COVENTRY – Coventry taxpayers have “little assurance” that town money was used for legitimate reasons when former Supervisor John Phelan was in office, according to a July 20 audit by the New York state comptroller’s office.

The audit covered the period between Jan. 1, 2010, and Aug. 31, 2011 while Phelan was most recently town board chairman and a member of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors. The Comptroller found Phelan had deposited $1,200 of his personal tax refunds into the town’s bank account and then wrote town checks to himself for the same amount. The report said he also charged 100 percent of the usage of his personal cell phone, which was also used on his re-election campaign; fueled his personal vehicle with taxpayer money; and used a town debit card for more than $2,600 in expenditures without prior authorization from other officials.

“Because the board did not have adequate controls in place,” the report stated, “the former supervisor was able to make disbursements that the board was not aware of, were not adequately supported and were not allowable, including using the town bank account to transact personal business.”

When reached for comment this morning, Phelan refuted the claims and said he wasn’t contacted for comment either by the comptroller’s office nor for other media reports. He said when he filed his 2010 income taxes, “somehow or other either the IRS or NBT deposited” his returns into the town’s general account and that he used the town’s debit card to purchase emergency gas to drive around and check and help clear dams during one of the town’s 2011 flooding events.

“I needed gas at 11 p.m. at night and used the town debit card to buy $40 of gas, which subsequently was deducted from the mileage that was owed to me,” he said, adding that the town board knew and approved of all of the expenditures he made.