Minutes - 2002/03/11 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council March 11, 2002 Regular Meeting Page 20 • City Attorney Riggs indicated the data is not public and cannot be disseminated but the information can be discussed at the meeting. City Administrator Miller explained that the document is a ruling from the Minnesota Department of Economic Security reversing its earlier decision to award unemployment benefits to former employee Bruce Kessel. She then explained that the Minnesota Department of Economic Security had previously ruled in favor of the former employee and that decision was appealed by the City. City Administrator Miller asked Council to turn to Page 3 of the document where she read the reasons for the decision to reverse the previous ruling. They are as follows: *enter from document. 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, 199b 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