UPDATE: BOE to Hear Results of Audit Ordered to Search for Subpoenaed Records

The Barnegat Board of Education gathers for a special meeting tonight to address the results of an to search for records relating to the district’s involvement with Federal Hill Risk Management, the insurance firm at the center of the case that snared former Toms River Superintendent Michael J. Ritacco.

The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium.

The Barnegat BOE ordered the audit after Ritacco was indicted in October 2010. Before that, the board was subpoenaed three separate times, first by the State Division of Criminal Investigation in June 2009, and twice in the spring of 2010 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Barnegat Board of Education Administrator Dean Allison told Patch in January.

Officials were seeking records of business conducted with Federal Hill and its owner, Francis X. Gartland, between 2003 and 2009. Ritacco and Gartland were both named in last year’s indictment, which charges that the two conspired to commit fraud by inflating payments to contractors and pocketed taxpayers’ money. 

Allison said thorough searches of Barnegat’s records brought up only one mention of a connection to Federal Hill – a mention in meeting minutes that indicated Gartland’s firm was appointed as a risk management consultant from 2005 to 2007, when former superintendent Thomas C. McMahon was still with the district.

At the time, the district could find no evidence that Barnegat ever made any payments to Federal Hill, said Allison.

But board member Robert Houser said in January that after Ritacco was indicted, the board made the decision to hire its own firm to conduct a thorough audit to find any documentation of a relationship between Barnegat schools and Federal Hill.

“We feel we owe it to the taxpayers to make sure there isn’t any problem,” said Houser, who was on the board at the time Federal Hill was hired.

7:30 p.m. update: Auditor Jerry W. Conaty told the board Tuesday evening that his firm's detailed look at eight years' worth of ledgers showed no transactions with Federal Hill Risk Management. However, Conaty said another insurance firm also named in a subpoena issued to the district, BHB Insurance, did do business with Barnegat schools. Check back with Patch Wednesday morning for the full story.