New York Fire Districts Left Most State Audit Fixes Undone, and One Implemented None of 20, Comptroller's Review Finds

Officials at 20 New York fire districts had not fully carried out 121 of the 163 recommendations state auditors gave them, or 74%, according to a follow-up report from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's office announced Oct. 27.

The report, numbered 2026-MS-3 and dated October 2026, checked whether districts fixed problems found in audits issued from January 2020 through July 2025. Of the 163 recommendations, 42 were fully implemented, 46 were partially implemented and 75 were not implemented at all, the report says.

New York has 899 fire districts outside New York City, and they spend about $1 billion a year on fire protection, according to the report. Each is overseen by a board of fire commissioners, which adopts the district's budget and property tax levy.

Fire District Audit Fixes by the Numbers

The Fine Fire District implemented none of its 20 recommendations, the most of any district reviewed. The Town of Tioga district implemented none of seven, and Quaker Street, Ridge, Montauk and Ticonderoga Joint Town/Village also had no recommendation fully implemented, according to a table in the report. Gates was the only district of the 20 that fully implemented all of its recommendations, eight of eight.

The weakest area was annual financial reports, which districts must file with the state. Officials had not fully implemented 23 of 25 recommendations on those filings, or 92%. Four districts, Fine, Tioga, Town of Tompkins and Truxton, were classified as persistent nonfilers as of Oct. 1, 2026, the report says.

Fourteen of the 20 districts had been told to make sure the treasurer's records got an annual audit, as state Town Law requires. Fourteen of those 15 recommendations were not fully implemented. "District officials generally were not aware that the Boards should audit the Treasurer's records annually," the report says, and some commissioners "did not know how to conduct the audit."

Recommendations on the treasurer's records and reports were not fully carried out in 20 of 27 cases, and half of the 26 claims-audit recommendations, meant to stop unsupported bills from being paid, were not fully implemented.

What District Officials Told Auditors

According to the report, officials gave a range of reasons for missed financial filings: a treasurer who said they "did not know how to file" the annual reports, incomplete accounting records, outside accounting firms that were too busy, trouble finding qualified treasurers, and new treasurers who could not use a predecessor's records.

On missing policies, one district said its attorney was supposed to review a draft but officials "had neglected to do so," and in another, the chairman was writing policies but could not finish them for personal reasons, the report says.

State law requires a district that receives an audit with recommendations to file a written corrective action plan within 90 days. The comptroller's office said that until the remaining recommendations are carried out, weaknesses "may limit transparency and accountability" and "increase the risk that District assets are not adequately safeguarded."

Another District Without a Treasurer Audit Since 2017

A separate audit released the same day found the Bloomington Fire District in Ulster County did not get an audit of its treasurer's records for fiscal year 2025. According to district officials, the last such audit covered fiscal year 2017, and the treasurer had last filed the annual financial report for fiscal 2017, the comptroller's office said.

Sources: New York State Comptroller, "Fire Districts: Audit Follow-Up Reviews," Report 2026-MS-3, October 2026 (https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/local-government/audits/2026/pdf/fire-district-audit-follow-up-reviews-2026-ms-3.pdf); Comptroller DiNapoli release on local government and school audits, Oct. 27, 2026 (https://www.osc.ny.gov/press/releases/2026/10/state-comptroller-dinapoli-releases-municipal-school-audits-0); Cover photo: Montauk Fire Department, Montauk, N.Y. (Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons).