City closes Dunn investigation without answers
Council cites statute of limitations as reason for ending inquiry into former city clerk
Questions over missing funds and a receipt for a laptop left behind in filing cabinets after the departure of former Aragon City Clerk Lori Dunn will remain unanswered.
City Council Member Debbie Pittman, who was overseeing the inquiry, announced the end to the look into financial discrepancies that lasted more than a year.
The only outcome up until the announcement at the end of the November council meeting was a report generated by Williamson and Company pointing out questions and concerns they had over the previous administration of the city’s finances under Dunn’s tenure as city clerk.
Pittman addressed three of those specific concerns raised by the report, which included a pair of cash advances drawn on the city’s credit card totaling $4,300.
“I did go back and pull the back statements to look at the account to see if money was ever put back. It was not,” Pittman said. “There was also concerns about two insufficient fund checks, and there was no future information on that.”
Along with that, Pittman addressed the receipt for a laptop purchased with cash that was never found in the city’s inventory, and said because it was a cash purchase and no records existed for its use as city equipment, nothing further could be done about it either.
Pittman said she and council member Candace Seiz – absent from the Nov. 15 session – reviewed the files and the items questioned in Williamson and Company’s seven page report, released to the city back in the summer months.
The city’s options legally were constrained due to the years between when financial irregularities occurred, and when they were looked into.
“I’ve spoken with the GMA attorney, and they’ve said because it was past the statute of limitations that there is nothing that we can do,” Pittman said.
“We did the best that we could to give the citizens of Aragon the answers they wanted and needed,” she said. “But today, and Mayor Baldwin has nothing to do with this decision it was strictly myself and the council members, we’re going to close the case because there is nothing we can do.”
Pittman did say that information given to the city will remain “under lock and key” at city hall. “It will not be destroyed. It will have to stay here within our records.”
The conclusion of the city’s investigation into financial irregularities will allow them to move ahead with still past-due audits from 2015 to the fiscal year that ended in June.
“Now the auditors can move forward and get us on track to be able to get grants,” Pittman said to end her announcement.
The city spent $2,500 with Williamson and Company to have the auditors look over the information found in the wake of Dunn’s departure.
Mayor Garry Baldwin, Dunn’s father, was last in line to give comments to the public, and chose not add anything after the announcement.
No other council members spoke about the investigation either during their monthly comments either.
The investigation began in 2017 after Dunn resigned and in her letter admitted no wrongdoing, though in past written statements to the council explaining actions while still in charge as city clerk contradicted her roles in past financial problems.