Linn County auditor, sheriff spar over chaplains’ group

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller and Sheriff Brian Gardner agree on one point: That the sheriff's office payment of about $40,000 a year for chaplains' services at the county jail doesn't break any laws.

Beyond that, “I'm not sure what he wants,” Gardner said of Miller's request for information on the 14 accounts his department manages.

What he wants is a clarity on how county money is spent, said Miller, who's already suing county supervisors over his authority to monitor individual departments' accounts.

“It's not very transparent,” he said. “Nobody has any oversight over those (accounts) and nobody has any idea what they're spending.”

Miller said he began asking after county Finance Director Steve Tucker pointed out a $41,453 check written in July to the Linn County Correctional Chaplaincy Ministry (LCCC). Miller emailed Gardner and sheriff's Col. John Stuelke, listed as LCCC's treasurer, seeking more information.

About a week later, Gardner forwarded the information to Miller. Gardner said Stuelke took over management of the jail's chaplaincy program when Gardner became in January 2009, putting him on LCCC's board while also working in the sheriff's office.

Gardner said Stuelke and the LCCC board is working on hiring a professional treasurer. Stuelke is out of town, training with the FBI until December.

Gardner said the LCCC and predecessor organizations have provided the jail's religious services since the late 1970s or early 1980s. The services were first offered through the St. Luke's Hospital chaplaincy program, with the LCCC created in January 2004, according to documents on file at the Iowa Secretary of State's office.

“It used to be basically just a guy who came in and volunteered,” said Gardner. “As the program grew it came  to be a program that needed to be managed by someone who needed to be paid.”

The arrangement appears unusual if not unique. In Johnson County, local clergy members may visit prisoners once a week at the prisoner's request, but the county doesn't pay anyone to run a program, said sheriff's Capt. Dave Wagner, jail administrator.

“We just don't have enough room,” said Wagner. “We've got three small meeting rooms in this jail that was built for 46? and may now hold more than 200 on weekends.

Gardner said the more intensive program makes sense in Linn County, where the jail holds about 400.

“Some of these inmates have issues they want to talk about,” he said. “We don't offer any true counselling through the jail.”

Through LCCC, “they have someone who's not on the jail staff for them to talk to,” said Gardner.

LCCC spent $69,346 to provide services last year, according to the group's tax return filed by Stuelke. The organization paid $16,540 each to Maridee Dugger and Keith Pitts, respectively a part-time coordinator and chaplain. The group paid $30,907 to Robert Smythe, its full-time chaplain.

LCCC's only other paid employee in 2009 was Linda Hauber, who received $600 for serving as its secretary. Hauber, also a member of the group's board, is an administrative assistance at the sheriff's office.

Efforts today to contact LCCC chairman Robert Botts and other agency staff weren't successful.

Gardner said the chaplaincy provides books and services to all faiths and conducts non-religious programs such classes for the high school general equivalency diploma. The program was reviewed an approved by the county attorney in 1990, he said.

“I didn't know we paid these chaplains,” said Miller. “I thought they were volunteers. Why don't we just pay these chaplains directly as employees?”

Miller said he'll continue to press for oversight of county departments' spending, an effort that led to his lawsuit against the supervisors. Miller filed suit in February after the supervisors blocked his plan to replace Deputy Auditor Sue Wold with someone qualified to audit spending accounts.

Miller said he expects the case to go to trial next summer.

“This never was an issue before,” said Gardner, who added “we haven't changed a thing” in the department's accounting practices since taking office.

Gardner also said that “nowhere in the Code of Iowa does the auditor have the authority to audit.”

“That's the same story the board of supervisors took and that's why we're in the lawsuit,” said Miller. “I'm not prohibited from auditing, and neither is anybody else.”