New Poplar Bluff city manager: fraud possible under Kaplan

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Fraud may have been committed when the city of Poplar Bluff spent about $3.5 million on no-bid technology projects in 2014, according to officials who answered questions Tuesday at a public meeting for Ward 2.

City manager Mark Massingham acknowledged during the meeting he believes fraud was involved in the purchases, saying a forensic audit is being conducted.

The city did not receive state contract prices for items purchased from Michigan-based Information Systems Intelligence (ISI), Massingham said.

Former city manager Heath Kaplan said at the time the city did not need to take bids because ISI would match state contract pricing. City council members approved the majority of the projects in Kaplan’s first four months on the job.

The resulting technology infrastructure system could continue to be a burden for taxpayers. It is too big for the city and will be costly to operate, according to officials’ discussion.

The city since has brought in other technology firms to take over from ISI and deal with problems with the system’s operation.

“They asked what the population of Poplar Bluff was, and I said approximately 17,000,” Massingham said. “They said, ‘The city of Denver, Colorado, has a system that is almost as good and as expensive as yours.’”

Massingham said one of the companies hired was Appalachia Technologies of Pennsylvania.

A Ward 2 resident asked whether the city will pursue the people involved if wrongdoing was committed.

“We’re agreed: If there’s something there, we’re going to pursue it,” said council member Peter Tinsley of Ward 5, although earlier in the meeting he seemed hesitant to agree whether any inappropriate actions were taken.

“I still feel the answer to that (fraud) is that we need to bring in an IT person that knows how to work on that,” Tinsley said early in the ISI discussion. “We’re spending thousands of dollars on getting it fixed here and getting it fixed there. People don’t know how to handle it.”

Tinsley suggested a qualified person would require a salary of $60,000 to $80,000 annually.

Massingham said he has been told it would cost $120,000 for a qualified IT person, while Ward 4 council member Phillip Crocker said he has seen the salaries for a qualified Cisco technician range from $180,000 to $200,000.

Kaplan was fired by the city in May after about nine months on the job. He since has applied for and been turned down for government jobs in New Mexico and Michigan.

Butler County Sheriff’s Department also began an investigation in May of the city manager’s office under Kaplan’s tenure.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, Mo.