Cass auditor and former deputy face off — and exchange barbs

In 2011, Cass County Auditor Ron Johnson fired chief deputy Ryan Wescoat.

Exactly what led to that act is in dispute. Johnson said Wescoat passed along a document he knew to be not “a true and faithful affidavit” to a county commissioner so the county could get federal reimbursement.

Wescoat said he sent the affidavit but that he did so at the request of the commissioner and that the document was actually the property of the commission anyway. He has said he merely got in the middle of a fight between his boss, Johnson, and the commissioner, Brian Baker.

Whatever happened, Wescoat is now trying to put Johnson out of work.

The two will face off Aug. 5 in the Republican primary for county auditor. It’s not pretty. This race is not one of those where candidates exchange respects and say, “May the best man win.”

Johnson and Wescoat say bad things about each other. In short, Johnson says Wescoat undermined the auditor’s office by seeking political gain at the expense of ethics. Wescoat says Johnson is unqualified, unprepared for the job and prone to outbursts.

According to Johnson, Wescoat and others in the office were told not to give the affidavit in question to anyone because it was not an accurate record of the work done on the county’s failed broadband project, which was designed to provide high-speed Internet to rural areas.

Wescoat had applied to be the director of the project. The broadband project was vigorously supported by Baker, at the time a county commissioner, who had asked for the affidavit. The project was later killed, and Baker chose not to seek re-election. Baker is now supporting Wescoat against Johnson.

The official reason for Wescoat’s firing was personal use of a county computer. But Johnson did inform authorities about the affidavit.

Wescoat, a member of the Raymore City Council, denies any wrongdoing. As for Johnson’s accusation that Wescoat broke the law by giving Baker the affidavit, Wescoat points out that he collected full unemployment benefits after getting fired.

“If I had done anything illegal, that would not be the case,” said Wescoat, who said he applied for the county’s economic development director job — as well as for the broadband post.

Wescoat, on the other hand, paints Johnson as someone unprepared for the auditor’s job.

“I believe he does not have the education or experience background,” said Wescoat, who has an master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix.

He said Johnson uses the office as a sword, even acting like a prosecutor when he sees a problem developing.

“Then he jumps out with a ‘gotcha,’” Wescoat said. “That’s not how the job should be done.”

Johnson had gone after County Clerk Janet Burlingame over allegations of nepotism. He pushed for her ouster, but Burlingame survived. The Burlingame incident was part of a collective abuse of power, Wescoat said.

“I saw things in the auditor’s office I didn’t agree with,” Wescoat said.

Since he began the job, Johnson said, the auditor’s office has begun filing financial statements of departments’ expenses, something that had not been done on a regular basis. Also, he said, there had been no record of fixed assets for various departments.

“So we had a lot of catching up to do,” Johnson said.

The winner of the primary will face Democrat Bill Smith in November. Smith had no primary opponent.

This story was originally published July 26, 2014 at 12:44 AM with the headline "Cass auditor and former deputy face off — and exchange barbs."