Work to resume soon on city’s audit investigation

HARLAN -- The Iowa Attorney General’s office has assigned personnel to investigate a special investigative report from the state auditor’s office that outlined $144,872.32 in improper and unsupported disbursements tied to former Harlan City Administrator Terry Cox.
    Current city administrator Gene Gettys, Jr. said last week that due to a heavy workload, the attorney general’s office is just getting to the report, and has plans to resume investigation of the report in December.
    It was in June that Auditor of State Mary Mosiman released the 121-page report on the special investigation of the City of Harlan for the period July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2016.
    City officials requested the special investigation last year, after they developed concerns about some of Cox’s travel reimbursements.  
    Cox submitted his resignation May 3, 2016 (effective June 30, 2016) after 39 years of service to the community, approximately two weeks after his expense reports came into question by members of the Harlan City Council.
    Mosiman reported the special investigation identified a total of $144,872.32 in improper and unsupported disbursements.   Auditors made note of improper or unsupported disbursements to Cox including improper travel reimbursements, payment for hours he didn’t work, various improper expenses, reimbursement for meals and lodging at casinos where he had been given complimentary food and rooms, and reimbursement for mileage or lodging that had been reimbursed already by the professional organization sponsoring the event.
    Copies of the report were filed with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Shelby County Attorney’s Office, and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
    Gettys said the city has received numerous inquiries from the public into the status of the investigative report, and whether or not the attorney general’s office has looked at the audit report to date.  He said the report was turned over to the attorney general’s office and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and report review will resume in December.