Mixed reaction from residents who crowd Dixon council chambers

DIXON – The council chambers at Dixon City Hall were filled to capacity Monday evening as the City Council held its first regularly scheduled meeting since the arrest of the city’s top finance officer.

Despite a crowd that spilled into the hallway, only 11 residents spoke during the public comment period. They used up about 25 of the 60 minutes the council had set aside.

“As a citizen of Dixon, I feel a bit responsible and guilty for not voicing my concern over what I knew to be a major flaw in the city’s accounting system,” Dixon resident Carol Fisher said. “Because I am married to a former city employee, I have known for over 25 years that Rita Crundwell was given and had way too much power in City Hall.”

Crundwell, Dixon’s former comptroller, was fired after she was arrested April 17 on a federal wire fraud charge.

Prosecutors say she misappropriated more than $53 million in city funds over two decades.

She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on top of restitution if convicted.

Fisher enumerated the questions she still had: Who is the relative who picked up the mail for Crundwell? Did Crundwell profit from city contracts with vendors? Does the city still allow wire transfers from its accounts?

And lastly, earning the first applause of the evening, she wanted to know what is going to be done with the extra money the city presumably will have going forward, suggesting that some of it go back to the taxpayers.

Mayor Jim Burke and the rest of the council did not answer any questions posed Monday evening, but Burke said afterward that he is available to Dixon residents who have questions or want to talk.

“I’ve had one citizen call me and ask me about this, and one lady that stopped up here and she wanted to know how much money I got out of this thing, so we had a real short conversation,” Burke said.

Not all the comments were negative or critical – although a call for the mayor’s resignation garnered significant applause.

The council took a couple of steps during the meeting to deal with the fallout from Crundwell’s arrest.

It authorized an agreement with Wipfli to have the city’s audits going back to 2006 redone, so that the city can develop independent numbers on what its loss was.

The city has not yet hired a firm to do a detailed forensic audit, but still plans to, Burke said.

The council decided to hire Wipfli independently of the forensic auditors because it wanted to get moving as quickly as possible, he said.

“We’re being very deliberate and prudent in our decision-making,” the mayor said. “First of all, we want to make sure we’re getting the people and firms with the experience and skills necessary to do the task. Secondly, this is going to be an expensive endeavor, and we don’t want to be paying twice for overlapping and redundant services.”

The council will vote later, Burke said, on increasing that contract to include audits going back to 1990, when prosecutors say Crundwell opened the secret Fifth Third Bank account she used to funnel money out of the city.

Council members also established who will be authorized to sign checks on behalf of the city and the rules for them, and requested all information related to the city’s finances at Fifth Third Bank.

The city also is hiring two interim comptrollers, Finance Commissioner David Blackburn said. They will be tasked with taking over the financial duties that have fallen to other city employees, making recommendations on how to improve financial controls and helping in the hiring of a new comptroller.

Commissioner Jeff Kuhn is heading up the city’s new transparency initiative, which includes a new section on its website dedicated to posting meeting agendas and minutes and financial information, such as salaries, fees and budgets.

“It’s time-intensive. It takes a lot of work, but if the people want to find out about it, they will find out about it. We’re going to be as transparent as we can possibly get,” Kuhn said.

At the end of the meeting, commissioners went behind closed doors to discuss potential litigation.

Wipfli also will be collecting information that could be used in litigation against the bank and the city’s auditor, Samuel Card of Sterling, Burke said.

The internal investigation that the city also is planning would be expanded beyond its original goal of finding out whether other city employees were involved in the alleged fraud. It would also look into the auditor and the banks.

Sidewalk repair program returns

DIXON – After a 1-year hiatus, the Dixon sidewalk maintenance program is making a comeback.

The City Council voted Monday to go ahead with the program, which splits the cost of repairing sidewalks between the city and the resident.

The city provides the labor and equipment, and the resident covers the cost of the concrete, which will be $125 per cubic yard. The program was cut last year as the council tried to close a $128,000 budget gap.

“It’s back,” Streets Commissioner Jeff Kuhn said. “Take advantage of it.”

Interested residents can call 815-288-1403 and speak with Jane Haws in the building department or stop by City Hall, 121 W. First St., which is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Two items were removed from Monday’s agenda.

The council ended up not making public ordinances that would allow bars to install video gambling machines or a special-event permit application for public gatherings and parades.

Once everyone has a chance to look at them and the city attorney makes some corrections, they’ll be back on the agenda, Mayor Jim Burke said.

“We really need to have some more discussion about [the gambling ordinance] and what it means to the city,” he said.

Burke also wanted the special-event permit to be more streamlined than what was initially going to be submitted to the council, he said.

To attend

The Dixon City Council meets next at 6:30 p.m. May 21 at City Hall, 121 W. Second St. Agendas and minutes are available at www.discoverdixon.org under “Form Downloads” at the top of the page, or call City Hall, 815-288-1485.