NEW PALESTINE — The town council has voted in favor of investing in a forensic audit into the town’s biggest money maker, the sewer utility, amid worries of past irregularities with its finances.
The council voted to spend at least $20,000 to get the investigation started. The vote, held at a meeting last week, was 4-1, with longtime council member Clint Bledsoe voting against the measure.
Council president Bill Niemier and council members Angie Fahrnow, Brandee Bastin and Chris Lytle voted for the audit. While they agree the cost will be substantial, they want answers after years of not being able to get dependable financial reports on sewer plant operations. The audit will be broken into two parts, one to look at internal controls and the other to take a deep, forensic dive into sewer plant operations to make sure there was no mismanagement by former officials.
Just last week, a local farmer brought a $420 check to town officials and asked who he was supposed to give it to so he could continue to rent some 3½ acres of town property near the sewer plant to plant crops. The farmer informed town officials that in the past, he simply gave the check to Dave Book, the former town manager. Current town officials said they have no knowledge of any agreement between the farmer and the town and are not sure where the money the farmer paid — apparently for decades — has gone.
Town manager Jim Robinson went to visit the farmer, who told him the deal was done between himself and Book via a handshake. The farmer was also paying Southern Hancock schools to farm acreage it owns in the same area.
“I reached out to a former council member here for several years, Larry Jonas, and he had no recollection of any agreement or recollection of arrangements the town had with any farmers,” Robinson said.
Robinson noted the town bought the land from the Southern Hancock school district for their sewer operations in the early 1980s. The town’s clerk-treasurer, Yvonne Jonas, said during the most recent council meeting she dug into past records to see where the check was recorded and could find no evidence of any checks from the farmer.
“I was really, really angry there is no record of that,” Yvonne Jonas said. “The problem is where did the money go in the years past.”
Current town officials are concerned and worry this may be another side business Book, who ran the sewer department for decades, did on his own without the town’s approval. Book was fired in March 2020 when town officials found he was operating his own private sewage treatment business using the town’s facility, even paying current employees to help him do so, without the council’s knowledge. The arrangement led to an investigation by the Indiana State Police.
Book died in July, and Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton informed the town that while he couldn’t clear Book of wrongdoing, he wasn’t able to file charges against a dead person.
Eaton has since advised the council to seek a civil suit against Book or check with the Indiana attorney general’s office, to which he referred the case.
Bledsoe contended money Book spent on sewer equipment would be easy to account for because the equipment is still at the sewer plant. Fahrnow reminded Bledsoe about the $40,000 Book spent on a new pump, one the town didn’t need and is still unused to date. Fahrnow implied Book used town funds, which were approved by the council for the pump, for his side business and never got to use it because the town fired him after officials found out about the side business.
Niemier wants the audit because he wants answers on how two former town employees received massive pay raises during the final few years of their employment before they retired several years ago when the council had only approved 3% raises for all town employees during that time.
“Who knows what else is out there?” Niemier said. “Even if the investigation doesn’t show anything else wrong, we can prevent any issues in the future.”
Bastin, who was the council president for four years, including during Book’s final years as the town manager, said she repeatedly asked Book for reports on finances from the town’s sewer operations but never received them or was put off by Book for various reasons.
“I felt powerless,” Bastin said.
Lytle, the council’s newest member, agreed with the majority of the council and voted in favor of the investigation despite worries about the expense.
“We do need to figure things out there,” Lytle said.
Lytle expressed concerns about the arrangement Book apparently had made with the farmer.
“If that guy doesn’t come in and pay us, we have no idea there was any kind of deal,” Lytle said.
