Lehigh Township is interviewing candidates tonight for the township tax collector position after Mary Louise Trexler resigned last month.

When she resigned at the public meeting, she blasted supervisor Cindy Miller.

Miller read a 5-page letter in response to Trexler and the Times News article that followed.

“During preliminary audit testing in 2022, the auditor discovered monthly tax collector reports were not able to be made available upon request of the township manager. The issues began in 2022 and were worsening in 2023. The auditor had a meeting in January 2023 with the tax collector and township manager whereby direction was communicated to the Tax Collector requesting documentation and clear deadlines. The deadlines were not met. In May 2023 when the township manager received the information, it was provided to the auditor,” Miller read.

“Beginning in May 2023 the township manager was emailing the tax collector regarding residents’ concerns with the tax collector’s performance and uncashed checks months following payment for the year 2022,” Miller said.

She said in September 2023, Lehigh Township’s solicitor issued a letter to the tax collector requesting fully reconciled reports by Sept. 30, 2023, to avoid a third-party investigation.

Miller said the disorganization and delays continued throughout 2023.

In November 2023, the auditor issued a Request of Financial Records and Relating Information which formally requested the monthly tax collector reports for January 2023 through September 2023, as of the end of May 2024 these reports have not been provided.

The board hired an auditor in December.

“Throughout 2023 and 2024, the township received many calls from concerned residents regarding difficulty of contacting the Tax Collector, delinquency bills received when taxes were already paid, and checks not being cashed,” Miller said.

With items still outstanding, Miller said, “The auditor reported the inability to confidently provide a specific dollar amount of funds lost due to the inconsistencies of the tax collector’s procedures, lack of records kept, and difficulty determining the value of time in connection with the delayed deposits, tax collector’s noncompliance with the accountant’s requests and delayed responses by the tax collector.”

Trexler did not attend the Aug. 27 meeting where Miller spoke out, but issued a response afterword.

During the meeting, Miller quoted from a letter from The David Kunsman Corporation Inc. about Trexler’s job performance. Trexler was subsequently fined $4,000 after the findings by the accounting firm.

In her response to the letter being read, Trexler wrote, in part: “I cooperated with the Kunsman Corp. to the best of my ability. I openly admitted to my failures in performance of turning in late reports and deposits and apologized and took ownership to most of the things I was deficient on. I never lied or made foolish excuses for my tardiness.

“The State Tax Collectors Assoc. reminded me that there is a fine imposed for late reports of which the township deducted $4,000 from my salary for 2023 and if that was paid, there was nothing they could do to me. The $4,000 would be for 16 months and therefore I was told to challenge that fine since it was over the permissible amount of the fine. …”

Trexler also alleged that Miller was attempting to ruin her reputation and that Miller should not have read the letter into the record.

“When asked by a member of the audience ‘what did this cost the taxpayers and was anything found as to money missing’ the cost of the audit was $14,000 and there were no monies missing as stated by Mr. Jerry Pritchard, Supervisor,” Trexler said.

She added, “I have served the people of Lehigh Township for 39 years and it was my pleasure. All the good things that I did for people was never mentioned in her speech. However, I know what I did and was so fortunate to do so.”