YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

October 7, 1999
Report No. 99-96

Some problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office in response to the request of petitioners from the Camden Point Fire Protection District, Platte County, Missouri.

It appears the board has not always provided documents requested by citizens to those individuals in a timely manner. In one instance, documents requested in November 1997 were not provided until January 1998. In another instance, information requested in September 1998 was not provided until January 1999.

The board met periodically for work sessions for various purposes. It appears that the board believed these meetings were not subject to the provisions of Missouri's open meetings law, therefore, these sessions were not posted nor were minutes maintained. However, it appears these sessions generally included an initial review, discussion and coding of expenses incurred by the district prior to being sent to the accountant for payment. Such activities constitute matters which should be handled in public meetings.

In November 1998, the board enacted a formal policy regarding public access to district records. This policy provided that the person requesting such records would be responsible for the costs of producing and copying the records and that the custodian of records would be paid $50 per hour for the time spent responding to such requests. The $50 per hour charge was subsequently reduced to $25 per hour. Considering the work involved in producing and copying records is typically clerical in nature, the $25 per hour charge may still be excessive and have the effect of discouraging information requests.

The board has not ensured that board members are notified when their term expires or that the proper board member has run for reelection. As a result, in April 1997, one board member ran for reelection even though it was another board member's term which was due to expire. In addition, the board has not ensured the public is given timely notice of upcoming board elections or allowed the public the required amount of time in filing for office. For both the April 1997 and April 1995 elections, the board failed to publish timely notices of the open position and upcoming election as defined by state law. Possibly because of the manner in which the election notices were handled, the respective board members running for reelection ran without opposition in both of these elections.

The board entered into lease-purchase agreements to finance the construction or purchase of the fire station building and district vehicles. These lease-purchase agreements include provisions that impose a substantial fee for termination of the agreements, effectively eliminating the board's ability to terminate the agreements. If the board had terminated the leases at the end of 1998, the termination fees on the building and vehicle leases would have totaled $137,147. In comparison, the principal balance on the two leases totaled $175,671, at that time. Considering the extent of the termination fees, it is apparent the termination provisions would never be exercised. It appears the board has effectively entered into long-term debt without a vote of the district's taxpayers, which is required by the Missouri Constitution.

The district's sales tax exemption was used to make purchases totaling about $1,100, by or on behalf of private entities or individuals. While the district was reimbursed for the cost of the items, those entities/individuals avoided paying sales tax on these purchases. Although district officials indicated these purchases were not made to avoid paying sales taxes, the sales tax exemption should not be used to benefit private entities or individuals.

The board approved expenditures in excess of the approved budget for 1997 and 1998, and the budgets did not include all required and necessary information. In addition, the district has not always filed an annual financial report with the State Auditor's office as required.

It appears the board failed to adequately follow up on the refund of a $500 deposit made on a fire truck being considered for purchase and, as a result, did not receive the refund in a timely manner. Travel expenditures made from a cash advance for district representatives sent to inspect the truck were not adequately documented and the remaining funds were not accounted for fully.

The board has contracted with a private accountant to handle its bookkeeping duties, but the district performs no independent review or oversight related to the records or duties of this accountant. The board did not document its approval of all expenditures made by the district, and the check register of the district was not maintained accurately. The board did not retain all voided checks, and no financial report was available to the board at various board meetings.

Complete Audit Report