County supervisors review, accept state audit results

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County supervisors hope a state auditor's report validating county accounting practices puts to rest at least part of an ongoing dispute.

“I think the taxpayer wins, and we move on and try to be respectful,” District 4 Supervisor Brent Oleson, R-Marion, said after the board reviewed and formally accepted a report on an audit conducted over the summer by the state Auditor's Office.

The audit, requested by County Auditor Joel Miller, found no improper practices but recommended a handful of changes to the way the county manages some accounts. Many of the changes had been adopted before the state's audit began on the recommendation of Eide Bailley, the firm that conducts the annual audits of county books required by state law.

“Their conclusions in most cases justified what we were doing,” said Steve Tucker, the county's finance director. “There's no accounting changes. What we did, we closed five sheriff's accounts.”

Those accounts, and some independent accounts maintained by County Recorder Joan McCalmant's office, are what prompted Miller's request. He maintains that those accounts, funded through fees and fines and used to conduct day-to-day business in those offices, should be turned over to the county treasurer.

Acting on Eide Bailley's earlier report, five independent sheriff's office accounts were closed in June, before the new fiscal year - “before we knew the audit was to be performed,” Tucker said.

The state auditors also recommended minor changes to current practices regarding county highway contracts, employees' cellphone allowances and the contract with Medical Examiner Don Linder. They also recommended the county adopt a formal conflict of interest policy instead of relying on state law.

Those changes have all been made.

County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden strongly criticized Miller's public comments before and after the audit report was released, saying he owes Gardner and McCalmant an apology for “baseless and unfortunate accusations.”

“He suggested in a public way that our recorder and our sheriff were operating outside the boundaries of the law,” Vander Sanden said during the public comment period preceding the meeting. “What this auditor's report makes clear is that our recorder and our sheriff do have the right to maintain these accounts. Now that the state auditor has made this clear I hope we can put this to rest.”

“There is a bit of a cloud that was cast over their departments, that was cast over them personally,” said District 2 Supervisor Linda Langston, D-Cedar Rapids.

Miller attended the session but declined to comment on the report.