Shop with a Cop or Purchase with a Purloiner?

[XLFD]

The story is all too common nowadays.  Treasurers, clerks, chief executives, chief administrators of local counties, cities, and township public agencies taking tax money and fees from the public community chest unlawfully and pocketing the money for themselves.  Sometimes the agencies victimized by the thefts and embezzlements enact safeguards to ensure that it will not happen again, but even then such systems are not immune to widespread corruption within.

Perhaps the most foul occurrences are when a police agency runs a popular program, like Shop with a Cop (SWAC), where all the money they gather from donations and fundraisers should go to the intended recipients, underprivileged kids and their families at Christmas time, rather than those who handle the money.  But all too often, the money never makes it to those kids because those who we trust to enforce the law decide to become those who break the law at the expense of those kids.  

A brazen example happened back in 2011, Franklin County (NC) Sheriff Pat Green stole nearly a quarter of a million dollars in a period between 2007-2011.  Nearly 90% of that money was earmarked for undercover drug buys making it very difficult for others, including the public to oversee.

"I took money. I'm not going to lie to y'all," an application for a search warrant quotes Green as saying. "I've been depressed. I wanted to stay home. I took money to buy things for the kids."

This doesn't appear to be money for the Shop with a Cop kids, as court documents show that Green received thousands of dollars in donations to the annual Shop with a Cop program, and much of the money wasn't accounted for. Green reimbursed the sheriff's office for $6,000, probably with money once slated to be used to purchase drugs.  The money missing from the drug funds were eventually noticed after five years of the former sheriff's thievery, which led to an investigation that uncovered the SWAC deficits.  

More recently in Richfield, Ohio another officer was nabbed for taking at least $26,000 from the local SWAC till over six years.  Richfield Police Officer Michael Simmons (pictured above), the main coordinator of the program, improperly spent $26,709 in program funds on personal expenses from 2010 to 2016. The improper spending included sporting event tickets, electronics, clothing, and tools. He also allegedly used gift cards purchased with program funds for his personal use. 

The police chief finally noticed several unauthorized financial transactions from the "Shop with a Cop" bank account and had an investigation take place by the Ohio Attorney General's Office.  Richfield Lieutenant Joe Davis commented on what led to the investigation taking place, and the steps they were taking once they noticed a discrepancy.

"The 'Shop with a Cop' program helps kids bond with and trust police, but this defendant violated that trust on so many different levels," said Attorney General DeWine. "Our investigation found that, for years, this officer not only deceived those who generously donated to this charity, but he also stole from the children whom this program was created to help. Many more kids could have benefited from this charity had this defendant not spent thousands of dollars in donations on himself."

The Ludington Shop with a Cop program was revitalized back in 2014 with a modest group of 30 kids shopping with officers with $100 gift certificates courtesy of the local United Way and Pennies from Heaven.  Since 2015, other groups and individuals have donated their money and time, and a pie auction ran before Thanksgiving typically receives several thousand dollars for the sale of exotic pies at exotic prices.  The last two years have seen the SWAC program receive well over $10,000 and expand to helping over 60 kids.  

But these last two years have came under scrutiny because of what appears to be a lack of structural accounting safeguards that cloud all the good work done by many police officers and volunteers who give so much to this local charitable program.  After the 2016 SWAC program, it was noticed that the expenses paid out by what should have been a privately ran charitable organization were being expended through the City of Ludington's general fund and on their credit card.  Worse, the City's accounting system seemed ill prepared for handling gift cards, and there was nearly $1000 unaccounted for in a Meijer gift card, and $500 on two Wal-Mart cards.  See Shoplift with a Cop.

Although the Ludington City Council was apprised of this shortfall on numerous occasions early in 2017, no city officials ever explained why they used the general fund or explain the missing money.  Famously, the police chief, Mark Barnett, passed on his opportunity to explain the issue and decided to publicly shame the whistleblower instead.  

The Christmas of 2017 was a chance for the LPD to show that last year's accounting was an anomaly.

But this year has shown they still want to diversify the use of public funds and credit to run this program.  On  p. 16 of the 1-8-2018 packet we see three purchases (see also Check Stub Payments.pdf ) made from the general fund, rather than a dedicated SWAC account.  On p. 58 of the packet for the 2-12-2018 meeting the LPD credit card was used for nearly a $3800 purchase. which showed up in the police department ledger.  

In the full accounting records of the 2017 SWAC, the transfers of money between accounts is never shown, in fact the money received by the program was placed in the catchall general fund, and the records seem to show that the reported donations were only accounted for by the city manager/treasurer/clerk after Christmas (see Memo 12282017.pdf).  

It was here where a new controversy this year took shape that actually occurred outside of the program.  The Ludington DDA advertised and marketed the Cops & Robbers 5K Run as a fundraiser for the 2017 SWAC, with most saying or inferring that all proceeds would go to the program.  However, when one looks at the revenues for SWAC, the DDA is curiously absent.

As noted by the director of the Ludington DDA, Heather Tykoski, at the 2-12-2018 Ludington City Council meeting, the 5K's $25 entry fee was kept away from the needy kids serviced by the SWAC program and put into their own treasury to be used for future races.  A colossal fraud which kept $2000 or more from the SWAC program (see DDA pockets charity money).  One week after Tykoski admitted to the fraud I exposed at the meeting, the public still waits to hear why their city hall officials are stealing from underprivileged kids.

A side note:  Wal-Mart always seems to get a lot more positive press than Meijer regarding this program, but it should be noted that Wal-Mart doesn't donate anything to the program, zero; it sells gift cards at face value to SWAC and that money is spent in the store.  Meijer's donates thousands, this year $3000 ( Email Meijer Donation.pdf), without taking any money from the program; they are rarely noticed.

Because of the intermingling of funds, pervasiveness of gift card purchases and even cash-ins, it is even harder this last year to follow the money very well.  Despite last year's criticisms of their incomplete record keeping they seem to have devolved in the matter of transparency, even with donations (Shop with Cop donation receipts.pdf) that lump the reception of checks and cash received just before the shopping commenced.  There is no copy of the checks or receipts for the cash involved other than what's here.

They did collect their receipts from their purchases at the two superstores (see Clerk Record.pdf)

 and did supply their E-mails, which shows that Heather was very actively involved in marketing the same charitable program she actively avoided paying any of the Cops & Robber money into (Shop with Cop emails.pdf).  

Lastly, it should be noted the 2017 SWAC decided to zero out their balance by donating about $4211 into the 'student emergency funds of the three Mason County public school districts (Receipts Student Emergency Funds.pdf).  The money should be used for the core purpose of the SWAC program, to help kids going through trouble, and will be available throughout the school year.  This is a definite improvement over keeping it in the general fund for a year, if it's not forgotten about.  

Because of the failure to keep the SWAC money in a dedicated, private fund with peer review and the failure to retain all the revenue/expenditure sources, the accounting problems seem to mostly have gotten worse, even though the numbers are basically balanced and the money seems to be distributed to the proper sources.  

The biggest problem with the 2017 Shop with a Cop seems to be that a city-ran race that was marketed as a fund-raiser for this charity, withheld money they promised needy children, more money than what was unaccounted for last year.  As last year, the robber seems intent on keeping the money; if nothing is done now, do not be surprised when some honorable official comes forth in the future (it could happen) and says there has been a long-term shortfall in the SWAC program.

[Willy]

If it weren't for you X, this situation would never have seen the light of day. Thanks for all your work and research. The foreigners have taken control of Ludingtons Government, media, law enforcement and DDA and look how it's turned out. Wouldn't it be nice if Shay could rent a truck and take all these foreigners with him. Heather, Barnett and Patti. These people have brought their down state ways here and have made a mess of things. Put them all on a potato truck and ship them out.

[John Doe Jr]

Appalling and deplorable!

[AQUAMAN]

You hit another sharp nail right on the head again Freedom Seeker, I've also been saying the same for years too about X. You actually find a taxpayer with enough brain power, care, and integrity to point out small and large errors in procedure, accounting, code law,  contract letting, transparency, ethics, and common sense approach to you gov't. at a local level, and you treat the entire affair like it's unfair and illegal? If Mayor, even years back, I would have taken the opportunity to hire this man for his wisdom and expertise to trouble-shoot our noble efforts to help us achieve the best gov't. for the people we serve. Instead of that, we have a shallow and vengeful city mgr. that takes everything very personal and serious, to the point of poisoning and muddying that individual' efforts for his own grandeur. And he also poisons the media for the same cheap reasons of making the messenger appear like the bad guy. Steve Miller, WMOM, and former classmate at LHS, himself told me about 2-3 years ago that X has absolutely no credibility, and should therefore be ignored and ridiculed. That is his viewpoint thanks to the advice and word of city mgr. Shyster Shay. And Miller had been working in Detroit for the last 40 years previous, and doesn't know better. When I tried to inform him otherwise, I was simply given the cold shoulder. To me anyhow, this is exactly why us taxpayers give up on participating in any involvement with our so-called leaders, even at the smallest levels. Hell, if we can't even get truth and legal governing at this tiny level, why pursue it at any level? A shameful America is now what is supposed to be normal and given support? SAD!