(Radio Iowa) – A broken water meter at the home of a clerk for the City of Missouri Valley has led to a special investigation by the state auditor’s office — and advice to quit storing cash in the city’s safe for weeks at a time. State Auditor Rob Sand says auditors reviewed a 50 month period and identified about 42-thousand dollars in utility payments from Missouri Valley residents that weren’t immediately deposited until about a thousand dollars in cash had accumulated in a safe.

“That isn’t what you want to do,” Sand says. “You want to get the money in and then you want to put it in the bank as quickly as possible.” Auditors determined the 42-thousand dollars was eventually deposited. “But you just don’t want to have that money laying around, even if it’s in a safe,” Sand says. “You want to be making deposits as soon as the money comes in.”

In October of 2019, Missouri Valley’s city administrator discovered the water meter at Brenda Osborn’s home was broken and she had adjusted her monthly bill from zero to about 50 dollars for 20 consecutive months. Osborn, the city’s water billing clerk, was in charge of getting meters fixed. Osborn was placed on leave and then resigned in late 2019. Sand says once the meter at Osborn’s home was fixed, her monthly bill wound up to be about 30 bucks.

The investigation by the state auditor’s office identified about 12-hundred dollars worth of checks written to the city apparently converted to cash. However, auditors weren’t able to match any of the amounts written on the checks to bills that were due. “We’ve got a little bit of missing money here and that’s always important,” Sand says, “but the other issue is how to people get the opportunity for that money to go missing and that is not following best practices.”

Sand says that means accurate daily recording of receipts and prompt deposits of any money paid to the city. Missouri Valley’s mayor and city council asked for the investigation and the report has been forwarded to law enforcement.

A copy of the report is available for review HERE.

Auditor of State Rob Sand, Tuesday, released an agreed-upon procedures report on the City of Griswold, for the period July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020. Sand reported ten findings related to the receipt and disbursement of taxpayer funds. The findings address issues such as a lack of segregation of duties, the Fire Department bank account held outside of the City’s control, Fire Department questionable disbursement and moneys provided to non-profit corporations in violation of Article III, Section 31 of the Constitution of Iowa. Sand provided the City with recommendations to address each of the findings.

Six of the ten findings discussed above are repeated from the prior year. Sand says the City Council has a fiduciary responsibility to provide oversight of the City’s operations and financial transactions. Oversight is typically defined as the “watchful and responsible care” a governing body exercises in its fiduciary capacity.

A copy of the agreed-upon procedures report is available here.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said Tuesday (today), Gronewald, Bell, Kyhnn & Co. P.C. CPAs have released an audit report on Cass County, Iowa for fiscal year ended June 30, 2020. The report shows the County had local tax revenue of $33,556,439 for the year ended June 30, 2020, which included $3,127,334 in tax credits from the state. The County forwarded $24,819,145 of the local tax revenue to the townships, school districts, county hospital, cities and other taxing entities in the County.

The County retained $8,737,294 of the local tax revenue to finance County operations, a .2 percent increase from the prior year. Other revenues included $4,150,486 from the State of Iowa, including indirect federal funding of $124,498, charges for service of $355,933, and $342,253 for the use of money and property.

Expenditures for County operations totaled $12,862,581, a 6.3 percent decrease from the prior year. Expenses included $5,891,070 for roads and transportation, $371,860 for mental health services, $2,940,209 for public safety and legal services, $552,773 for county environment and education, $288,816 for debt service, $202,289 for capital projects, and $1,560,948 for administrative services.

A copy of the audit report is available for review in the office of the Auditor of State and the Cass County Auditor’s office.