The blame game continued last week in Slatington when Borough Manager Roy Hambrecht addressed Right-to-Know requests from former borough manager Dan Stevens submitted on June 19.

“Since this RTK request places blame on current management and staff, and since all RTK requests are part of the public record, I felt it necessary to address this request publicly,” Hambrecht said.

According to the request, Stevens asked for documents related to:

1. The Borough of Slatington’s alleged failure to file the 2025 Minimum Municipal Obligation (MMO) for the police pension plan by Sept. 30, 2024. Stevens stated this was the responsibility of council because the assistant treasurer’s last day was Sept. 25, 2024.

2. The alleged failure to make the required Dec. 31, 2024, contribution on time concerning the 2025 MMO for the police pension plan. Stevens indicated this was the responsibility of the borough manager/treasurer.

3. Any interest, penalties or fines the borough might have to pay due to not filing the paperwork or making required contributions related to the 2025 MMO.

During the meeting, Hambrecht responded to those claims.

“Foster & Foster (actuarial firm) sent the request for the pension calculation sheet to the prior borough manager on Aug. 12, 2024. Foster & Foster reached out to me nine months later via email on May 29, 2025, as the calculation sheet was not completed by the prior borough manager before his departure,” Hambrecht said.

“Due to the prior borough manager’s inability to submit the required calculation within the three-week period of time from when the request was delivered to when he resigned, I had to complete the task and did so on June 10, 2025, via an email to Laura Prego at Foster & Foster.”

Hambrecht rejected the claim that the MMO calculation was the responsibility of council.

“Since the MMO calculation request from Foster & Foster was sent to the prior borough manager on Aug. 12, 2024, he had ample time to complete this request prior to his untimely and abrupt departure in early September,” Hambrecht said. “This task was not the responsibility of council. However, he decided to treat it like the other borough work over the last 2½ years by neglecting it.”

Responding to the second part of the RTK request, Hambrecht said, “In fact, the 2025 contribution is not due to Truist Bank until the State of PA allocates the necessary funding, usually around the fall of the year it is due, in this case that would be this upcoming fall (2025). In fact, I had to make the 2024 MMO contribution payment, which I did on Dec. 10, 2024, as the prior borough manager did not meet the very requirement that he is trying to place on myself and the assistant treasurer.”

Hambrecht continued, “Although he wants to place blame on others, the responsibility clearly falls on his shoulder. Even if the prior borough manager did not have the time to complete these tasks, which is clearly not the case, he had a fiduciary responsibility to inform council of these requirements. Much like other aspects of his work, he failed to meet that very basic standard.”

He further alleged that Stevens and a former staff member “failed to fulfill their obligation as public servants within Slatington Borough by, minimally, not making the required journal entries for a period of approximately 2½ years and not paying many vendors during the same time frame.”

According to Hambrecht, the borough has paid Transcend Finance $236,578 to get “caught up” on work that “should’ve been done by those staff but wasn’t.”

“To put the overall cost in perspective, the borough paid the prior borough manager and his former staff a combined $289,655 over the last three years (regular and OT pay). The borough has paid Transcend Finance almost that much to do the same work. The money spent on Transcend Finance would be enough to pay all the police salaries within the borough for one-third of the fiscal year, or four months,” Hambrecht said.

“Finally, included in the $289,655 was overtime in the amount of $65,469 for that former staff. The prior borough manager authorized this OT for this staff with no oversight. Due to the fact that Transcend Finance is doing the exact same work that the prior borough manager’s staff should’ve been doing, the ‘no oversight’ assertion is an easy conclusion to draw.”

Hambrecht concluded, “The prior borough manager and his one former staff failed the residents of the borough and continue to make them pay as long as the borough is paying Transcend Finance. They both demonstrated a complete dereliction of duty and borough staff will not assume responsibility for their inaction and complacency.”

Dan Stevens’ response

In a written response to the Times News, Stevens defended his actions prior to retiring and said he met with council President David Schnaars several times to review tasks that needed to be completed.

“I provided the master book of passwords, and a large amount of paperwork concerning ongoing items. I had also removed myself as Pension Plan administrator (as required by law),” Stevens wrote.

Stevens said he put Schnaars’ name on the online pension account and printed all necessary paperwork.

“When I was explaining things to Mr. Schnaars, he was carrying a notebook. However, he was barely writing anything down. I asked him, ‘Dave, there is a lot of information here, don’t you think you should be taking notes?’ His answer was, ‘I did this before, so I will figure it out,’” Stevens stated.

“Since I had explained all these items to the borough before I retired, I had no financial or fiscal responsibility to make sure they were doing everything after I retired. Since I was not there, I would not even know what items were not getting done,” Stevens wrote.

He said he learned about the MMO situation in June 2025 because it appeared on the borough agenda.

According to Stevens, a 2023 state audit of both pension plans covering the previous five years found no problems. “The previous asst. treasurer had overseen both pension plans for those years and was given high praise by the state auditor,” Stevens said. “However, it is likely that the borough will be penalized during the next state pension audit for their failure to make pension payments for 3 months, and their failure to file the MMO on time.”

Stevens wrote, “It appears that the current manager and council have no intention of taking responsibility for any of their mistakes and missteps. Therefore, they are trying to use past employees as ‘scapegoats’ for everything.”

He also addressed the borough’s audit timeline. “In December of 2023, the borough accepted the 2021 audit, meaning the borough was one year behind (because we should have been accepting the 2022 audit). We were never more than ONE year behind,” Stevens said. “I retired in Sept. of 2024. The borough did not accept the 2022 audit until July of 2025. That means that they are now one year and eight months behind on the audit.”

Stevens said he presented a cost-effective solution to council in April 2024 to help catch up on journal entries and bank reconciliations.

“I found a highly qualified person with over 30 years’ experience in doing this exact work. He had recently retired and was willing to help us get caught up for $30 to $35 per hour. I met with him and Dave Schnaars in late April 2024. His assessment was ‘it’s basically just data entry work.’ He knew exactly what needed to be done,” Stevens said.

Stevens said he presented the proposal to council in an executive session and was later told they would be interviewing his candidate and another firm the following week. “However, those interviews never took place,” Stevens wrote. “I was told by President Schnaars several days later that they were hiring another firm.”

He said the chosen firm charged $125 to $200 per hour. “When I asked Schnaars how they were going to pay for that and why are you paying four times the rate of the person I found? He told me ‘It was none of my business,’ ” Stevens said.

Stevens also claimed the firm failed to produce the promised information for the scheduled July 29, 2024, audit of the 2022 year. “Council took no action. This is documented in an email from the borough auditor which I forwarded to all of council,” Stevens said.

He added that the assistant treasurer had already completed 6½ months of the 2022 journal entries before the new firm started, and the delay pushed the audit back several months because auditors could not return until the end of September.

Addressing overtime paid to the assistant treasurer, Stevens said he provided a chart showing that total wages earned (including OT) over five years amounted to 98.15% of what had been budgeted.

“In addition, the overtime was continually discussed with the current councils over the entire five years. The sitting councils were aware of the overtime, and elected to pay it instead of hiring another person,” Stevens said.