Scott City officials: No prosecution of former city employees over credit-card use

Scott County Prosecutor Paul Boyd has declined to file charges against former Scott City employees for misuse of city credit cards �since it appeared most of the personal charges were timely repaid,� city officials said Tuesday in a news release.

In a news release, sent out with the signature of Mayor Norman Brant, the city said the results of an audit, covering 2014 through 2016, were turned over to the prosecutor.

According to the release, the prosecutor concluded �it would be difficult to prove an intent to permanently deprive the city of funds and that personal use of the credit cards, subject to timely repayment, was known and permitted by the administrator.�

Brant said in the release �the city has expended a considerable amount of public funds on the audit and continued expenditure of funds is not justified.�

According to former Mayor Ron Cummins, the city has spent more than $10,000 on the audit.

Brant, who took over as mayor after Cummins resigned last year, said the city reserves the right to recover any unpaid money through a civil lawsuit.

�All former employees who used cards for personal purposes have resigned or have been dismissed,� Brant said.

All previous credit cards have been collected and new credit cards issued only to department heads, who must present the city clerk with receipts for purchases, the release said.

No expenditures over $500 are made without a purchase order issued by the city clerk, officials said.

A three-page document, described by city officials as the audit report, was provided to the Southeast Missourian on Tuesday in response to an Open Records Law request. But the document did not include any management letter or findings as is normally provided for an audit.

City clerk Michael Dudek said in an email Brant told him that the three-page accounting ledger is �the only� information provided to the city by the St. Louis-area auditing firm.

The ledger detailed credit-card use by four people: then-city clerk Cindy Uhrhan, then-police officers Casey Dodd and Kenny Massa, and then-city administrator Ron Eskew.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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