The Cedar Bluffs Village Board is planning a meeting to consider the termination of its public utilities superintendent following a state audit.
Village Board Chairman Claire Grosse said the meeting to determine Clarence Thurlow’s future with the village was set for Monday, but because the board’s attorney is out of town is tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
The meeting follows a state audit in which officials found two village credit card statements for the superintendent that each included charges of $37.19 for what appears to be monthly membership to a pornographic Web site.
Grosse said Thurlow, employed by the city for about 27 years, has denied any wrongdoing.
Attempts to reach Thurlow were unsuccessful.
The irregularity, however, was among several found by the state auditor’s office and listed in a recently issued, 12-page report.
Other issues include:
n Overtime paid to two employees without documentation of their having worked the hours.
n The purchase of more than 400 gallons of on-road diesel fuel even though the village doesn’t own vehicles using this type of fuel during the period of October 2007 through June 2008. Thurlow stated in the report the fuel was used in the village’s backhoe and tractor, however less costly fuel could have been used.
n The purchase of more than $2,400 in supplies in quantities that appear to be excessive, including 2,700 trash bags, said State Auditor Mike Foley.
The report includes payments and credit card expenses linked to Thurlow and his wife, Kim, the village’s former village clerk/treasurer.
Grosse said Kim Thurlow worked for the village for about five years before she was fired on Oct. 28.
“She wasn’t able to meet deadlines and didn’t perform tasks the board asked her to do on a regular basis,” Grosse said.
During Kim Thurlow’s tenure, the village was fined more than $20,000 for missing federal deadlines for reporting payroll, Grosse said. That occurred in the two years prior to 2008. In the last calendar year, she missed three out of four deadlines.
The state auditor’s work began
after a surprise visit to the village on Oct. 8, then continued after two other scheduled visits.
“At best, this is a case of some people who didn’t have some competence to perform the duties they were assigned,” Foley said. “At worst, it’s something more sinister than mere incompetence. We can’t prove fraud and nothing in the report proves that anybody stole anything, but it certainly does prove that the accounting system and village finances are in disarray.”
In the meantime, the village has submitted audit information to the Saunders County Attorney’s office for a possible criminal investigation involving misuse of credit cards.
During the state auditor’s investigation, the agency found bank reconciliations that weren’t performed until many months after statements were received, Foley said. When they were performed, the bank records didn’t tie into the village accounting records.
The report also found that:
n Both the superintendent and former village clerk worked a significant amount of overtime between October 2007 and September 2008 without appropriate documentation of ever having worked those hours, Foley said.
Kim Thurlow reported 322 hours of overtime equaling additional compensation of $6,691 during the fiscal year. Clarence Thurlow reported working 255 hours of overtime and 30.75 hours of double time, equaling additional compensation of $7,831 during the fiscal year, the audit report stated.
At one point, it appears that the former clerk was paid overtime in advance, but the report states that according to board chairman the village does not allow advances in pay to its employees.
n Regarding the credit card usage, Foley said the statements for the village superintendent indicated that the two $37 charges were made to a company called centennialhelp.com.
“We believe that’s a front for a pornographic Web site,” Foley said.
n Problems were found involving village assessments levied to property owners for street paving projects.
“The accounting was all messed up on those street assessments to the point where it was difficult to prove which citizens had paid and which had not. Similar problems were found in water and sewer billings,” Foley said.
Then there was the purchase of supplies.
“We found a peculiar purchase from the village clerk purchasing Amway supplies from her daughter who was an Amway distributor in the amount of $2,400,” Foley said. “Supply items that they purchased appear to be items the village would have needed, but the quantities appeared excessive. They bought 2,700 trash bags. That seemed like a very high number for a small village.”
The report said the village board needs to implement stronger guidelines for monitoring and oversight of village transactions.
“When you’ve got a small operation like this, the village board needs to be more hands-on,” Foley said.
The state auditor did commend Grosse on her cooperation.
“Oftentimes when we come out with a report, the board chairman becomes very defensive and goes into denial, but that’s not the case here,” Foley said.
Grosse has served on the board for two years, the last of which as chairman, for the town of 600 residents.
In November, the five-member board hired Tammy Ramaker to be the new village clerk.
“She’s doing tremendously,” Grosse said. “She had a steep learning curve and has jumped in and taken off like gangbusters.”
Grosse looks ahead to the future.
“I see our city moving forward,” she said.
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