January 09, 2009 07:56 pm
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By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
A county official said Friday that he is confident an audit of the public administrator’s office will be authorized.
The action apparently is being taken as a result of outgoing Administrator Rita Hunter having emptied the office of records and client files.
Presiding Commissioner John Bartosh said he talked to Prosecutor Dean Dankelson and Treasurer Richard Webster on Friday, but that they did not have all the information they needed to proceed with arranging the audit. They will meet again Monday on the audit issue, Bartosh said.
“I’m sure we’re going to have one,” he said. County officials were still missing information on some bank accounts of the administrator’s office that would be needed for an audit, he said.
The new public administrator who took office Jan. 1, Angie Casavecchia, called for the audit. Hunter has returned the files, but Casavecchia has called for the audit to make sure that they are intact.
Nothing new turned up Friday in a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation of Hunter’s actions, Dankelson said.
Dankelson had said on Thursday that patrol investigators had begun a probe and had talked to Hunter. She gave them a laptop computer that will be part of the investigation, the prosecutor said.
A message was left on Hunter’s cell telephone voice mail late Friday afternoon seeking comment.
Hunter was defeated in last year’s elections. Complaints had arisen about her handling of cases, including the arrest of a California woman who had taken her elderly Carthage mother home with her after the mother had been made a ward of the public administrator without the family’s knowledge.
A Springfield attorney has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the administrator’s wards alleging that exorbitant fees have been charged to some of them and that others are missing money or property.
When the newly elected public administrator took office last week, she found that both the paper files and computer records of the wards had been taken from the office. There are about 300 people under guardianship.
The new administrator said that without the files, she had no information on the finances, living arrangements or medical status of those under her care.
About 30 boxes of paper files were surrendered to county officials by Hunter on Wednesday.
Lawsuit language
A lawsuit filed on behalf of county wards against Rita Hunter also names the former deputy public administrator, Charlene Kelly, as a defendant as well as Hunter’s bonding company, Ohio Casualty Insurance Co.
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