YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

September 27, 2002

Report No. 2002-101

IMPORTANT:� The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Iron County, which do not have a county auditor.� However, to assist such counties in meeting federal audit requirements, the State Auditor will also provide a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds every two years.� This voluntary service to Missouri counties can only be provided when state auditing resources are available and it does not interfere with the State Auditor's constitutional responsibility of auditing state government.

Once every four years, the State Auditor's statutory audit will cover additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials, as required by Missouri's Constitution.

This audit of Iron County included additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials.� The following concerns were noted as part of the audit:

� �������� A state law, Section 50.333.13, RSMo, enacted in 1997, allowed salary commissions meeting in 1997 to provide mid-term salary increases for associate county commissioners elected in 1996 due to the fact that their terms were increased from two years to four.� The Iron County salary commission did not address this issue in 1997.� Two legal opinions provided to the county from the prosecuting attorney's office advised against approving the raises since a court would likely view them as unconstitutional and repayments might be required.� Regardless of these factors, in March 1999, the county commission approved mid-term raises for the associate county commissioners retroactively effective to January 1, 1999.

On May 15, 2001, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down an opinion that holds that all raises given pursuant to this statute section are unconstitutional.� Based on the Supreme Court decision, the raises given to each of the Associate County Commissioners, totaling approximately $15,400, for the two years ended December 31, 2000, should be repaid.

���������� The county does not have a written policy on the use of county vehicles and vehicle usage logs prepared do not provide adequate details or distinguish between business and commuting usage.

���������� The county has not adopted a written county-wide overtime and compensatory time policy.

���������� The Sheriff maintains a bank account outside the county treasury.� A budget was not prepared for the fund and the fund was not listed on the county's published financial statement.� Some expenditures from the fund did not appear necessary for the operation of the sheriff's department.

Complete Audit Report