Saturday, November 20, 1999
Ruling on Stoldt to come next week
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
The fate of the Attica clerk-treasurer will be decided next week by Seneca County Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Shuff.
Shuff heard testimony from three witnesses and closing arguments as the hearing resumed Friday on an action filed by Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery seeking the removal of Linda Stoldt from the position of Attica clerk-treasurer. The hearing continued in fits and starts throughout the day as Shuff worked around other items on the docket.
Montgomery filed the action Nov. 10, on behalf of Auditor of State Jim Petro, after the auditor's office reported that Stoldt had not complied with a court order requiring her to turn over documents necessary to complete Attica's audit for 1997 and 1998 by Oct 29. Wednesday, the attorneys made opening arguments and the testimony of one witness was heard.
Although the law allowing the state auditor to ask the attorney general to attempt to remove officials for failing to keep the accounts of their offices has been in effect since 1985, this hearing marks the first time a removal has been attempted.
Shuff said he would render a decision Monday afternoon.
Attica Village Solicitor Dean Henry was the first witness called by Assistant Attorney General Kent Schimmel Friday.
Henry testified that Stoldt has not fulfilled her duties as clerk-treasurer. He said that for the last two years she has failed to file budgets or certificates of funds available for expenditure with the county auditor as required by law, pay premiums for the pension fund for village employees, pay other bills, keep minutes of council meetings or provide financial reports to council.
"We don't know how much money we have or have spent," Henry said, or which ordinances and resolutions passed by council are actually official.
"Ms. Stoldt has utterly failed to do anything."
Village Administrator Gary Weis "has no idea how much money he has in his budget," Henry said, "because he's never seen a budget."
Henry also testified that Stoldt refused to work with Local Government Services, an arm of the state auditor's office, when the village contracted with LGS to help sort out the village's records. Henry said Stoldt failed to show up at meetings which had been set up in conference calls with himself, Stoldt and LGS.
LGS eventually left Attica and refused to come back because of a lack of cooperation from Stoldt, Henry said.
"Help was always available," Henry said. "Council offered to help both before and after the fire."
A keystone of Stoldt's defense was that the 1997 Attica Village Hall fire hindered her ability to perform her job, both by destroying and damaging records or making it difficult to find surviving records.
Following Henry's testimony, Stoldt took the stand in her own defense.
Stoldt testified that Attica's financial records were in disarray when she was appointed to the position in July 1994. They were declared unauditable in September 1994, she said. It wasn't until May 1998 that the state auditor was able to provide her with usable numbers from 1993 and 1994, she said.
The lack of place to begin made it impossible for her to keep proper records once she took office, Stoldt said.
"You have to have a starting balance," she said.
The combination of trying to find records in the aftermath of the village hall fire, the state of records left by the previous clerk-treasurer as well as trying to discharge her regular duties, such as doing the village payroll, made what is supposed to be a part-time position a full-time, and more, undertaking, Stoldt said. Stoldt said she often worked until 2 a.m. on records.
"I have missed less council meetings than anyone else," apart from the mayor, Stoldt said
According to Stoldt's testimony, the village council failed to provide her with the necessary computer hardware and accounting software for months after she took office.
Also, village department heads would turn in requisitions for purchase orders without prices or quantities on them, making it even harder to keep accurate records, Stoldt said.
Stoldt's attorney, Shane Leuthold, entered five such blank requisitions into evidence.
The fire damaged some of the records she was required to turn over by Oct. 29 and made it difficult to locate others, Stoldt said.
Stoldt tried to comply with the court order "to the best of my ability," she said. "I want to turn them over."
Stoldt testified that she had been told that the auditor's office wanted "all or nothing," when asked why she did not turn over those records which she could locate.
Stoldt said the billing cycle combined with the timing of council meetings means that some bills will always officially be past due.
After Stoldt's testimony, Schimmel called Kimberley Carty from the state auditor's office and recalled Henry as rebuttal witnesses.
Carty testified she was in Attica immediately after the fire to determine the state of the village's records. Carty said that at that time Stoldt was given two weeks to close out Attica's 1997 books. After the two-week period, Stoldt produced the village's 1997 annual report, which is a comprehensive report of the village's finances.
Carty also testified that even with incomplete or nonexistent previous records, records such as minutes or expense reports could be kept.
Henry testified council provided Stoldt with exactly the computer equipment she requested.
Henry also expressed concern that village employees' income taxes may not have been paid, because village employees' retirement premiums have not been paid.
Under cross-examination, Henry said he had no evidence taxes hadn't been paid, "because we have not been able to look at the records. We don't know."
Following Henry's testimony, both sides delivered closing arguments.
Stoldt has only kept minutes for five of the last 60 meetings, Schimmel said
"Her records for operations of the village are nonexistent."
Many of the village's records were not destroyed, Schimmel said, and many that were must have been duplicated at Stoldt's home if she was working from there.
While Stoldt may blame the fire, previous clerk-treasurers or the state auditor's office, "Linda Stoldt must accept responsibility for her actions," Schimmel said. "So the auditor of state seeks her removal."
Leuthold's closing arguments centered around the fact that the law calls for removal only if an official "willfully" does not keep the proper records.
"Negligence is not a high enough standard," he said.
Stoldt made efforts to deliver auditable records to the state auditor and to keep the village's records, even going to the extent of working at home, Leuthold said.
"As long as she's trying," he said, she cannot be removed.