06/14/2017
Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway today issued a follow-up report on the operations of the municipal court for the city of Wellston, located in St. Louis County. The city recently dissolved its municipal division and is contracting with the city of St. Ann through the Consolidated Municipal Courts to provide those services to the public.
"My previous audit found widespread problems affecting citizens including mismanagement of funds, missing case files and little progress initiating important court reforms," Auditor Galloway said. "The mismanagement was serious enough that the city chose to disband its municipal court and administer these services through a contract with another city."
In February 2017, all court operations for Wellston were transferred to the city of St. Ann through a consolidated court operation called the Consolidated Municipal Courts. Through the agreement, court administrative and prosecutor assistant services are paid on a contract basis.
The previous audit found court surcharges that were not spent on their intended purposes and were not approved by the city council. The report also found little oversight and largely inaccurate records for bail bonds. Court records were also disorganized, incomplete, missing and in many cases, inaccurate, with 90 percent of cases reviewed showing conflicting activity between electronic and paper records.
Due to the consolidation of court operations, ten of the 19 recommendations auditors evaluated had been implemented. The other nine recommendations were in progress or partially implemented.
A link to the follow-up report is available here.
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