UI’s Hawkeye Express cash, tickets under new department

IOWA CITY - For every home football game so far this season, University of Iowa Parking and Transportation officials have known exactly how much revenue the popular Hawkeye Express generated, how the cash was collected and stored, and when it was deposited.

That contrasts previous cash-handling practices for the passenger train, which has been shuttling fans from parking areas in Coralville to Kinnick Stadium before and after Hawkeye home football games since 2004.

A special investigation conducted earlier this year by the state auditor found mishandled collections resulted in the disappearance of at least $74,200 in revenue - a number that is 'likely conservative.”

According to an audit report, the UI Athletic Ticket Office - previously in charge of the train's operations - did not deposit all of the collections for three football games in 2011. Additionally, despite a policy requiring ticket proceeds be deposited during the week following the game, the audit found revenue from 31 games was not deposited in a timely fashion.

The number of days that lapsed before deposit for those 31 games ranged from nine to 157, the report showed.

Auditors recommended the UI take aggressive measures to prevent such mishandling in the future, and the university responded. Suggestions included assigning counting and depositing duties to someone not responsible for recording deposits in the UI accounting system.

It also advised that reconciliations be prepared by someone independent of receipt collections.

Dave Ricketts, director of UI Parking and Transportation, said his department has taken from the athletic department duties of selling tickets at the depot and taking tickets at the gate.

'We are keeping track of everyone who enters,” Ricketts said. 'And we are taking the money to be deposited. We have taken much of the cash handling off the athletic department.”

Separating those duties to the parking and transportation office made sense, Ricketts said, because it already was handling a lot of game-day cash related to parking around Kinnick Stadium.

As for management of the train, coordination of routes, and other aspects of its operation, Ricketts said, that still falls under the guise of the UI Athletic Department and Iowa Northern Railway Company.

And even though the cash-handling change is new this year, Ricketts said, he believes the athletic department addressed many of the concerns, which is why most of the issues came up in the audit date back to 2010 and 2011.

'Many of the checks and balances recommended were already put in place,” he said. 'The problems they encountered were years ago.”

Oversight failure

But those problems were significant, as cited by the audit.

In addition to mishandling money, train tickets issued by the athletic department before 2012 did not expire, meaning they could be used during the current season or future seasons.

'The management staff of the ticket office failed to exercise proper fiduciary oversight,” according to the state report. 'The lack of appropriate fiduciary oversight and the failure to ensure implementation of adequate internal controls permitted the undeposited collections to go unnoticed.”

The employee in charge of making the deposits - ticket office accountant Kathleen Willier - was terminated after 31 years with the UI as a result of the mishandled collections findings. UI officials cited 'unsatisfactory job performance” in her Nov. 6, 2013, firing.

When asked by investigators recently about the decrease in revenue in 2011, Willier said it was 'probably a result of lower ridership and people reusing tickets.” But, in fact, auditors found the number of riders increased from 2010 to 2011.

'Ms. Willier's explanation is not supported,” according to the report.

Willier was not charged with a crime in the case after auditors who reviewed her personal bank accounts failed to find any sizable deposits matching the missing collections. Auditor checks into the personal accounts of other ticket office staff members also failed to produce evidence of the missing cash, according to the report.

The UI didn't realize money had been mishandled until it conducted an internal audit of the train operations last year. The delay hampered investigators' ability to track down the missing collections.

'Because no one independent of the duties for collecting proceeds from the ticket sales at the depot reviewed the deposits to the university's bank account …

no one identified the undeposited collections from the 2011 football games in a timely manner,” according to the report.

Ridership grows

But collections now are reconciled weekly and deposited in a timely manner, Ricketts explained.

And according to ridership data for this season, numbers are up. Average ridership and revenue from 2012 reached 4,240 and more than $30,000.

So far this year, the three home games have averaged 5,034 riders and more than $36,000 in revenue.

Rickets said the $35,154 train ticket revenue collected during the Hawkeye home opener against the University of Northern Iowa on Aug. 31 was higher than any game last year. And revenue from the Iowa State University game on Sept. 19 increased 16 percent to $40,677, according to data from the parking and transportation department.

'So many things can affect that,” Ricketts said. 'It's hard to compare because it depends on the weather or (the opponent).”

Ridership numbers aren't always indicative of revenue totals, as children under 12 ride for free but still are given a ticket and counted in the total numbers. If a particular game's ridership totals include more adults, revenue will be higher.

For the Iowa State game last weekend, 3,409 general admission tickets were sold at the depot, and 548 youth tickets were issued. For the Northern Iowa game, 2,987 general admission tickets were sold at the depot, and 916 youth tickets were issued.

The university also issues some complimentary tickets to volunteers, and it makes some sales off site - such as at the athletic ticket office.

According to this year's ticket data, the most common boarding time is one hour to an hour and a half before game time. Boarding numbers were a bit more evenly dispersed for the Iowa State game, but they still spiked around 1 p.m. for the 2:30 p.m. game.

And although the Hawkeye Express, in part, is meant to alleviate some of the parking and vehicle congestion around Kinnick Stadium, Ricketts said there isn't always a direct correlation.

Cash transactions to park in a UI lot near Kinnick, for example, were down for the Ball State game, just as were ridership numbers for the train during that game.

'The train doesn't always reflect on-campus revenue for parking,” Ricketts said.