Update & Correction: Not a Fairy Tale

Time for the public to march on the courthouse lawn and demand accountability.

On behalf of the Edgar County Watchdogs, I have to say I am sorry!  Our reporting on the ambulance “purchase” by Dee Burgin had a huge error and we need to ensure a correction is made to the story.

We had reported that Mr. Burgin purchased the ambulance operation from the county at a cost of $100,000.00.  We were wrong.

Mr. Dee Burgin received an operational Ambulance service worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and paid nothing to the county!  Details below.

You see, in all our gathering of documents and evidence we failed to ask for one very important record.  Upon requesting a copy of proof of payment, we have to admit we were truly set back, as have others upon confirmation of our discovery.

You see, Mr. Burgin never did present a payment at all!  Upon our request for proof of payment we were told the following by the county treasure:

“I am not aware of any $100,000.00 payment coming into the county funds.”

That is a very disturbing discovery!

This is what the contract says as far as seller and buyer obligations.

 1. That the Seller (Edgar County) shall sell to the buyer, all ambulances, ambulance equipment, other supplies, including furniture and fixtures, bad debt accounts and outstanding patient accounts for the Special Service Area No. 1 Ambulance District of Edgar County.

2. That they Buyer shall pay to the Seller for all ambulances, ambulance equipment, other supplies, including furniture and fixtures, bad debt account and outstanding patient accounts, the total sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00).   That a more complete breakdown of all assets being purchased and the value assigned to such assets is attached hereto and made part of hereof as Exhibit A.

A forensic audit of Exhibit A has been performed and even though the contract claims there is a value assigned to each item, nothing in that Exhibit, which is public record, has any value assigned. 

All that aside, our County Treasurer has confirmed NO PAYMENT has been made into any Edgar County account for the purchase of the Ambulance for $100,000.00, or any other amount for that matter! 

How is this possible? 

When you figure that out let us know as we have uncovered even more that is going to make peoples heads spin with disbelief. 

And for those that insist that this information cant be right, we challenge you to look at the record yourself!  We will even be willing to meet with you to review what we recieved as public documents to save you the time and effort. 

Mr. Dee Burgin recieved an operational Ambulance service worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and paid nothing to the county! 

Where does the list of people that should be held accountable for this scam  begin?  I think it starts with the County Board Chairman who allowed this to happen – it’s a good starting point! 

Did we mention we uncovered an illegal loan in the name of the county and it was kept secret from the the board, the auditors, and the treasurer?  Stay tuned for that story, as it is just as shady as the ambulance purchase -and is related!   

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Supporting Documents:

Original Agreements (Meeting minutes, Resolution, Purchase Agreement, Service Agreement and Exhibit A) between Edgar County and Burgin (ECSSAA).   (There are 2 pdf documents linked above)

AmbMortgageFeb03.pdf – this is the original mortgage for $300K with the PTAX-203 reflecting the purchase price of $255K.
   *The background on this document is that the loan was authorized by the county board:
      – Counties cannot take loans in installment payments.
      – The purchase price was $255K, loan was $300K.
      – What happened to the extra $45K? — Nobody knows that answer yet, but we will find out.
    – County cannot issue Warranty Deed, it must be a quit claim deed.

AmbLoan#2Feb08.jpg – This document shows the second loan.
    * This loan was taken by Jim Keller because they forgot that the first loan had a balloon payment that came due in Feb 2008. This one has a balloon payment due (of $180,000 +) in Feb 2013.
      – Counties cannot take loans in installment payments.
      – The county board did not authorize this loan
      – Existence of loan was kept from the auditors for almost 2 years
      – Existence of loan was kept from county board members for almost 2 years
      – Existence of loan was kept from county treasurer for almost 2 years

The $43,000 claim submitted (Feb 2004) to the county and the 2nd agreement forcing paying it back (Sep 2005). 

More documents will follow shortly.