Kathryn Kinney

Ex-Hoboken finance aide pleads guilty to stealing 10G from nonprofit bank account

Kathryn Kinney, who was employed by Bayonne accounting firm Donohue, Gironda & Doria and assigned "full-time" to the Hoboken Finance Department as a financial specialist, pleaded guilty in Monmouth County Superior Court for stealing more than $10,000 from a nonprofit organization.

Before she worked in Hoboken, Kinney, 42, was working as the executive director of the Poricy Park Conservancy in Middletown.

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Former executive admits stealing $10G from nonprofit bank account

Publication: Asbury Park Press
Date: September 16, 2009

FREEHOLD - The former executive director of the Poricy Park Conservancy pleaded guilty Monday to charges she took more than $10,000 from the nonprofit organization's bank account as she faced foreclosure proceedings on her Bridgewater home.

Kathryn Kinney, 43, pleaded guilty to third-degree misapplication of entrusted funds and will be placed in a pretrial intervention (PTI) program as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Kinney faced as much as five years in state prison, but as part of the plea agreement she will make full restitution and need to stay out of trouble. Once the program is completed, sometime after she makes full restitution, Kinney's criminal record will be wiped clean of the charges.

"However, if you are terminated from PTI you will come before me and be sentenced," state Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci Jr. told Kinney after accepting the plea agreement.

In pleading guilty, Kinney explained she faced foreclosure on her Bridgewater home in 2006 when she wrote herself advances on her salary without the knowledge or permission of the Conservancy's board of directors.

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HOBOKEN FINANCE DEPARTMENT:

At the November 14, 2005 Hoboken City Council Meeting, the council passed Resolution No. 05-179 sponsored by 3rd Ward Councilman Michael Russo  hiring Donohue, Gironda & Doria effective December 1, 2005. 

WHEREAS, the City of Hoboken is desirous of having the best possible financial systems within the City operation, and

WHEREAS, the City of Hoboken is has solicited proposals within the industry, and

WHEREAS, the Administration of the City of Hoboken deemed Donohue, Gironda & Doria’s offer to be in the best interests of the City, now

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Administration is hereby authorized to enter into a one (1) year contract (1 December 2005 through 30 November 2006) with Donohue, Gironda & Doria for the provision of financial services at an annual cost of approximately $300,000.00.

The vote was then taken on the resolution and it passed as follows:
---By Councilman Russo:
---Motion duly seconded by Councilman Giacchi.
---Adopted by the following vote: YEAS: 6 - NAYS: 2 - ABSENT: 1
---Yeas: Council persons Castellano, Cricco, Del Boccio, Giacchi, Ramos, Russo.
---Nays: LaBruno, President Campos.
---Absent: Cammarano.

By coincidence, it was at this same City Council meeting that the Robert's administration introduced and the City Council approved the three Hoboken Parking Utility no-bid  PARKING METER contracts.  On December 11, 2009, NJ Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that John P. Corea, former director of the Hoboken Parking Utility, was indicted today on charges that he conspired to steal more than $600,000 in parking meter revenue that he allegedly split with a Toms River contractor whose company was hired by the City of Hoboken to collect coins from city parking meters.

From December, 2005 to January, 2009, Hoboken paid almost One Million Dollars to the accounting firm for on-site financial services, many of which were previously performed by the Hoboken CFO and Finance Department employees.

The outside firm was brought in to enhance the overall efficiency of the City's accounting system and, if all went well, the City would move to privatize Finance Department after a one year trail period.

But the promise of readily available financial data, the competence to make decisions, and the ability to detect and correct problems throughout the budget year all fell apart when a State mandated yearly fiscal audit found a serious lack of cash controls and the failure of the City's daily accounting system to detect millions of dollars in declining anticipated cash collections.

In January 2009 Hoboken’s state-appointed fiscal monitor, Judy Tripodi, declined to renew the Donohue, Gironda & Doria on-site accounting contract.

Watch this short video of the July 25, 2007 "Special" Hoboken City Council meeting as Hoboken 4th Ward Councilwomen Dawn Zimmer questions City CFO George Destefano about his daily duties in the Hoboken Finance Department as he worked along side the private accounting firm.