Southtowns Record

Town of Hamburg - Woodlawn Beach State Park Receipts (2019M-79)

Government
Town of Hamburg
Posted by publisher
Jun 28, 2019
Kind
State audit
Topics
Audits and oversight, Parks and recreation

Publisher's summary

The Board and officials did not develop written policies or procedures for how entrance and rental fees should be recorded, deposited and reconciled or provide guidance for Park employees issuing complimentary or discounted tags. Daily tally and gate summary sheets for entrance fees were not accurately completed. As a result, we were unable to determine whether employees properly collected fees for all tags issued. On behalf of the Town, the rental agent enters into rental contracts with patrons for Park facilities and beach ceremonies. Rental fees were not accurately entered in the financial system, as the rental agent does not provide copies of rental contracts to the recreation department office.

Original document

Text · page 4 of 12

Woodlawn Beach State Park Receipts
Patrons pay a vehicle entrance fee at a booth located at the Park entrance and
receive a tag. The booth is operated by part-time and seasonal employees.
Payment is accepted in cash or by credit card. Fees collected are handwritten
on a daily tally sheet. Complimentary tags are issued to vehicles with a handicap
permit or to senior citizens1 on non-holiday weekdays.

The entrance booth employees prepare a bank deposit at the end of each day,
and one employee deposits the receipts at the bank three times each week.
Daily tally sheets, gate summary sheets and deposit receipts are provided to the
recreation attendant at the recreation department office to be entered into the
financial system.

On behalf of the Town, the rental agent2 enters into rental contracts with patrons
for Park facilities and beach ceremonies. These contracts indicate the type of
services being contracted (i.e., lodge or picnic area rentals, beach ceremonies,
etc.). At the recreation department office, the recreation attendant enters the
contract details into the financial system and collects rental fees.

How Should Officials Account for Park Receipts?
A board, in consultation with Park officials, is responsible for adopting written
policies and developing adequate procedures for the collection of entrance and
rental fees. These should include a board-adopted fee schedule, the conditions
for providing complimentary or discounted fees and the method to document
these discounts.

To ensure the fees are properly collected, deposited and recorded, the Director
and the recreation supervisor should provide timely supervision of those charged
with handling cash. They, or a designee, should compare the deposits with the
amounts recorded on daily sheets and in the financial system.

Employees should be trained to accurately complete daily tally sheets for
entrance fees, documenting starting and ending tag numbers for each day and
information on complimentary or discounted tags issued. In addition, the Director
and recreation supervisor should require that the rental agent provides copies of
all rental contracts to the recreation department office so patrons can be properly
billed. Receipts should be reconciled to rental contracts to ensure that contracts
are paid in full and for the correct amount.

1 Aged 60 and older

2 The Town employs one rental agent for the Park. During our audit period, there were two different rental agents
employed by the Town, one during the 2017 season, and one during the 2018 season. The rental contracts we
reviewed as part of our audit testing were contracts entered into by the rental agent from the 2017 season.

2  Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller