Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor, Times-Union:
Thoughts on Winona Lake State Board of Accounts audit for 2019 through 2022 (These thoughts do not cover everything in the SBOA audit.) Other towns in Kosciusko County should follow what the SBOA wants.
I suspect that most if not all of the abnormalities that the SBOA found were not due to willful malfeasance. However, because citizens lose their real estate if they do not pay their real estate taxes, the responsible Winona Lake officials and employees need to be asked to make the town whole for the transactions that lack any of the following: documentation that expenditures were related to the functions and policies of the town, prior authorization by a positive vote of the town board, budgeted / appropriated in the town budget.
By my calculations the following people owe the following amounts: Craig Allebach, $104,022 (page 24); Holly Hummitch, $6,476 ($6,496 - $20 personal cash) (pages 17, 18, 27); Joe Hawn, $1,077 (pages 16, 24); K & J Operations, LLC, $36 (page 27); and Meghan Hawn Lincoln, $4,245 plus the value of the dump truck (pages 15, 16, 34).
The town needs to have a public hearing to do $3,410 in additional appropriations to pay Laurie Renier’s legal fees. (Pages 65 and 66)
It is striking that just about all of the systematic findings are the same for the town council as for the clerk–treasurer. The town council members are responsible for the internal controls of the appropriations. It is not just the clerk–treasurer’s responsibility. Otherwise, why was the vast majority of the audit report for the clerk–treasurer restated word-for-word in the town council’s section of the audit report. The town board members need to ensure that the internal controls are being followed on a transaction by transaction basis.
It is imperative that the town council minutes include what was discussed, what the pros and cons were, who was making what points, how each board member voted and whether the motion was carried or not. If I was a town board member I would insist that the minutes were complete and accurate. If they were not, I would make a big deal of it when I voted not to approve the minutes. If the minutes did not include things I thought were important, I would make it known that I was writing a letter to the editor listing what I thought was missing. Each individual member of the town board needs to be jealous of their reputation and insist that the public knows what happened in town board meetings and how they voted and why they voted that way. (Pages 67-69)
Craig Nayrocker
Warsaw, via email
