Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway was the focus of the Clay County Commission’s meeting on Wednesday as she presented her findings in an audit of the Commission. The audit was initiated by a citizen petition in 2018.

*Today, the citizens of Clay County are finally getting the answers they have sought for years - Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway*

The State Auditor’s office gave the Commission the lowest possible rating of “poor”. Galloway noted that this rating applied to the functions of the Commission before the two new Commissioners were elected and installed into office.

“Today, the citizens of Clay County are finally getting the answers they have sought for years,” Auditor Galloway said. “Two former county commissioners actively worked to prevent taxpayers from seeing how their money was being spent, not only by trying to impede this audit but by regularly conducting public business outside public view. I appreciate the cooperation of the current Commission in bringing this audit to completion and their willingness to implement our recommendations.”

In her presentation, Galloway reported that two former Commissioners – Ridgeway and Owen “made significant decisions involving taxpayer funds while actively limiting the ability of taxpayers to know why or how these decisions were made.” Galloway’s audit also revealed that when auditors tried to get information, Ridgeway and Owen refused to cooperate, directed others not to cooperate, and went to court to try to stop auditors from acquiring information.

Galloway spoke about several other examples of mismanagement in her office’s findings such as:

Taxpayers incurred $2.8 million in costs for a since-canceled county annex project, much of which is likely unrecoverable;
One Commissioner unilaterally signing multi-million dollar contract awards for the annex project that resulted in the loss of transparency of the process;
Automatically renewing employment contracts with generous severance packages to the former county administrator and assistant administrators;
Lease agreements for rent-free county housing not reported as a benefit on employees’ W-2 forms, potentially subjecting the County to IRS penalties;
Separation agreements with employees which provided additional severance beyond the generous compensation in employment agreements, costing taxpayers over $300,000;
Acting in closed meetings to provide employees more than $300,000 in settlement funds in addition to their severance pay;
The former Commission didn’t follow their own policies and procedures when working with several private law firms, costing taxpayers over $3 million;
The former Commission hired a PR firm for media consulting and crisis communication without soliciting proposals for those services costing taxpayers more than $50,000;
The former Commission was not compliant with the Sunshine Law involving closed meeting minutes. The Commission refused to supply meeting minutes and refused to allow auditors to interview staff.

In addition to the $2.8 million in costs for the annex project, Galloway reported that Clay County taxpayers paid over $3.6 million because of the actions of former Commissioners Ridgeway and Owen.

Galloway concluded her presentation by commending the new Commission on their cooperation to complete the audit and restoring trust in government to the citizens of Clay County: “It’s up to the public servants of the County now and in the future to preserve and protect the public trust that taxpayers deserve,” said Galloway.

The complete state audit report is available HERE.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story