Sheriff’s purchases show lack of policies for Lancaster County-issued credit cards [Lancaster Watchdog]

Lancaster County Sheriff Chris Leppler wanted a reception area in his courthouse office, so he had one built.

Many offices in the courthouse have a counter where staff can greet residents or customers and help with various services and paperwork. The newly constructed lobby in the sheriff’s office also forms a secure barrier between the general public and his staff.

President Judge David Ashworth said he has seen the physical changes made since Leppler took office in 2018. “He totally redid the whole entranceway in the office, where it sort of looks like a bank.”

Anyone who visits the office now to, say, apply for a firearms permit, can also buy some Lancaster County sheriff-branded merchandise, which is featured in a display case in the office’s lobby.

But a public records request filed by the Watchdog raises questions about how Leppler paid for the new reception area and the sheriff-branded swag.

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Leppler declined to comment about his spending, but Lancaster Country Controller Lisa Colón, whose office audits the county’s use of purchasing cards, or “p-cards,” answered questions about Leppler’s purchases to the best of her knowledge.

Leppler spent $2,924.80 at Home Depot over seven months in 2023 to build the reception area in the sheriff’s office, according to Colón. The sheriff’s credit card records included itemized receipts for those purchases, all of which were made with his p-card.

Colón said she did not know who performed the work or how much it cost.

The Watchdog visited the sheriff’s office entrance Wednesday and did not see evidence of some of the materials and supplies listed in the receipts Leppler submitted from Home Depot.

For example, Leppler bought 40 feet worth of commercial gray vinyl flooring in February last year, the receipts show, but there was no evidence of the flooring in the new lobby area, which has worn, stained carpeting that matches carpeting outside the sheriff’s office.

In March, Leppler bought from Home Depot two “4-tier industrial freestanding garage storage shelving” units for $498. The reception area had no such shelves.

In that same March purchase totaling $807.59, Leppler bought two 50-foot “commercial grade” garden hoses for $69.98 each and two $10 wall mounts for them. The Watchdog found no hoses in the sheriff’s lobby.

Much of the rest of the March receipt included cleaning products a county government would likely have stocked or purchased regularly: two mops, three mop heads, two dustpans, two $35.97 floor squeegees, a 21-ounce can of Comet, mineral spirits and more.

In July, Leppler used his p-card for a $294 pre-hung primed fiberglass door with panel details typical of an exterior door to a house. But the sheriff’s reception area has a large wooden door that matches doors in the rest of the courthouse.

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An unchecked system

An audit released last year by the controller’s office, which monitors the county’s spending, found there are no consequences, particularly for elected officials, for failing to follow fiscal policies established by the county’s purchasing department.

“The purchasing department does not enforce or discipline noncompliance to the p-card program policy,” the February 2023 audit concluded.

The 2023 controller’s audit was requested by the purchasing director, Linda Schreiner, Colón said.

The county controller is elected to oversee the county government’s ledgers and audit its departments. An employee in the controller’s office reviews purchases from the prior month’s credit card statements, a backward-looking approach that makes it impossible to intercept or inquire about purchases that aren’t approved or well documented, Colón said.

“We’re fighting everything on the back end, so (purchases have) already occurred,” Colón said. “If time has elapsed and itemized receipts are just missing, then, you know, they don’t have it anymore, they stuck it to the paper, the tape fell off, that type of thing.”

Patricia Patrick, an accounting professor at Penn State University who teaches auditing and fraud prevention, said it was “absurd” that a county government would not enforce policies for purchasing cards.

Without checks on spending, Patrick said, cardholders could potentially charge thousands of dollars of purchases without any scrutiny, while taxpayers foot the bill.

Colón said she has been working with Schreiner and Chief Clerk Larry George this year to present a new set of p-card policies to county commissioners for review and approval.

“We’re trying to work on a policy that actually has teeth in it, so that if this is a common occurrence, then perhaps that person’s limit gets dropped or their usage gets suspended,” Colón said.

The controller said she thought new p-card policies should be added to the county’s employee handbook. “In my opinion,” she said.

The controller said she and Schreiner are still working through the details of a new policy, which will need to be reviewed by Chief Clerk George, county Solicitor Jackie Pfursich and human resources director Christina Peddigree before heading to the commissioners.

Through a spokesperson, the county commissioner's office did not respond to questions about the p-card policy or provide any additional information on Leppler's past purchases.

Not a new issue

Discussions about the need for better management of p-cards isn’t new: Under Colón’s predecessor, Brian Hurter, a 2019 audit found little evidence of any checks on the system.

Of the 32 active cardholders at the time, 18 of them did not provide any explanations for purchases made with a p-card. Other cardholders submitted paperwork “that was illegible or completely not submitted altogether,” the 2019 audit said.

“This issue causes great concern. P-cards present a huge risk for fraudulent purchases and misuse,” the controller’s office said five years ago.

The 2019 audit also recommended the county impose consequences for misuse of p-cards, including suspending or revoking cards.

That audit led the county purchasing director at the time, Harry Klinger, to write a set of reporting standards for users, including a requirement to include itemized receipts for each transaction and to obtain prior approval from his office before making any purchases of more than $1,000. The new directives did not include a requirement that a p-card holder justify purchases.

“Violations of the above can result in a suspension of the p-card or termination of the p-card at the discretion of the purchasing director,” Klinger wrote in 2019.

But Klinger’s memo never became “official policy” because the commissioners office never signed off on it, according to Colón.

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Other sheriff purchases

Leppler's 2023 p-card transactions – 25 in all – were documented with itemized receipts in most cases, but many included no explanation.

Last April, he used the card to pay $1,020 to an apparel company that is not registered as a business in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Purchasing director Schreiner emailed Leppler on May 12 to say “there was a purchase in excess of $1,000 that was not pre-approved.”

The money was paid to “Fivoux Apparel Co.,” an online merchant that appears to offer clothing with custom printing for law enforcement agencies, mostly in Pennsylvania. The receipt Leppler submitted contained few details, only saying “LCSO Order x 1.” (LCSO is likely an abbreviation for Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.)

A former Chester County police officer, George Alexander, claims to own the company on his LinkedIn profile. Alexander’s LinkedIn page shows he also owns a power-washing business, TopTier Exterior Solutions. That entity is a registered business.

Multiple attempts to reach Alexander through a phone number listed with TopTier Exterior Solutions went unanswered.

Also in April, Leppler bought 30 24-ounce YETI mugs from Dick’s Sporting Goods at a cost of $1,123.50. A note written on a receipt said “emailed sheriff with pre-approval 6/9/23,” a date six weeks after the purchase.

Colón said the mugs have custom engravings showing they’re from the sheriff’s office and were gifts for department employees when they retired or performed well at a training or function. “It’s to say, ‘Great job, you represented us well,’ that type of thing,” Colón said.

Leppler also made another bulk order of apparel for the department, according to his p-card statements.

He ordered 100 T-shirts at a cost of $2,120 from a Pittsburgh-area print shop called Prints of Pittsburgh. The shirts feature logos from the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, according to Mitchell Thompson, an owner of Prints of Pittsburgh.

The clothing was ordered for employees to wear on weekends or when representing the department at functions, Colón said.

The Watchdog found the sheriff’s office reception area features a glass display case of branded items for sale, including embroidered patches ($5), T-shirts ($30) and a bandana listing two K-9 dogs and an emblem with the head of opened-mouthed German Shepherd criss-crossed by two assault-style rifles.

Leppler did not respond to questions about about the branded merchandise displayed in his office lobby.

Consequences of a lack of oversight

Since the controller’s office's 2019 audit of p-cards, county leaders haven’t made any official changes to the policies governing their use.

The absence of clear policies on credit card purchases limits the county’s ability to hold cardholders accountable for misuse, said Patrick, the accounting professor.

“Even if the county disagrees with the purchases made on the cards, it would be bound to pay the vendors if the goods or services could not be returned to the vendors,” she said.

Without an enforceable p-card policy, there’s no clear way to recoup taxpayer money spent improperly, the professor said.

In such a situation, “the county would not have grounds to seek recovery from or to discipline cardholders for making what it later deemed as inappropriate purchases,” Patrick said. “Not establishing written policies for purchase cards and asking cardholders to periodically acknowledge such policies in writing is simply a deficiency in internal controls and poor business practice.”

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