Closeout report for the former Ste. Genevieve County Collector gives the office a rating of "good"

An audit report released this week by Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick gives the Ste. Genevieve County Collector's office a rating of "good." Pursuant to Section 52.150, RSMo, the State Auditor is required to conduct an audit once notified of a vacancy in the office of county collector. The 2023 resignation of Ste. Genevieve County Collector Kim Gielow triggered the audit.

"With Kim Gielow making an unexpected departure from the position of County Collector, it's important to give taxpayers a better understanding of the job she did while in office. In this case we see an office that has a few issues that should be addressed, and I'm glad to see the current County Collector is following our recommendations to ensure these issues don't persist," said Fitzpatrick.

The report has only two findings from the time Gielow served in the position. The first notes the former County Collector distributed $2,044 more in fees than collected. In a review of the monthly distributions for the 10 months Gielow was in office, the report notes that in 8 of the months Gielow issued a check to the County Clerk for a 5-cent fee for comparing and authenticating delinquent land lists. Gielow also distributed the same amount to the County Treasurer. The audit notes it is unclear why the former County Collector did this. Additionally, the County Collector does not account for the numerical sequence of receipt slips to ensure money received has been properly recorded and deposited.

The second finding in the report points out that the County Collector made disbursements throughout the year ended December 31, 2023 from the Tax Maintenance Fund (TMF) that exceeded the budgeted amounts. Gielow did not request any budget amendments and none were prepared or approved by the County Commission prior to the budget being overspent. As a result, the fund was overspent by $11,428, or 28 percent of budgeted expenditures.

The complete audit of the Ste. Genevieve County Collector and Property Tax System can be found here.