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Audit sounded treasurer 'alarms'
(Omaha World-Herald (NE) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 3--LINCOLN -- The arrest of Adams County Treasurer Julia Moeller on suspicion of evading taxes and misusing her office wasn't the first time concerns had been raised about the 27-year veteran of elective office.
Two weeks ago, county supervisors received a report from the State Auditor's Office that, according to the auditor who did the work, "raised some alarms" about Moeller's performance in the $47,292-a-year job.
The audit said that Moeller had withdrawn $8,270 from an office cash drawer during the previous fiscal year for personal and office use. The audit also said she failed to pay property taxes for 10 years on a lot she owned, yet no tax sale had been held on the delinquent property.
Deann Haeffner, who conducted the audit, said the practices were highly unusual for a county treasurer's office and prompted her to forward her findings to the county attorney and the Nebraska Attorney General's Office.
County Attorney Donna Fegler Daiss and County Board Chairman Larry Woodman said they considered the audit findings to involve procedural problems.
Daiss said Moeller had returned the $8,270.
Haeffner said her office doesn't determine whether criminal charges should be pursued but simply refers its findings to the proper authorities.
Moeller was arrested Monday on suspicion of failing to pay sales taxes -- a felony -- and two misdemeanors: misconduct in office and abuse of public records.
Her daughter Michelan Parr, who also works in the County Treasurer's Office, allegedly helped Moeller falsify a document showing she had paid $4,084 in Nebraska sales taxes on a motor home purchased in 2007 when she hadn't paid any tax.
The document was faxed to Texas, where Moeller, 66, was licensing the motor home. She listed her address as Crosby, Texas, where a niece lives. Investigators said Moeller owned no property herself in Texas.
Parr, 41, faces the same charges as her mother. Both women are out of jail on bail and scheduled to appear in Adams County Court next week.
Attempts to reach Moeller and Parr on Wednesday and Thursday for comment were unsuccessful. Neither has reported to work since the arrests.
Moeller has worked in the Treasurer's Office since 1960 and became county treasurer in 1981. Parr has worked 24 years in the office.
Officials in Hastings and Lincoln expressed shock at the arrest of Moeller, who is widely known among county officials in the state.
"Julia is a good person," said Larry Dix, executive director of the Nebraska Association of County Officials. "Maybe we make a decision that we decide later that maybe we shouldn't have done that. But she's a good person."
"It's a bad deal," said Woodman, the County Board chairman, who lives in Moeller's hometown, Kenesaw, and has known her all his life.
Daiss, the county attorney, said Moeller remains county treasurer. She said the treasurer could be removed from office only through a recall election or if a petition were filed to remove her if she were convicted of misconduct in office.
It was unlikely the County Board could take any action against Parr, because officeholders decide whom to employ, Daiss said.
The state audit was presented to supervisors Sept. 16.
It found that Moeller, using the initials "JM" in a record book, had withdrawn $8,270 from an office cash drawer during the fiscal year that ended June 30.
According to the audit, the withdrawals were for personal short-term loans for the treasurer and for cash advances for travel by office workers and, in one case, for an employee retirement party.
State law allows such withdrawals only upon warrants issued by the County Board or when "special provisions" are otherwise made in law.
The audit found that Moeller had failed to pay property taxes on a vacant lot she owned since 1997, a delinquency that had accumulated to $2,037 by 2007.
The audit said the County Attorney's Office hadn't scheduled a foreclosure sale on the property, which left "an increased risk of public perception of preferential treatment." The property had been turned over for foreclosure in 2004.
The audit raised two other concerns: Some cell phone bills were paid despite the lack of a billing statement, and tax revenue wasn't disbursed to cities, school districts and other recipients on a timely basis.
Daiss, who recused herself from the Moeller case because of the possible appearance of a conflict, blamed high turnover in her office, not preferential treatment, for a failure to schedule several tax sales.
She said the delinquent property owned by Moeller is among 11 properties now scheduled to be sold Oct. 28.
Tax evasion is a felony with a penalty, upon conviction, of up to five years in prison or a $10,000 fine or both. The misdemeanors faced by Moeller are punishable by up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine or both.
The Nebraska Attorney General's Office is prosecuting the criminal cases.
--Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
To see more of the Omaha World-Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.omaha.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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