11/23/2021
State
Auditor Nicole Galloway today released the audit of the Greene County
Commission that included the involvement of a former Greene County commissioner
in a 2017 sales tax ballot measure campaign. Among its findings, the audit
found that taxpayers paid more than $25,000 in legal invoices sent to the
personal address of now-former Presiding Commissioner Robert Cirtin; the
expenses were related to a Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) complaint.
In
December 2017, acting on information obtained through the office's
Whistleblower Hotline, Auditor Galloway requested authority from the County
Commission for her office to conduct a thorough, independent audit into
allegations that public resources were misused to advocate for the ballot
measure; however, the County Commission at that time did not grant her request.
Subsequently, after changes to the County Commission due to an election, the
County Commission asked Galloway to audit county government.
"I appreciate the cooperation of the
current Commission to bring this review to completion, after prolonged efforts
by two former commissioners to prevent taxpayers from seeing how their tax
dollars were used," Auditor Galloway said.
The commission retained
legal representation from law firms, costing over $34,000, related to an
election law complaint at the MEC without soliciting competitive bids, and did
not enter into a contract with one of those law firms.
Eventually, the MEC
issued rulings describing violations of law and ethics rules surrounding Cirtin's
activities regarding the adoption of the sales tax. Auditors found that county
taxpayers paid a total of $20,284 to a law firm for invoices sent to Cirtin at
his personal address. Auditors also found that Cirtin approved a reimbursement
to himself totaling $5,400 for additional legal expenses that he initially
personally paid to the same law firm. Cirtin also was paid for a reimbursement
request for mileage to travel to Jefferson City to meet with legal counsel
about the MEC complaint; however, there was no commission or other signature
indicating the request was approved before it was paid.
Auditors also found
that, in violation of county policy and legal guidance, Cirtin used his
official county email to encourage other county employees to engage
in campaign activity around the sales tax measure. In one exchange, he asked a
county employee to engage in political activity for the political action
committee (PAC) formed to support the sales tax. When the employee raised
concerns about doing work for a PAC as a county employee, Cirtin told the
employee to do it on their free time. The employee resisted the order, citing
it would be a violation of ethics laws.
A commission with two
new members, including current Presiding Commissioner Dixon, voted early in
2019 to formally request that Auditor Galloway audit the entire government of
Greene County. The Auditor previously released audits of Greene County government and of the Greene County Sheriff. Both of those reports
gave a rating of "good."
The audit released
today of the Greene County Commission looked at the specific allegations
related to the former Presiding Commissioner's involvement in the 2017 sales
tax campaign, as well as other operations of the Commission. A complete copy of
the audit report, which gave a rating of "poor," can be found here.
