Leelanau County Commissioner Rick Robbins has sent a memorandum to Board Chair Steve Yoder and Interim County administrator Lauren Cypher regarding credit card and payment control issues to gather documentation and a full board corrective action plan.
“I raised the credit-card usage and non-payment problems in good faith at the recent Board meeting. Those concerns were reinforced by public comment from Tamara Kiessel regarding the personal credit impact on Undersheriff James Kiessel and by the interim administrator’s own statements that the finance department is reconciling four to five months of under-, over-, and duplicate payments, that policies have not been followed since January, and that handwritten ACH amounts or underpayment directives have occurred,” Robbins said in a memoradum to Yoder and Cypher.
Robbins met with Yoder, and commissioner Mark Walters yesterday morning.
Cypher stated that the hotel reservation, the purchase at the center of this dilemma, was made through the finance department and secured with County Administrator Jim Dyer’s credit card.
“Meeting today with Commissioners Robbins, Walter, and Yoder to walk through the credit card reconciliation in person. No county business will be discussed. All FOIA requests for these documents have been resolved. All documentation was provided in its entirety to the Board of Commissioners on Saturday, July 25 and again on Monday, July 27 as a combined PDF.
Both issues regarding Undersheriff Kiessel’s card and Jim Dyer’s card have been resolved. Policy and procedure for payments and reconciliation are being strictly followed,” Cypher said.
Robbins said this is not minor clerical matters in the note and involve personal financial harms to a county employee who used a private card for county purposes; embarrassment to staff attending required training; multimonth payment irregularities acknowledged on the record; apparent departures from established financial policies.
“Comparable concerns about accuracy of statements to the Board, financial controls, and transparency were central to the prior investigation of the previous administrator. The Board treated those matters with formal process. The current issues are of the same character and, given the documented personal impact on employees, warrant the same seriousness,” Robbins said. “I understand there may be discussion this morning attributing some of the problems to information provided (or not provided) by the finance director. Certain of the issues that have surfaced — authorization of payments, compliance with Board-adopted credit card and disbursement policies, and timely resolution of reimbursements that affect employees’ personal credit — fall under broader administrative and Board oversight responsibilities and are not solely within the finance director’s day-to-day purview.”
Robbins requested
• Credit card statements, the four-to-five-month reconciliation work product, and any written directives regarding ACH amounts or underpayments.
•Placement on an upcoming Board agenda of a formal presentation by the Interim Administrator of a corrective action plan that addresses the control failures, documentation gaps, and employee impacts already on the public record.
“I am prepared to discuss these points constructively this morning. My sole interest is that the Board, acting as a body, receives the facts and takes appropriate corrective steps consistent with its oversight role,” Robbins said.
Both commissioners Will Bunek and Gwenne Allgaier supported Robbins complaint before the Wednesday meeting and hopes for a quick resolution.
“I like to see it come to an end as quick as we can and I don’t like all of these delays and just trying to be reasonable,” Bunek said.
