Who knows how many times this could’ve happened before this. We don’t want to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The current system at the city-operated parking ramp has motorists receiving a ticket from an automated machine upon entering the ramp and then paying an employee the fee when exiting, Kinney said.

“It’s a pretty simple method,” he said.

All of the revenues from the ramp are immediately deposited in the city’s account and later posted and verified.

A recent audit of the city’s 2007 finances conducted by Freed Maxick & Battaglia marked the parking ramp revenues as a “control deficiency” because auditors were unable to verify and reconcile the actual number of tickets sold.

Auditors recommended the city conduct an internal investigation into the operation.