Crawfordsville discusses auditor?s report

    The Crawfordsville City Council discussed the steps recently taken to improve the city?s accounting at Tuesday?s meeting. The council talked about a list of recommendations for better oversight and transparency from State Auditor David Vaudt. Vaudt investigated Crawfordsville?s former City Clerk John Hamil, who has been charged with first-degree theft and felonious misconduct.

    The city of Crawfordsville had asked Vaudt to perform an audit of the city?s finances. Vaudt released a report in February which indicated that approximately $31,600 in improper disbursements was made from the city treasury to Hamil?s personal residence between 1999 and 2009, when Hamil was the city clerk. Among the improper disbursements was roughly $10,000 in electrical service and $8,700 in telephone service to Hamil?s residence. The report also revealed that Hamil had approximately $1,000 in unpaid utility bills, and Vaudt estimated that he had about $3,000 in unpaid water bills as well.

    Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Jagat Sandhu also investigated the improper disbursements. In a sworn affidavit prepared in March, Sandhu wrote that he interviewed Hamil about his personal utility bills and that Hamil told him the utility bills submitted to the council were not itemized to show the recipient of each payment. Sandhu wrote that no money was ever deposited into the city?s account to cover Hamil?s water and garbage bill.

    At Tuesday?s meeting, Councilman Rex Felts read Vaudt?s list of recommendations for how to prevent such an occurrence from happening in the future. In his report, Vaudt recommended segregating duties among the city clerk, mayor and city council members. He wrote that bank statements should be mailed to someone not involved in dispersing city funds. Additionally, Vaudt advised that council members review the city?s financial records on a periodic basis.

For more, see our April 14 print edition.