Treasurer Criticizes Lack Of Communication At Courthouse

Crawford County Treasurer Karen Sikes remains critical of the lack of communication that she says still exists between her office and the rest of the county more than a month into her tenure.

Sikes logged her complaints during a 40-minute discussion at the January 30 commission meeting.

She also suggested the county look into using money given to the school districts through fines for paying officeholder bonds, but other officials were uncertain.

Officeholders who sign checks must be bonded for a certain amount of money in the event that theft occurs. The bond money acts as insurance.

Sikes told commissioners she was advised at a training conference for treasurers that she could use money dispersed to schools, but both Presiding Commissioner Leo Sanders and Pat Schwent, the collector-elect, told Sikes to do more research.

“Nobody has discussed with me that this bond could be paid by the schools,” Sikes said. “It is the school money being protected.”

“This is the first I’ve heard anything like this,” Sanders said. 

Schwent said she would not follow what Sikes was saying.

“When I took office in 2011, the collector had to be bonded at $750,000 and the treasurer at $1 million,” she said. The county has such a high bond amount due to former Collector Danny Gladden being convicted for theft.

“I don’t know how you could go to schools and extract that money from them,” Schwent said. 

Sikes said the money would come out before it gets dispersed to the schools. 

“I would be careful with that,” said Sanders, adding that she needed to run it by the state auditor’s office and Prosecuting Attorney David Smith.

“Bonds have to be paid out of general revenue,” Schwent said. “Collectors have the option to pay it out of the tax maintenance fund and that’s what we have been doing. None of the auditors…have questioned any ounce of that.”

Schwent remained adamant that the county could not go after the schools.

“I’ll investigate it more,” Sikes said. “That is what they said.”

County Clerk John Martin said the bond amount is set by the commission and the bond pays the county back if money is stolen — not the schools. 

‘Lack of Communication’

Sikes and Martin got into a heated discussion at the January 8 meeting over what she described as a lack of communication.

She was critical again January 30, saying emails weren’t being returned to her and that she is being told different things.

“One day I have to go through the clerk’s office, another day I’m told to do it on my own,” she said. 

Her office received a new printer and she was unsure what her next step was.

“Am I supposed to call Brian (Andrews, county’s IT contact)?” she said. 

Martin said he sent her an email telling her to contact Andrews and see what his schedule is.

“I’m not getting emails returned to me,” Sikes said.

Martin suggested that it may be faster to ask a question than use email. 

“If you have a question there are other people in the office who can answer,” he said. 

Sikes questioned Martin on February 5 regarding the county’s budget deficit, which is projected to be wiped out once the January sales tax has been submitted.

The county began 2018 with a $358,000 deficit. It was down to around $31,000 in January. Sikes  read off an excerpt on the budget from the Steelville Star, then asked where Martin was getting his numbers from.

“It was the simple math of taking the known deposits and the known payments on December 31, 2018 and subtracting those, then adding to the known deficit,” he said. “You can go into QuickBooks and look at December 31.”

Ancillary Funds

Sikes questioned on February 5 what ancillary funds are. Martin told her they are non-general revenue funds. Sikes asked if school funds were considered part of that.

“No, they are not county funds,” he said.

“I just want to be on the same page,” she replied.

Martin explained that school funds are the same as senior citizen funds or fire district funds.

“The county is just a parking spot,” he said. “When we take in those funds, they come in and go right to the entities. They are parked in our spot and we write the check to them. The state does that so they can follow a paper trail. We’re basically the ‘bank’ for those places.”