By DAVID A. MANN
The Jeffersonville Clerk-Treasurer’s office did not reconcile the city’s payroll account against its bank statements. Several funds were overdrawn. And, in some cases, more money was spent than budgeted.
All the above appear to be at odds with Indiana statutes. And all were among findings published in the State Board Accounts most recent audit of the city’s books. The audit, which was filed Feb. 1, covers 2008.
The problems related to payroll accounts did not indicate that things were being done wrong, just differently, said Deputy Clerk-Treasurer Suzy Bass. She filed a response along with the audit stating as much.
The report showed that the payroll fund had a deficit cash balance in the amount of $6.1 million. As it turned out, however, the office was using an alternative method to reconcile the account. The audit said that method didn’t include a reconciliation between the fund and bank statements.
“I have done payroll for the city of Jeffersonville for 27 years,” Bass wrote. “We have had audits each year and never have had a finding for not balancing the payroll bank account to the fund report,” Bass said.
“It is in compliance with the statute as far as being balanced,” Bass said. “It does balance. Just not in the form they want it to.”
The over-appropriations noted in the audit were likely due to the fact that the city didn’t receive state approval until late in the year for the budget. Councilman Ron Grooms, who heads the city’s Budget and Finance Committee, said the same.
“Everyone involved in municipal government was just scrambling to find out if there was money there,” he said. “There was just a lot of confusion.”
However, he said, the overdrawn funds that the audit revealed should have been corrected, saying that the council pointed out the problems numerous times during public meetings.
The audit likened the overdraws to borrowing money from other funds without obtaining approval from the city council.
“The lack of attention on these deficiencies clearly rest on the shoulders of the clerk-treasurer,” he said.
Clerk-Treasurer Peggy Wilder could not be reached for comment for this article.
REDEVELOPMENT
The audit also found problems in the city’s Department of Redevelopment, where checks were written without the signature of the department’s board-appointed treasurer. Financial records — such as canceled checks or optical images of checks — were not presented for the audit. And about $37,800 in checks written out of department funds in December 2008 were not recorded in a financial ledger, it said.
Those problems took place during former Redevelopment Director Gayle Robinson’s tenure. Jim Urban is currently in that position, but he announced last month that he was resigning, effective in March.
Larry Thomas, communications director for the city, said that the mayoral administration has brought in a financial director, Bill Mattingly, to help department heads deal with such problems.
“We’ve got somebody trying to help any department, who would directly handle funds, establish better accounting practices,” Thomas said.
Mattingly was there during the year the audit took place. However, Thomas said he spent most of that first year looking at the Parks and Recreation Department and the Sewer Billing Office’s finances.
CITY COURT
City Court had similar accounting issues, with unreconciled ledgers. In one instance, a cash book showing receipts for cash bonds and restitution and trust items were more than $4,000 off.
“I’ve been made aware of the situation and I’m in the process of addressing it,” said City Court Judge Ken Pierce, who was elected to that position and started on the bench in January 2008.
“I’ve made some interoffice changes to address the matter and steps are being taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The board of accounts performs audits of the city’s finances annually. Last year’s audit brought allegations of credit card abuse by the clerk-treasurer to light.
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READ THE AUDIT
• Visit www.in.gov/sboa and click on the “recently released audits” link. You can then search for audits by county.
