What happened in the western Pennsylvania city of DuBois should be a wake-up call for officials in every municipality in our five-county Times News region.

As detailed so effectively in the Spotlight PA investigation, John “Herm” Suplizio, 62, Dubois’ city manager and executive director of the DuBois Area United Way, was charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from public accounts.

Word of the arrest came last month from state Attorney General Michelle Henry, and the disclosures of the alleged thefts have left the citizens of this Clearfield County municipality of 7,400 about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh reeling in disbelief that this thievery could have gone on so long without detection.

According to Henry’s office, Suplizio allegedly committed $620,815 in fraudulent transactions, using funds from city bank accounts and the United Way account to pay his personal credit card bills, make political donations and gamble. The majority of the funds came from accounts for Community Days, an annual summer event sponsored by the DuBois Volunteer Fire Department, for which Suplizio and his secretary were the sole signatories, the Attorney General said.

“Suplizio was a trusted public official who should have been acting in the best interests of his community,” Henry said. “Instead, he betrayed that trust by stealing hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for his own personal use. This egregious violation of the trust that Pennsylvanians put in their officials is disgraceful. This arrest is a reminder that no one is above the law, and that everyone who holds public office in Pennsylvania is accountable to the people.”

A grand jury investigation found that, in addition to the fraud, Suplizio used his position as city manager to enter into contracts with businesses for which he received personal benefits.

From 2014-2021, Suplizio also provided false information on his tax returns, paying for numerous charges with public money and claiming those charges as unreimbursed expenses on his taxes, Henry said.

Suplizio was charged with five counts of theft by unlawful taking, one count of conflict of interest, one count of misapplication of entrusted property and eight counts of fraudulent return.

Despite the preponderance of evidence, Henry reminds us that all charges are accusations at this point and that Suplizio is presumed innocent “unless and until proven guilty.”

Former City Manager Ron Trzyna, who served from 2000-2005, asked city council members at a recent meeting how such a huge theft could have gone on so long. He wondered whether council members were “living under a rock.”

Suplizio was appointed by borough council to the $80,000-a-year job in 2010. During the 13 intervening years, he became a force to be reckoned with because of his position and style. He was a friend of the powerful in the community and surrounding area.

Since DuBois is one of the communities in the state that has a city manager-council form of government, the manager has considerably more power. So much so that the mayor of the community reports to him.

As the years went by, Suplizio built a solid reputation for getting things done for the community, resulting in council and other officials entrusting him more but providing his operations with less oversight. It turns out that this could be a prescription for real problems, as it turned out for DuBois and for other communities throughout the state.

According to investigators, Spotlight PA said, Community Days was underwritten both by the city and private donations. Four accounts were used to collect cash or pay for services involving the festival, but they weren’t controlled by the fire department or monitored by city officials.

Trusting officials in small communities such as DuBois rely on full-time professionals to do the right thing to help them navigate the complexities of municipal government, but, on occasion, these trusted hired hands get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

So, what can be done?

According to certified public accountants, the most important thing to do is to set the control environment. Too often, the person who handles finances sets a sloppy and unethical tone for the organization. Even the most respected person must follow procedures and should be monitored by non-associated redundancies.

Establishing an ethical tone for the organization, then following through with internal controls to double- and triple-check the handling of money will go far in putting the brakes on employee embezzling.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.