Piatt County overpaid Board Members more than $7,105.00 in four-month period

Piatt County (ECWd) -

A quick review of claims submitted by Piatt County Board members for meetings between Oct 2019 and Jan 2020 indicate board members were overpaid by at least $7,105.00.

We looked at the claims payable for meetings attended in Sep, Oct, and Dec of 2019, and Jan of 2020.

The following were overpaid, using a rate of $60 "per diem" - even though their illegal compensation ordinance states "per meeting" (which is not permitted under state law):

• Chairman Spencer: 63 meetings @ $60 per meeting, totaling $3,780.00
• Carroll: 14 meetings @ $60 per meeting, plus 1 meeting @ $75, totalling $915.00
• Lattz: 15 meetings @ $60 per meeting, totaling $900.00
• Murrell: 18 meetings @ $60 per meeting, plus 1 meeting @ $75, totalling $1,150.00
• Shumard: This board member never separated out meeting dates on the claims sheet.
• Fruendt: 6 meetings @ $60 per meeting, totaling $360.00

This tentative total is $7,105 in overpayments to the 5 board members in a four-month period.

These numbers came from either:

• Claims for more than 1 meeting per day, or,
• Claims for meetings that were not meetings (mainly form the Chairman)

We will compare payments vs claims for the entirety of 2019 in a future article, which will include Shumard's claims for these four months. To do that we will have to review each of the board meeting minutes for every county board and committee meeting attended and compare those numbers to claim sheets submitted prior to Oct 2019.

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