County Council approves $37,500 request for BOT audit

Updated: Jun 18

The June 1 Washington County Council meeting saw the council agreeing to utilize $37,500 of county money to audit the Highway Garage Project BOT following an audit released by the Indiana State Board of Accounts. But first, the council had other items on the agenda.

The meeting began with one public comment by Jerry Walton. He suggested a stoplight should be installed at the intersection of West SR-60 and West SR-56. After a brief conversation, the council informed Walton that, because his request involves state highways, the matter should be brought to the attention of the State of Indiana.

The council then moved to approve meeting minutes, followed by EMA Director Deni Stempowski informing them that she is forming a mandated Emergency Advisory Council composed of county and city officials. She stated that this is something that has been required for years.

“This council oversees anything having to do with emergency response, whether it's the planning that I do, 911, anything like that,” Stempowski said. “It is an advisory council that is mandated. It hasn't been done for years, and I'd like to remedy that. I am asking for all of you to please appoint someone from the council to be on this board.”

The council appointed Councilman Andrew Davisson to the advisory council. They then invited Election Administrator Stephanie Rockey forward to discuss mileage. The current mileage rate for county employees is more than a 50 mile radius and at $0.44 per mile. That rate is less than what the federal mileage rate was in 2010, which was $0.50 according to Councilwoman Karen Wischmeier. It has steadily increased over time and is now 72.5 cents per mile.

After much discussion, the council did not proceed with a formal vote on the matter, but they did reach a consensus of lowering the radius to 40 miles and increasing the rate to $0.65 per mile. Please note, this change is not yet in effect, and it is likely to be revisited at a later date.

While Council President Brad Gilbert went around the table asking for any additional comments before the meeting adjourned, Councilman Preston Shell and Councilwoman Karen Wischmeier spoke up about a very popular topic of discussion. Wischmeier read a prepared letter aloud regarding the audit recently released by the Indiana State Board of Accounts. The letter can be found as a PDF file below:

Wischmeier-Shell Letter

“We have over $600,000 that was paid, not part of the $4.8 million,” Wischmeier added following the reading of the letter. “The repeated lies of being told we're not over budget are just that. Lies. This audit proves that. I think that if we are going to do our taxpayers out here in this county any favors at all, we owe them $37,500 to figure out where all of our money went.”

“I respect what you're saying and everything,” said one man from the gallery, “but you are asking the taxpayer to spend $40,000 to investigate if anything was done improperly. It seems blatantly obvious to me that everything was done incorrectly. So my question is, why aren't we spending that $40,000 to see if anything criminal was done. So that once we find out that something– which we already know– is done incorrectly, we don't have to spend another $40,000 to pursue criminal charges. Let's just skip that step and say, ‘alright, the audit shows us that the procedure was not followed.’ There's no point in spending $40,000 to confirm that. Let's spend that $40,000 to bring somebody in to see if anything criminal was done.”

Wischmeier offered some clarification.

“It does state in the audit report that the money that I listed out here separately, which totals up to $600,000 that went above the $4.8 million, can actually be charged back to the individuals responsible for paying those bills personally. We would have to get with a lawyer to find out what the criminal side to that, if any, would be. Which is part of the reason that I made the request the way I did. So, I apologize for not being clear enough with that. But if you go back to page 13 of the audit, it does state that that could financially be their responsibility to pay back. It's actually listed in the audit. For those of you in the public out there that didn't understand, the reason that I read all this off to you was to make it more understandable for you all because a lot of what's in there is jargon to the person who doesn't look at it every single day. They're not going to understand all of it.”

Then, another gentleman chimed in with a comment from the gallery.

“You folks are genuinely smart enough to do this the right way. Those commissioners have no business spending the money. You folks right there need to be spending the money. You need to be telling them where they're to spend it or not spend it. You're the one who needs to take the vote on it. They need to come to you and say, we need this and this. They need to prove it to you. Now is the time for you to stand up and do it the right way. That lesson today is free.”

“In the exit conference that a lot of us in this room were at… There was nothing that the State Board of Accounts would refer to see about whether some type of charges or something was necessary in the thing. They did not refer to anything… I just want for clarification that they did not refer anything as a result of this report for any type of charges or investigations, just for the record,” said Brad Gilbert.

“I will respectfully say they did say they are not a legal team,” said Commissioner Tony Cardwell.

“Yes, Thank you, Mr. Cardwell. They are not a legal team. They do not give advice. But these reports are a good insight. I just wanted that for clarification purposes,” replied Gilbert.

The council then passed the request for $37,500 unanimously.

Brad Gilbert then said, “The only thing I have to say is good work from the council, but thank you all for coming. We appreciate you guys coming to the meeting… I will entertain a motion to adjourn.”

The meeting then adjourned, accompanied by remarks that holding the meeting in the evening resulted in a much larger attendance from the public.