Former Delhi mayor and clerk charged with theft

This is the second Delhi city clerk who’s been accused of misusing public money

A former mayor and a former city clerk in Delhi, Iowa have been charged with theft after a Delaware County Sheriff’s Office investigation, prompted by a report released last year by the Iowa State Auditor’s Office.

The Auditor’s report, released on Aug. 6, 2024, said Lori Tucker processed more than $66,000 in improper disbursements while she was the Delhi city clerk, between January 2015 and June 2022. She was the second Delhi city clerk to be investigated by the state auditor. The previous city clerk, Angela Billings, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for the embezzlement of more than $100,000 after she left the job and Tucker, her replacement, noticed discrepancies in billing and credit card payments.

Tucker is now being charged with first-degree theft, second-degree theft, and tampering with records.

Gregory Preussner, who was mayor of Delhi from 2016 to 2021 and was a city council member when Tucker was hired in 2014, also has been charged with first-degree theft (aiding and abetting) and impersonating a public official, according to a news release from the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office investigation found evidence that Tucker made improper disbursements of more than $10,000, and that Preussner knew about and approved some of the disbursements. Preussner also signed a paid time off request for Tucker in 2022, when he was no longer serving as mayor, and backdated it to December 2021, when he still held office, according to the release.

Tucker also continued to receive automatic payments to her personal insurance and retirement accounts from June 2022 — when she left the job to work instead for the city of Ryan — and March 2023. She also withheld passwords to key city accounting and email systems from city staff after she left the job, according to the release.

Online court filings for Tucker’s case and charges were not available as of Tuesday afternoon. Filings in Preussner’s case show he was arrested Monday and released after posting a $10,000 cash bond. His initial appearance in scheduled for Nov. 5.

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