Douglas Finney-Carter, chief of the Kerhonkson Accord First Aid Squad (KAFAS), is aware of community concerns and speculation surrounding the organization and took the time to address them with the Shawangunk Journal.

KAFAS has gone through major leadership changes this year and was the subject of a compliance audit by the New York State comptroller that began last year. Finney-Carter said there is “nothing exciting going on” and emphasized that he wants to provide transparency to the community.

“We're a not-for-profit charity in New York State, so [the comptroller’s office] has the ability to do a compliance audit at any point in time. It's not anything that triggered it. It was just a compliance audit,” Finney-Carter said. “The same way that the Department of Health will come in and do an inspection on a restaurant, the comptroller's office, being that we are a charity, have the ability to come in and review our records.”

Finney-Carter said the comptroller also recently completed an audit of the Kerhonkson Fire Department.

Finney-Carter said there have been rumors about KAFAS, including claims that an audit by the state comptroller indicates wrongdoing on the organization’s part or that KAFAS is experiencing financial difficulties. According to Finney-Carter, some members of the public have said not to donate to KAFAS “because they heard rumors of this and rumors of that.”

Regarding administrative changes, Finney-Carter told the Shawangunk Journal that KAFAS’ previous leadership was fully volunteer and “did the best that they could with the time that they had” but struggled to manage an annual budget of over $1 million with a part-time management team. Finney-Carter also said the leadership change occurred “months” after the comptroller’s audit began and was unrelated to it.

While Finney-Carter did not say why the leadership was changed, he said that “none of the people that resigned have been found guilty of any kind of substantiated charges, or have even been brought up on any kind of charges. It was just their decision to leave.”

“We are doing our own internal compliance and integrity check to ensure that documents that we have are not only appropriately maintained and managed, but that information that has been properly recorded,” Finney-Carter said. “We found that there were several matters that needed to be updated, and those are things that we're currently working on. And there was not really a system to managing files, so we've corrected that. There are documents that definitely need to be brought up to date. Records that need to be brought up to date.”

Finney-Carter said KAFAS relies on public support, with the Town of Rochester covering about one-sixth of its budget. He said the organization is “very solid” and responds to 97 percent of the calls it receives. The remaining 3 percent, he said, are usually mutual aid calls from other districts that KAFAS cannot assist with because its crews are already responding to calls within their own district.

KAFAS has also recently received recognition from the Ulster County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Council for “outstanding changes in management and redirection.”

“The crew here is a mixture of paid and volunteer, and the morale here is super high. Everybody's happy. Everybody's comfortable. There are people going back to school. We have five new people that are starting the [Emergency Medical Technician] program that were currently drivers only,” Finney-Carter said. “The rumors circulating around that we're doing horribly and that we have no money, and that the comptroller's office is going to shut us down, none of that is true.”

Erin Enouen, the Rochester town supervisor, said they are currently working with KAFAS to receive required financial information and call history. Enouen said this is not related to the comptroller’s audit, which does not have “anything to do with the town.”

“They're providing what we believe is an essential service, even though New York State doesn't say that it's an essential service,” Enouen said. “Part of the reason why we want to work with them so closely on ensuring the transparency of the financial information is because that can really help the health of an organization. They've had a lot of change-over of leadership the past few years, and I know they're working to try to get everything reset through all those transitions.”

Enouen said she did not have specific comments on the rumors circulating about the organization, but encouraged people to seek accurate information before “reacting to something they just see on social media or word of mouth.”

Finney-Carter said KAFAS is in the process of having an accounting firm review the necessary documents because “it is the right thing to do” and to ensure the town receives correct financial information. As for the comptroller’s audit, Finney-Carter said he remains optimistic and that “nothing has popped up that we’re concerned about.”

“I don't expect there to be any issues from it because, again, it's just a compliance audit,” Finney-Carter said. “Whatever this comptroller's office investigation finds as far as compliance goes, if there are compliance issues, we will deal with that. We will make sure that the compliance issues are handled just like with anything else.”