Clerk overpaid $60,000

BROWNSTOWN — Public records show Brownstown’s clerk-treasurer was paid more than $100,000 this year through the town’s Oct. 22 pay period, or about $60,000 more than her annual salary.

A check of records Wednesday shows that Clerk-treasurer Rebeckah “Becky” Fee, 54, who hasn’t appeared for work at town hall since sometime around Oct. 16, last received a town payroll check on Oct. 8. A check for the Oct. 22 pay period was written for Fee but is being held by the town, officials said Wednesday.

Fee’s gross pay through that pay period totals $102,894.54 for the year, according to town records.

The town’s 2009 salary ordinance states the clerk-treasurer should be paid a gross salary of $1,564.98 bi-weekly, or about $40,689.48 annually.

Fee’s Oct. 8 paycheck — which has been cashed — included the $1,564.98 gross pay plus an unexplained $3,500, according to public records on file at town hall, for a gross pay of $5,064.98. Her net pay from that check was $3,408.29.

Fee, who was re-elected to her position in November 2007, could not be reached for comment. Fee was unopposed in her election bid in 2003. She was appointed to the job in 2000.

Fee handled payroll time sheets and processed payroll checks for her and other town employees before she stopped going to work, town officials said, including the Oct. 8 check.

Brownstown Town Council President Leroy Warren confirmed Nov. 2 that state and federal police were investigating town records. Warren added the council had decided to have Deputy Clerk-treasurer Cathy Roberts perform Fee’s duties in her absence and named her interim clerk-treasurer.

Questioned about how payroll claims were reviewed by council, Councilman Jim Phillips said Wednesday that Fee would write the payroll amount each month on a report when council would review claims. That reporting process has changed, effective with the council’s last meeting, Monday night.

“She wrote down the total payroll — we just saw total payroll amount,” Phillips said. “The payroll amount she reported was what it should have been.

“What we found out after all this came up is that there’s (a) payroll report that could have been printed out and distributed to council but never was,” Phillips added. “But we were given that report Monday night. That was the first time this council in probably my six years that we’ve ever seen such a report. We weren’t being told the truth about things.”

An investigation into the town’s financial records started soon after a field representative with the Indiana Board of Accounts started their routine two-year audit of town records in October. The agency audits various arms of local government on a two-year rotation. The investigation apparently includes records back to 2006.

Although town council appointed Roberts as interim clerk-treasurer, Fee remains the elected clerk-treasurer. State law doesn’t necessarily require an elected officeholder to appear at work or perform any duties. It simply states they’re responsible for seeing that the duties of the office are carried out.

Should Fee leave office, the responsibility for replacing her would fall on precinct committeemen from the four voting precincts that make up Brownstown town limits. Fee was elected as a Democrat, so Democratic precinct committeemen would cast those votes for her replacement.

A check of state law yields at least two avenues of impeaching local officeholders. Both appear to be rarely used.

One would allow a petition to be filed in circuit court to impeach an officeholder. Case law for that dates to the 1950s. The other would allow a county prosecutor to call a grand jury to review evidence so that grand jurors could decide whether to return a recommendation for impeachment. In such a case, an impeachment trial would take place in a local court.

Brownstown town attorney John Rothring had no comment Wednesday on whether he’s been asked to explore the impeachment process. Phillips also declined to comment on whether such an option was explored.

Jackson County Prosecutor Rick Poynter said Wednesday he has not been approached about investigating the impeachment process.

“I’m not involved with any efforts to remove her from office,” Poynter said. The prosecutor added he anticipates any criminal investigation into Brownstown town records would be handled through U.S. District Court rather than his office because the Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the investigation, which was started locally by the Indiana State Police once that agency was contacted by the state board of accounts.

State police detectives familiar with the case could not be reached for comment Wednesday on where the investigation stands.