Police academy finances worrisome

In an effort to overcome a “financial crisis,” the board of the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Academy opened an internal investigation into its bookkeeping and canceled some courses, academy officials said.

Board Chairman Glenn Aylor said this week an investigation began Aug. 27 after the academy board deemed accounting principles “not acceptable.”

“There’s an internal investigation going on to see why the academy’s finances are the way they are,” Aylor said. “To check the financial internal controls and the accounting process.”

The administrative investigation launched after the resignation of former Executive Director Mitch Banta and the suspension of Assistant Director Mary Garber, Aylor said.

Aylor would not say whether the resignation and suspension are connected to the investigation. He declined to share specifics about the financial concerns.

The Weyers Cave academy serves 59 law enforcement agencies, including those in Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County. Localities pay membership fees on a yearly basis, usually at about $500 per individual, for an array of training including emergency communication, jail operations, and investigation techniques.

State budget cuts already pinched the academy and recently axed classes could force regional law enforcement officers to travel further for training.

Since Banta’s resignation, Aylor has served as interim executive director at the academy in addition to board chairman and superintendent at Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange. He spent part of this week choosing where to cut.

“The basic entry-level classes will continue as long as we have funds,” Aylor said. “In-service training – the specialized training – will continue, but it may be on a limited schedule. We have canceled some classes to save money.”

Aylor did not provide examples.

“My focus was on the dollars. Anything that costs me money that we hadn’t already paid for had to go,” he said. “The type of class that it was was irrelevant to me. I had to save money and the staff understood.”

Classes already paid for by the academy will continue.

Mitch Banta, formerly with the FBI, said Wednesday he resigned from the academy after two years as executive director.

“The academy suffered a substantial cut in state funding and I think, in the end, the academy board felt it was better to reorganize with different leadership,” he said.

Banta said the Department of Criminal Justice Services cut about $100,000 from the academy’s budget in 2009, which buckled an already strained budget.

“As far as leadership there, I’d done as much as I could,” Banta said. “They’re looking for somebody now who’s going to have a business management background.”

Staunton Police Chief Jim Williams said state law requires all police officers log 40 hours of in-service training every two years. The academy is one of many places in Virginia where officers can take specialized courses.

“If I’ve got a real specific need for something, then I can find [it],” Williams said. “It may be further away in the state or out of the state, but I can find it.”

Williams recently sent several officers to Bristol for training.

Aylor, who’s been in law enforcement 25 years, said many in-service classes help liven mandatory training.

“After a while the training gets stale, and you have to offer something different,” he said.

Area localities pay the academy about $40,000 annually for training courses.

In fiscal year 2010, the academy never billed $10,000 to the city of Waynesboro for training, an error caught by city Director of Emergency Services Gary Critzer, he said.

Critzer said he noticed a discrepancy in his budget and sent the payment about eight months after he typically does.

“It was an oversight on their part,” Critzer said.

This year, academy bills came early by two months.

“[The board] directed the executive director and assistant director to make sure those bills went out well in advance,” Aylor said. “We wanted to make sure nobody’s bill was late in the future.”

The academy receives state certification from the Department of Criminal Justice Services, said Division Director Leon D. Baker Jr.

Baker said he was not familiar with the academy’s plight because his department does not oversee the academy’s day-to-day operations. He said financial mismanagement could threaten certification.

“It depends on if the funds that were used were provided by the state, but I have no knowledge of that,” he said.

Aylor said he hopes the financial investigation will yield more information by October.

In the meantime, he expects to continue making cuts while offering as many courses as possible.

“This is something you have to hunker down, tighten that belt and do whatever you have to do and march forward,” he said. “You can’t always ride in a Cadillac. Sometimes you’ve got to settle for a Pinto.”