Are you still following news stories about the Royals and Chiefs future stadium decision? Gotta be honest, this thing has dragged on for so long I’ve just about tuned it out. I’ve reached the yawn, wake me when it’s over stage.
Following up on last week’s column. How’s your tap water tasting? Happy to acknowledge it has been 10 days and the worst of the KC Water cocktail of swamp ass and chlorine seems to be over.
If you are of the older segment of the population and your favorite night of the Platte County Fair is traditionally the night featuring senior citizen activities like bingo and such, take note that this year the senior citizen special stuff is on Wednesday night. In previous years it has been Thursday.
Not really sure why I found this interesting but I did, so I’ll pass it along. The University of Kansas Health System’s Burnett Burn Center, together with Olathe, Liberty and Great Bend hospital campuses, reported the following number of cumulative fireworks-related injuries over the July 4th weekend.
Total number of patients: 56.
Male: 44.
Female: 12.
Age range: 2-67.
Common injury location: face, legs, hand, thighs and chest.
Common type of firework involved in the injury: sparkler, mortar, smoke bomb and bottle rocket.
Hospital admissions: 10.
That there were 44 males injured to only 12 females is not a surprise. Pretty sure fireworks are a contributing factor as to why men have shorter lives than women. Smoke bombs being near the top of the apparently most dangerous firework comes as a surprise. They don’t even explode. Are people lighting smoke bombs and then moving in to take deep breaths or what?
Great turnout for the daytime July 4th Celebration in Downtown Platte City. The foam blaster or bubble blaster or whatever they call it at Second and Main was a hit and it was entertaining to watch so many kids–and some adults–get a kick out of maneuvering through it.
And the second annual hot dog contest was also a major highlight and a major attraction. Using the courthouse steps as the location for the contest was a major improvement from the location used last year. There was some welcome distance for contestants from the crowd and the added space kept people from crawling all over each other trying to get a clear view. Nice adjustment.
Hats off to everyone who had a hand in planning and sponsoring the 9 to noon activity. The Platte City Chamber of Commerce staff has been coming through in flying colors with their fine handling of these type events. Nice work.
Bottom line is Platte County Auditor Kevin Robinson and his staff have gone above and beyond by helping clean up some bookkeeping problems in the county treasurer’s office. Kudos to the county auditor.
There were some performance struggles inside the Platte County Treasurer’s Office during the final months of Rob Willard’s time there, after the death of Willard’s chief deputy. This has been outlined in some audits performed by the office of Robinson, the county auditor. For the time period of March through June of 2024, Robinson’s office reviewed bank account reconciliations, posting of income and disbursements, payroll reporting and general ledger entries. There was an error rate of nearly 21 percent on entries. Yikes. And bank account reconciliation was not getting performed by the treasurer’s office. “The audit revealed a lack of procedural understanding and inconsistent adherence to reporting deadlines, prompting the county commission to consider engaging an outside firm to assist the treasurer’s office with bank reconciliations, training and to complete a forensic audit to investigate the office’s performance and evaluate if fraudulent activity had occurred,” Robinson writes in a report he distributed this week.
Robinson conducted an officeholder transition audit following the unexpected resignation of county treasurer Willard on March 17 of this year. The purpose of that audit was to ensure that county assets are properly accounted for, confirm that daily operational functions are current and in good standing, and support the interim treasurer with guidance to minimize disruption during the transition. This report builds on the staff turnover audit that Robinson released in January of this year, which examined the internal operations following the death of the chief deputy treasurer under Willard.
After Willard’s notice to resign, the auditor’s office stepped in and completed the outstanding 2024 bank reconciliations, provided training and insight of the daily office operations to the interim treasurer, and readied the treasurer’s office records for the 2024 external audit. Robinson’s work helped the county avoid having to hire external consultants at an estimated cost of $100,000.
Findings of the post-Willard resignation audit included problems with daily receipting such as *ACH deposits with known sources were posted as unidentified remittances *Untimely payroll processing affected fringe benefit contributions and overstated available cash *Daily reconciliations were incomplete, with unprocessed transactions.
There were also problems with disbursements such as *Delays in processing fees and expenses led to multi-day batching and duplication of entries *Untimely credit card processing resulted in a payment made without supporting documentation to reduce the outstanding balance *Dual authorization completed by one treasurer office representative.
Problems with investments included inaccurately or inconsistently posting of investment activity under stated interest income maturities. Robinson offered a long list of recommendations to the treasurer’s office, which have been received with open arms by interim treasurer Chris Kendall, who accepted the appointment after Willard’s resignation. Kendall is thankful for the help and guidance from the county auditor. Kendall obviously walked into a hornet’s nest by taking the job.
“As our staff continues to grow and learn the intricacies of the duties required, we are developing specific policies, procedures, guidelines and standards that will clearly outline the expectations of the office. We appreciate the willingness of (the auditor’s staff) to assist us in developing these important benchmarks and the time you have spent helping us transition into these new roles as well as could be expected. Again, thank you for your diligent and detailed work in helping me to have a better understanding of the challenges we are facing. The audit has been beneficial in helping guide my thought process around expectations and training,” Kendall wrote to Robinson on July 1.
(You can find Foley feeling better about drinking tap water again. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
