STATE AUDITOR MCCASKILL SPEAKER AT FIRST FRIDAY COFFEE

Two years into the job, state auditor Claire McCaskill presented a brief "state of the office" message before the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee crowd at the Drury Lodge.

The former Jackson County prosecutor described the changes she's made since taking office as state auditor.

"In the past we've had more than 50 percent of our staff performing audits for less than 20 percent of the people," she said. "We've privatized audits of some third and four-class counties and some of the smaller cities."

This has freed up staff to work on some big issues, said McCaskill.

"This includes looking at the Sunshine Law, the Division of Aging and its handling of nursing homes in the state, confiscation of forfeited property and the DFS Hotline."

The auditor's report on forfeiture of property was requested because of concerns that police departments had found a way to keep much of the drug money they seized instead of sending it to public education, as legislators had intended.

Under state law, police must report all drug money they seize to county prosecutors to be handled by state courts, which normally would send the money to education.

But, in many cases the police simply gave seized money to federal agencies, which kept part and returned the rest, usually 80 percent, to police departments.

Through investigations by the state auditor's office, it was disclosed a number of political entities were not in compliance with Missouri's open meetings law.

McCaskill, a native of Rolla, was raised at Columbia and graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelor's degree in political science. She later attended Georgetown University and returned to graduate from the UM-Columbia Law School.

"I'm the first non-CPA to be state auditor in 25 years," said McCaskill.

The majority of the state auditors in the country are not CPAs.

"The state auditor doesn't do the audits." she said. "They manage the office." She said when she was a prosecuting attorney, she had a staff and budget that was bigger than the state auditor's. The Jackson County prosecutor's office is the state's largest ,with a staff of more than 225.

As a former state representative, she served on the state budget, insurance and judiciary committees. As a lawyer, she took a special interest in finance law.

Following First Friday Coffee, McCaskill visited some accounting classes at Southeast Missouri State University.

The second speaker at the standing-room-only crowd was Cape Girardeau Public School Superintendent Dan Steska, who explained the special school bond issue which will appear on the April 4 ballot.

Steska stressed that the school bond issue for Cape Girardeau public Schools would not include a tax levy rate increase.

Cape Girardeau school officials will ask voters to approve an $18 million bond issue April 4 to complete construction projects included in a long-range plan created five years ago.

If approved, money from the measure would be used to build a new high school and complete renovations to Central High School. After the projects are completed, the district would reconfigure grade levels and close Louis J. Schultz School.

Voters approved the first half of the plan, a $14 million bond issue, in 1997. Money raised through that measure enabled the district to build Barbara Blanchard Elementary School, renovate remaining elementary schools and Central Junior High, and build a new vocational career center.

The bond issue would extend the 1997 tax levy of $3.41.

The plans call for the new high school, which could accommodate as man as 1,800 students, to be built next to the new Career and Technology Center on Silver Springs Road.

This would allow students to access the industrial and technology program on the same site.

The district already owns the 670 acres necessary for the two schools.

Included in the new high school building will be two gymnasiums one seating 2,500 and a second which would seat about 500.

The new school provides a total of 216,000 square feet. The new Career and Technology Center will have more than 119,000 square feet.

A timetable for the new structures is 2001 for the technology building, which is already under construction, and the fall of 2002 for the new high school building.