The October 3 Paullina City Council meeting moved through its consent agenda items in due form. Following the approval of the minutes of the September 2022 minutes Johnene Altman, (former) City Treasurer stood and spoke, choking up just slightly. Altman read a prepared statement (see page 3). After turning in the keys to City Hall and Altman’s departure the room fell silent. Mayor Brenda Ebel Kruse broke the silence saying, “I don’t know if we need to act right now to accept her resignation. I don’t know how that should work, but I sounds like its not negotiable on her end anyway, so for that matter – does anyone want to accept it?” Councilman Jay Jones asked, “Can we do it since its not on the agenda?” The mayor’s reply was inaudible. Council lady Lexy Murphy asked if they needed to “come up with a new candidate.” Council lady Carol Honkomp replied that [the job of treasurer] can be done by an outside source”, adding, “I never knew that.” Murphy asked, “Well aren’t we 3 months behind?” with Honkomp responding, “We wouldn’t be doing September yet anyway,” and acknowledging council had accepted reports that were not in balance (May and June, May is now in balance), but Honkomp went on to describe her work with the Treasurer’s reports and the 2 people doing those reports, Johnene Altman and Janice Thompson.
Outside the meeting, Honkomp explained that the May and June Treasurer’s Reports completed by Janice Thompson and approved by council were not in balance with city records at the time of their approval. After Altman came to council in September about continuing her work for the city she was given the records to do Treasurer’s reports for May and June which were apparently not in balance with the bank statement. Altman updated those reports including outstanding checks and interest earned to each fund. On Monday, October 3 Honkomp reported to council that Altman found the errors in the May Treasurer’s report and it balanced, but the June report was still out of balance. The City ordinance requires Treasurers? Reports be submitted to council each month.
In a conversation with Honkomp she explained that she had returned the out of balance June report to Thompson for a recheck. Honkomp also said that Thompson had started work on the July report, but would back up to see if she could find the problem with the June report. During this time, Altman had not been included in the conversation or provided with necessary documentation to investigate balances or create a report. Honkomp said, “I don’t want to hurt anyone. There is no blame to anyone. A wrong number can happen to anyone. We don’t know where the error is.” She also added that Altman was hard to “get a hold of.”
During the meeting Honkomp shared with council the many options available to it to decide how to meet the ordinance requirements for a report and of the duties currently given to the Treasurer, including that second person being the mayor, Scott, anybody.
According to City Clerk/Administrator Scott Wise, Thompson had been working on the [June] Treasurer’s Report Monday before the meeting and before Altman resigned without prior announcement.
Since May 2022, Altman has attended council meetings in an attempt to work with interim city staff so she could fulfill her Treasurers responsibilities to the city. A treasurer’s duties and powers to Paullina are spelled out by ordinance. In Paullina, the treasurer is by appointment of the City Council for a 2-year term. Altman was reappointed January 2, 2022.
The powers and duties of a treasurer require the appointed official to be responsible for the safe custody of all city funds as provided by law and council direction. A treasurer is required to provide to council a reconciliation of the bank statements with the clerk’s books and to certify each month, to the council the balance of cash and investments of each fund. The treasurer is required to provide to council the amounts received and spent for each fund of the city, such as public safety, general fund, debt service. The treasurer’s records must match the clerk’s records each month. A treasurer is to keep books to account for all city funds including instruments that pay interest and a record of each separate fund of the city. A treasurer is to perform other duties as specified by the council by resolution or ordinance.