Worth County Receives Audit Report of “Good”

The Missouri State Auditor’s Office release a report Wednesday rating Worth County as “good.” The auditor’s office audits all small counties on a regular basis.

Two main areas were addressed. The first involved Prosecuting Attorney controls and procedures. The Auditor’s Office says the Prosecutor’s Office has not adequately segregated accounting duties and does not perform a supervisory review of detailed accounting records. The Prosecuting Attorney’s office does not always issue receipt slips for monies received. The Prosecuting Attorney’s office does not always transmit court-ordered restitution to victims in a timely fashion.

The second issue identified involved the enforcement of the Brush Control ordinance. The Auditor’s Office says that the amount charged for enforcement of brush control was not always calculated accurately, resulting in some taxpayers being overcharged for the service. Under the voter-approved ordinance, landowners are required to keep brush along county roads cut according to county standards, or the county will come and cut the brush for them and assess it against their taxes. Brush letters are sent out based on whether the road is a school bus or mail route and based on complaints from patrons, road & bridge personnel, and gravel truck operators. If a road gets targeted for enforcement, all landowners along the road get brush letters. If a landowner gets a brush letter, but has no brush along their portion, they do not have to do anything.

Because counties are managed by several separately-elected individuals, an audit finding with respect to one office does not necessarily apply to the operations of another office. The overall rating assigned to the county is intended to reflect the performance of the county as a whole. It does not indicate the performance of any one elected official or county office.

A “Good” rating means that the entity is well-managed. The report contains few findings, and the entity has indicated most or all recommendations have already been, or will be implemented. In addition, most prior recommendations have been implemented.

In response, the Prosecutor’s Office agreed to implement a plan to segregate the accounting duties of the office staff and provide a more thorough review of the records. Receipts will be issued immediately for all monies received, and all monies will be distributed to the proper parties in a timely manner. The estimated time frame for implementation will be 30 days.

The County Commissioners agreed to review the County Clerk’s calculations for charging brush levies for accuracy. Under the Brush Law, the County Clerk prepares a calculation of the total cost of eradicating brush for each parcel of land by calculating the total amount of labor and machine hours, along with any additional costs included.

There were three parcels that were assessed brush levies during 2017. Out of those three, the Auditor’s Office says that two of them had errors in recording the number of hours worked. The Auditor’s Office says the errors resulted in taxpayer overcharges totaling $127.

The Auditor’s Office listed the following salaries for elected officials for Worth County:
Ted Findley, Presiding Commissioner, $22,427.
Regan Nonneman, Associate Commissioner, $20,306.
Tyler Paxson, Associate Commissioner, $20,306.
Barbara Foland, Recorder of Deeds, $30,766.
Roberta Owens, County Clerk, $30,766.
Brett Hurst, Prosecuting Attorney, $39,603.
Terry Sheddrick, Sheriff, $38,192.
Linda Brown, County Treasurer, $30,766.
Sharon Supinger, County Coroner, $8,487.
Patsy Worthington, Public Administrator, $8,955.
Julie Tracy, County Collector, $30,920.
Carolyn Hardy, County Assessor, $30,447.

These figures do not include the Circuit Clerk and the Associate Circuit Judge. These salaries are paid by the state.