Linn supervisors to pay all old, uncashed payroll checks

CEDAR RAPIDS - Those owed the least - most who are developmentally disabled adults in the county's Options program - among about 190 people who have uncashed Linn County payroll checks over the last 15 years will be paid as well as the few owed the most.

That was the decision Monday by Linn County supervisors after a lengthy discussion with Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, Steve Tucker, the county's finance director, and Gary Jarvis, assistant county attorney.

In recent weeks, the supervisors had agreed to pay the eight largest uncashed checks over $400 based on county records had identified some 500 uncashed checks to about 190 different people in the last 15 years.

All the checks are more than a year old and should have been voided after a year but were not.

The list of uncashed checks came to be when the county searched its records after a request in late August from a private firm that finds people owed money for a fee.

In recent weeks, Tucker had recommended that the supervisors pay the largest eight uncashed checks, saying the cost of identifying owners of the smaller amounts - half of the 500 checks are for less than $5 - was not worth the effort.

The matter bogged down when Auditor Miller questioned the validity of the county's list of old, uncashed checks and balked at paying the biggest eight checks. In fact, county officials found one of the eight checks actually had been cashed by the county employee in the past.

On Monday, though, Miller said it would cost about $10,500 for the county's local bank to further investigate the list of uncashed checks, which in total have a value of less than $20,000.

The former county employee with the largest of the uncashed checks, for $6,270, still had the uncashed check, has produced it and already has been paid, Miller said.

Jarvis said the county's own computer-generated list of about 500 uncashed payroll checks should be considered accurate. One check found to have been cashed among 500 doesn't mean the county should discard the list, he said.

Miller said he would pay the biggest uncashed checks if he could pay all of them, a position which the supervisors rejected because they voted to pay the biggest checks and don't think Miller can stand in the way.

At one point in Monday's discussion, the supervisors seemed to agree that the county owes money for every uncashed check, but there was some suggestion that the county should sit back and wait for people to come forward to make a claim.

However, those with the eight largest checks - including Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden, who didn't cash a payroll check 12 years ago for $1,930 - were informed about their uncashed checks by Tucker, so it didn't make sense for the county not to inform everyone on the list, including all the Options program clients, Miller said.

Supervisor John Harris listened to the discussion without comment, and then said the county should work to identify everyone on the list and pay them, even the handful of people owed 1 cent. The other supervisors then agreed.

Late last week, Miller identified that 160 of the 190 or so people with uncashed checks are current of former Options clients and 55 of those are current Options clients.

Supervisor Linda Langston said the county should work with Options to identify and pay that group of people, which Miller said he would do.

Miller said his office will work to find the rest on the list.

In some instances the cost of postage and staff time devoted to finding people may cost more than the value of an uncashed check, but the supervisors said each person on the list is owed the money however small.

Miller said his office has implemented practices that will assure that payroll checks older than a year will be voided on a routine basis.