Agenda Packets - 2002/03/05 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council March 11, 2002 Regular Meeting Page 20 City Administrator Miller then gave a brief overview indicating that the judge found that the applicant was discharged because of employment misconduct and the unemployment judge found that the employee had the training and experience to perform his duties adequately and either chose to create an inadequate accounting system or did not care and his hostility or lack of concern for the employer constitutes misconduct. She further indicated there were 12 findings elaborated in the report and noted briefly that the judge mentions the issue of credit cards, the overuse of credit cards, and the number of cards issued. Council Member Quick asked to have the findings of fact read. City Administrator Miller read the findings of fact from the document. They are as follows: (1) The applicant worked full-time for the employer from July 8, 1996 until June 7, 2001 as finance director for a final hourly wage of $33.80. (2) The employer is a Minnesota City. (3) It was the applicant’s job to design and administer accounting systems that would accurately show the income and expenditures of the employer. It was also the applicant’s job to provide other city officials with financial information that they needed to administer to their departments. (4) The applicant has been a CPA for several years. Before he was hired for this position, the applicant worked several years in the finance department of another Minnesota city. (5) It is very unusual for a Minnesota city to issue more than one or two credit cards to employees for the purchase of merchandise for the city. When the applicant started working for the employer, the employer had issued one credit card to an employee. During the applicant’s employment, he issued credit cards to more and more employees. At the time of the applicant’s discharge, more than 20 city employees had credit cards they could use to charge purchases against the employer. Two individuals who were not city employees also had city credit cards. The number of credit cards made it impossible for the city to check each purchase to insure that it was for an authorized city purchase. There were employees who used city credit cards to make personal purchases and did not reimburse the employer. The employer took no action regarding those unauthorized charges because the applicant did not know about them or he condoned them. (6) The employer has a strict written policy that city funds will not be used to purchase alcohol beverages. The applicant was aware of this policy. During the applicant’s employment he authorized the reimbursement of employees, including himself, for the purchase of alcoholic beverages. (7) The applicant was uncooperative with other city officials when they asked for financial information. The city administrator asked for a quarterly financial statement she could use in council meetings to help the city plan expenditures. The applicant was at first hostile to this request. After several months, the applicant did provide the administrator with a document he characterized as a financial statement. This document was disorganized and provided little useful information to the administrator or the council. Other department heads complained to the administrator that the applicant was hostile to their requests for information.