Jackson County legislators slam finance director as coronavirus relief money rolls in
Jackson County legislators narrowly approved a vote of no confidence Monday in the county’s finance director as they get set to spend $123 million in federal aid money to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The resolution has no practical effect. Finance Director Bob Crutsinger reports to County Executive Frank White, who expressed his support of Crutsinger in a statement issued by a county spokeswoman.
What’s more, the county finance department, which legislators allege is being mismanaged, won’t have control of the federal aid money anyway, it turns out. Jackson County administrator Troy Schulte said Monday the county plans to hire an outside firm to manage the money and comply with all the reporting requirements of the federal government.
But the rare move of passing legislation singling out a county employee for public criticism was another example of the long-running rift between White’s administration and the nine-member county legislature.
“This is not personal,” legislative chairwoman Theresa Galvin said ahead of the vote. “This is not a public slap fight with the administration.”
Rather, she and several other legislators said they were concerned that Crutsinger was not up to the task of overseeing the county’s finances and only decided to go public with those concerns after failing to get White to take action.
County spokeswoman Marshanna Smith issued a statement in Crutsinger’s defense, saying that White and all members of his administration have “full confidence” in him, but refused further comment.
“The County Executive, County Administrator, Chief Administrative Officer, Director of Finance and others are currently focused on the deadly pandemic facing our community and, therefore, are not available to answer questions on this matter, nor do we anticipate any further statements on this matter,” Smith wrote.
Congress placed restrictions on how local and state governments can spend their share of the $150 billion aid package to help cover the increased costs of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schulte assured legislators Monday that he intends to follow those rules to the letter rather than risk having to repay even a dollar of the nearly $123 million the county received from the federal government last week.
Rule No. 1: All the money spent must go to cover expenses directly related to addressing the crisis, and not to make up for what is sure to be a substantial loss in sales tax revenue as a result of the stay-at-home order.
And No. 2: all the money must be spent in 2020, or the feds get it back. Schulte told legislators to brace themselves for a slew of spending requests in the weeks ahead.
“You’ll start to see (requests for legislative action) and hopefully we’ll spend $122,669,998.30 by the end of December,” he said.
Even before the aid money arrived, the county had approved an $8.5 million package to boost testing and other needs at Truman Medical Centers, buy personal protective equipment for public safety personnel countywide and provide temporary housing for homeless people and other low-income people with the virus.
Schulte said he plans to ask legislators to approve spending $5.3 million to map the spread of the disease over the next six to nine months. The cost will include hiring more than three dozen workers to locate people who have come in contact with people who have been infected.
And that’s just a start.
Congress guaranteed each state at least $1.25 billion, but many will get more, based on their population. States allocate the money to local governments, but cities and counties with at least 500,000 residents were allowed to bypass their governors and get the money directly.
Jackson County set up a separate bank account at UMB for the federal funds and plans on setting up a webpage to show how the money is being spent. Plans are to hire an outside accounting firm to write the checks and keep the books.
Schulte and White decided to hire outside financial management help in part because the finance department doesn’t have sufficient staff to take on the extra duty, Schulte said.
But Galvin said it looked to her like an acknowledgment that Crutsinger wasn’t up to the task.
“If there was confidence from them in the finance department, why would we have to pay for an outside agency?” she asked.
She and four other legislators — Ron Finley, Tony Miller, Dan Tarwater and Crystal Williams — voted in favor of the no-confidence resolution. Jalen Anderson voted no. Scott Burnett, Charlie Franklin and Jeanie Lauer abstained.
Lauer said she was unaware that such a resolution was being contemplated until it appeared on the agenda late last week.
It accuses Crutsinger of disregarding recommendations by the Missouri State Auditor’s office, which is reviewing the county’s finances. But it gave no specifics and legislators offered none during the meeting.
Williams also faulted Crutsinger for failing to provide legislators with data “in a timely manner.”
Over the weekend, Galvin emailed several legislators a report from legislative auditor Crissy Wooderson that listed a number of alleged bookkeeping errors and improper procedures taken by the finance department in recent months.
Nothing illegal was alleged. But according to the resolution, the county needs someone with “a stronger skill set” to oversee the finance department “due to the ever-increasing complexity of the county’s financial operations.”
White hired Crutsinger to his $108,000-a-year job in May 2018. Previously, he was finance director at Washburn University in Topeka for a year and had worked before that as finance director at the Kansas
City Area Transportation Authority and was Jackson County’s assistant finance director from 1986 to 1997.
