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Thursday, December 14, 2006
Ind. Courts - More on: "More money needed to complete Greene County courthouse"
Updating the ILB entry from Dec. 7th, a reader has sent the ILB a link to the Bloomfield Free Press (Serving Bloomfield and Eastern Greene County), which does not directly link to stories, but if you scroll down you will see one headlined "'SHOW ME THE MONEY?' Courthouse financial figures hard to get" that begins:
BLOOMFIELD - Although Greene County Commissioners are asking for an additional $4 million for the new courthouse addition, no one involved can seem to find totals of exactly how much money they have already spent.An open records request was filed with the Greene County Auditor’s office last week by the Bloomfield Free Press seeking:
• A complete and comprehensive accounting of all monies spent on the new construction at the Greene County Courthouse, including, but not limited to:
• All payments to contractors, suppliers and workers
• All payments made to attorneys, bonding agents and consultants
• Complete and up-to-date balances in all accounts associated with aforementioned construction
• Complete and up-to-date balances in all accounts associated with aforementioned construction, including, but not limited to:
• All accounts with any and all bonding agencies
• Any and all county accounts associated with said construction.The request was answered by the commission’s attorney Marilyn Hartman, who said Free Press representatives were welcome to comb through records at the auditor’s office - an entire file cabinet full - covering literally years’ worth of records.
But, Hartman said, she was unaware of anyone locally having actual totals for exactly how much money has been spent to date on the project.
She noted that an investment company in New York sends the county quarterly statements of their account, but, “I’m not an accountant and can’t read the thing.”
Greene County Auditor David Bailey said that his office was not in charge of keeping a running total of expenditures. His office has nothing to do with payments made to contractors for the project, he said. “I’m not in that loop,” Bailey said.
The chairman of the group which actual owns the new addition - the Greene County Building Corporation - also had no idea where the county stood financially. “The county commissioners are the keepers of the purse strings,” said Amos Mussleman. “We are just the figureheads.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 14, 2006 04:13 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts