Missouri sheriff’s office spent county money on beer, 15 TVs and 76 hams, audit finds

Missouri state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick on Monday released a scathing audit of Ray County, located east of the Kansas City area, finding that the sheriff’s office lost nearly $3,000 of fees paid to the county and spent more than $5,500 of county money on unapproved purchases including beer, cigarettes, 15 TVs and 76 hams.

The regularly scheduled audit from Fitzpatrick, a Republican, gave Ray County a “poor” rating — the lowest possible rating from his office. It called for financial control and procedure improvements in both the Ray County Sheriff’s Office and the Ray County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

“The missing money and several questionable purchases made by the previous administration in the Ray County Sheriff’s Office make it clear that office needed significant improvements to its accounting procedures to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t mismanaged or stolen,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

The issues the audit revealed in Ray County emphasize problems uncovered in a recent investigation by The Star that showed how small towns and local governments often lack the safeguards needed to protect against fraud and the mismanagement of taxpayer money.

Ray County, which includes cities such as Camden and Crystal Lakes, has an estimated population of 23,107 people, according to the most recent census data.

Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers, who became sheriff in 2021, pointed out that the audit dealt with problems in the administration under former Sheriff Garry Bush. He said it proved what he campaigned on — that the county isn’t operated very well.

“This proves what I said is the truth. There’s money that’s unaccounted for. There’s a lot of problems that it shows — it’s just poor management. And that’s what I kept saying, it wasn’t a good accountability system,” he said. “There was a lot of nepotism in this county, which always breeds for issues.”

Missing money and reckless purchases

The state audit found that from 2018 to 2020, personnel with the Ray County Sheriff’s Office did not transmit $2,549 in concealed carry weapon permit fees and $443 in sex offender registry fees to the county treasurer. It’s unclear where that money went.

Fitzpatrick called on Childers to work with the county’s commission and other law enforcement to investigate the money that the office lost during the previous sheriff’s tenure.

The audit also found that the previous sheriff’s administration spent at least $5,543 on “questionable” purchases including 15 televisions on a Walmart credit card and $850 on items such as cigarettes, beer, a toy, personal grooming tools, barbeque seasoning rubs and lotion.

The agency, according to the audit, also purchased 76 hams for $1,736.

It bought these items with money from the county’s commissary account, which is used to operate a jail fund where inmates can deposit money to purchase things like phone call time, hygiene items and snacks. The auditor’s office confirmed that the unapproved purchases “did not appear to be for inmates.”

The audit showed the sheriff’s office also did not track how much money it needed to refund inmates from the commissary when they were released from jail.

The Ray County Sheriff’s Office, the audit said, needs to make significant improvements to its financial controls and procedures including separating who is responsible for various accounting duties and keeping better track of receipts. Small local governments, The Star previously found, routinely fail to separate these kinds of duties to ensure that no single person handles all aspects of a financial transaction.

The sheriff’s office did not keep many financial records in general and failed to pay bills on time, incurring fees and charges totaling $409 in 2020 from late credit card payments, the audit found.

On top of the findings within the sheriff’s office, the audit also called for improved controls in the Ray County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office because it found the office was not adequately separating accounting duties, keeping financial records or paying crime victims retribution in a timely fashion.

Fitzpatrick’s audit also highlighted broader issues within the county government, pointing out that the County Commission did not comply with state open records laws and that county officials failed to follow personnel policies.

The state last audited Ray County in 2015 under then-Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat. That audit gave the county a rating of “fair.”