When residents pay water bills and civil citations at the cashier's window at Westminster City Hall, the payment stays in a drawer until the end of the day, when the contents are counted by a supervisor and placed in a vault. A city police officer comes each afternoon and transports the funds to the bank.
In Howard County, two county employees must be present when putting payments for property taxes or parking tickets in a locked box that stores the cash, check and credit card payments.
After news this week of the theft of nearly $154,000 in checks and cash from the Annapolis Finance Department, local governments around the region said they have re-examined their practices and procedures for collecting and safeguarding funds. They say they are confident in the controls they have in place but are always looking to improve.
While some jurisdictions declined to speak specifically about their procedures, they outlined similar strategies, including limiting access to money storage areas to a small number of employees and using a safe for storage of cash and checks. Some new Annapolis reforms mirror safeguards followed by other local governments.
"You'd like to think it could never happen, but you can't always be 100 percent," said Marge Wolf, the city administrator in Westminster. "And who knows what happened there? But you try and set up a system with checks and balances that precludes something like that from happening. But it's not perfect all the time — they found that out in Annapolis."
Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen announced Monday that the finance department had been robbed of nearly $150,000 in checks and about $4,000 in cash. On Friday, Cohen said Anne Arundel County Auditor Teresa Sutherland would conduct a review of cash and check accounting practices in the department. Cohen said he expects a report in 30 days.
Police have not made any arrests and have released few details about the scope of the investigation. Because the checks were made out to the city and stamped "for deposit only," they likely won't be cashed. City officials said they have asked check writers to cancel and reissue the checks. The city said it had already recouped about $110,000.
Annapolis Finance Director Timothy E. Elliott discovered that the funds were missing on the morning of June 8. The city cashier had placed the payments on top of a safe in the city vault, rather than locking them inside the safe. Elliott called police when he discovered the theft, but he did not directly inform the mayor, who found out a week later.
Elliott has instituted new controls against theft following the incident, which he said was the first of its kind during his 26-year tenure. The city now requires a supervisor to accompany employees as they bring bank deposits into the vault where the funds are stored.
Philip McGowan, a spokesman for Cohen, said he "wasn't inclined" to offer more details on Annapolis' tightened security measures.
Stephanie Carter, the cashier supervisor at the Department of Finance in Howard County, said her office relies on a system that requires two employees to be present when handling money to guard against fraud or theft.
Each cashier keeps cash and record of other payments in an individual drawer, but also processes payments into an electronic system. Checks are scanned and uploaded to the bank electronically. Once a check clears, it is shredded, a measure that also requires two employees to be present.
Cashiers must count the contents of their drawers at the end of each day, and a supervisor verifies the tally.
"I think we're in pretty good shape, but we're always vigilant," said Stanley Milesky, deputy director for Howard's finance department.
Dave Abrams, a spokesman for Anne Arundel County, said strict security at the county government building, which includes security guards and video monitoring, protects against such theft.
All visitors to the building in downtown Annapolis are required to show identification. When residents pay bills at the cashier's office, all correspondence is done through a glass window. It's "like going to a bank," Abrams said.
The county vault is located behind a system of locked doors and other security and is restricted to a small number of "authorized personnel," Abrams said.
He stopped short of providing more details on the process.
"I'm not at liberty to give too many specifics," Abrams said. "We believe we have a secure system in place."