Official Admits To Theft

FARMINGTON PUBLIC WORKS OFFICER RESIGNS, FACES FELONY THEFT CHARGES

FARMINGTON — Farmington’s public works director resigned his position Thursday afternoon, the day before he was charged with theft, a Class B felony, by the Washington County Sheriff ’s Office.

Dan Ledbetter, 45, of 172 E. Louise St., in Farmington, turned himself into the sheriff ’s office Friday night. According to the sheriff ’s website, Ledbetter was booked into the Washington County Detention Center at 6:34 p.m. Friday and was released about 30 minutes later at 7:06 p.m., after posting a $5,000 bond.

An affidavit for warrant of arrest states that Ledbetter, during an interview with Detective Bret Hagan on Thursday, admitted to selling building permits to a local builder for a sum of money and depositing that money into his business bank account, “rather than properly distributing and reporting the funds to the city of Farmington.”

The affidavit says that the loss to the city of Farmington is estimated at more than $33,000 at this time.

The affidavit says that a records check revealed that payments for building permits were made out to “LCS Services,” which is a company owned by Ledbetter, instead of being deposited with the city.

Kelly Cantrell, sheriff’s spokeswoman, said the investigation is continuing.

The sheriff’s investigation was initiated by Farmington Mayor Ernie Penn.

Penn said in the course of his normal banking business, he came across an invoice about three weeks ago that appeared to have a discrepancy.

“I looked at it and thought that can’t be right,” Penn said, noting that as mayor and as a loan officer, he is aware of construction going on in the city. “I started reviewing our files and discovered the deposit had not been paid to the city for one building permit.”

Penn said he brought the information to the attention of City Attorney Steve Tennant, police Chief Brian Hubbard and Melissa McCarville, city business manager. He said it then was decided to turn over the information to the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.

“We felt in the best interest of Farmington, we should have an outside investigation,” Penn said Saturday morning.

Penn said he suspects the thefts have been going on for more than a year and possibly much longer than that, maybe three or four years.

“This was not something that an audit would have revealed,” Penn said. “It is not something that I could have been aware of or anybody else at City Hall.”

Penn said the discrepancies only involve one builder and one subdivision in the city. Penn said Ledbetter confirmed only one builder was involved. Penn did not want to release the name of the builder or the subdivision because of the ongoing sheriff’s investigation.

Penn said that Ledbetter, who is a state certified building inspector, was inspecting property for this builder when the construction

was outside the city limits, in the county. Payment for these services was made out to LCS Services and Penn said this was a legitimate payment. He said, though, that when the subdivision was annexed into the city in 2008, the process remained the same, instead of the money going to the city.

“Once those properties were annexed into the city of Farmington, he continued to bill them as he did before. He was still billing it as LCS Services and the builder didn’t question it,” Penn said.

He stressed that the city did not receive any of these funds.

“He was paid direct by the builder. That money never flowed into the city.”

Penn said the city uses a computer program for building permits. The square footage of the building and amenities are put in the computer and the program calculates the amount of the fee for the permit. For the permits in question, Penn said Ledbetter would issue the building permit and then delete it from the system so that there was not a record to show that a payment should have been made to the city.

Ledbetter has worked for the city of Farmington for nine years and Penn said the situation is “very, very unexpected and I’ve been sick about it.”

Penn added, “In a small city, you have to put trust in the people.”

He said Ledbetter has had a great work record and has been a “very valued employee for the city of Farmington.”

Penn said public works supervisor Floyd Shelley will step in to take over some of Ledbetter’s responsibilities in the interim and that city staff have contacted people to help with inspections so that construction going on in the city will not be delayed.

He also said the city will change how it handles building permits and payments.

“I’m very saddened it took place but, yes, we are going to use this to get better. I’m very glad that Dan confessed and is cooperating with the investigation. We anticipate full restitution will be made and that the city of Farmington will recover the funds due to them,” Penn said, adding, “We’re taking care of business and we’re protecting the taxpayers’ dollars.”

Ledbetter