Piatt Co. Board Chairman Ray Spencer continues pocketing taxpayer funds for personal profit –

PIATT Co. (ECWd) –

We have written several articles detailing how the Piatt County Board’s compensation ordinance violates state law and is invalid. We also wrote about one Piatt County board member who reimbursed the county for funds paid in excess of what was permitted according to state law.

Now we must again write about Piatt County Board Chairman Ray Spencer, his last two months of payments for attending meetings, and the claims he submitted for attending more than one meeting per day.

Our March 2020 article detailed Spencer’s overpayments in the amount of $3,790.00 for 4 months.

In March of 2020, Chairman Spencer submitted claims for the month of February, which included 2 County Board meetings and 13 Committee meetings totaling $976.20 (including mileage). There were 8 meetings where he received payment for more than one meeting per day. His overpayment for February meetings totaled $480.00.

In April of 2020, Chairman Spencer submitted claims for the month of March, which included 1 County Board meeting and 17 Committee meetings, totaling $1,161.00 (including mileage). There were 8 meetings where he received payment for more than one meeting per day. His overpayment for February meetings totaled $480.00.

His new total of overpayments for attending meetings since Oct 2019 is $4,750.00. Spencer did reimburse for one meeting that was nothing more than a phone call ($60.00), however, he made up for that in inflated compensation for the past 2 months.

Chairman Spencer owes the county at least $4,690.00 for payments he has received in violation of state law – just since Sep 2019.

Spencer is not alone in financially benefitting from an illegal compensation ordinance. Claims were overpaid to the following county board members for Feb and Mar of 2020:

• Shannon Carroll – 7 meetings totaling a $420.00 overpayment
• Robert Murrell still likes public tax dollars: He claimed an extra 5 meetings at $60 per meeting totaling a $300.00 overpayment

There are two other board members that appareently understand the law.

• Dale Latz quit claiming more than 1 meeting per day – the rest of the board should follow his and Shumard’s lead!
• Randy Shumard quit claiming more than 1 meeting per day

Total overpayments for February and March of 2020 by Piatt County Board members and chairman is $1,680.00.

In the past 6 months, $8,785.00 has been stolen from the county taxpayers through overpayments to county board members.

We find it hard to believe these people (Spencer, Carroll, and Murrell) have not been charged with a crime yet.

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