Complaint: Public records not released from Jeffersonville's Clerk-Treasurer's Office

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August 9, 2008

Anonymous The News and Tribune Sat Aug 09, 2008, 06:49 PM EDT

Mike Hutt, a former Jeffersonville City Council candidate, has filed a formal complaint against the city’s Clerk-Treasurer’s Office, alleging that he was wrongly denied access to public records.

The office maintains that the documents being requested are not public record, but private property.

The complaint was filed with the Indiana Public Access Counselor on Friday. The grievance relates to a request that Hutt made in late July, asking for statements for the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office’s credit card.

Suzy Bass, chief deputy at the office, responded to the request Thursday with a letter that said the statements he requested belong to Clerk Treasurer Peggy Wilder, not the City of Jeffersonville.

There are no statements available because the credit cards belonged personally to Peggy Wilder, not the city, said Larry Wilder, a city attorney who is also her ex-husband.

Larry Wilder returned messages left at his ex-wife’s office. He said she was unavailable. He said there were never any credit cards issued to Jeffersonville’s Clerk-Treasurer’s Office.

She would use her personal cards for business-related purchases and would later be reimbursed by the city. She also allowed employees in her office to use her personal cards for the same purpose, he said.

Hutt said he’s not interested in any personal credit cards, only those issued to the city.

“In the past, anything I have asked for from the city, I have gotten,” he said.

In his complaint, he notes that he had spoken with an official from the Indiana State Board of Accounts who said that credit card statements were to be kept for three years.

The assertion that the credit cards belonged to Peggy Wilder, not the city, came as news to some in city government, including Councilman Mike Smith, who’d recently taken inventory of cards.

According to his inventory, the Clerk-Treasurer’s office had three credit cards, two of which were kept in a safe and another one that was carried by Bass.

The inventory, made just before the council passed a new ordinance on credit card policy in April, indicated that these were city cards, not Peggy Wilder’s, he said.

“Does that mean it’s correct? I can’t tell you,” Smith said.

Larry Wilder said that credit cards listed in the inventory were references her personal cards.

The Public Access Counselor’s office has responded to the complaint with a letter saying that an opinion will be issued on the matter by Sept. 8.