County supervisors letting County Attorney handle County Recorder's Office questions

Winneshiek County supervisors are letting County Attorney Andy Van Der Maaten handle concerns about the operation of the Winneshiek County Recorder's Office.

Van Der Maaten gave County Recorder La Vonne Bjergum a letter last Monday listing the concerns raised by an audit of the office by Hacker Nelson & Co.  The audit revealed that bank statements from the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2009 had not been reconciled when they were given to the accounting firm in October.  Additionally, Van Der Maaten said the Recorder's Office had been collecting a $3.00 fee to cover the costs of maintaining the county land record information system and blocking out personally identifiable information contained in documents posted on publicly accessible websites.  "When you collect (the fee) but do not upload documents, you are not using the fee for its authorized purpose.  Failure to perform this duty…could constitute misconduct in office," wrote Van Der Maaten.

The agenda for Monday's meeting of the Winneshiek County Board included "discussion of letter to County Recorder," but the matter was not brought up at the meeting.  County Board Chair Dean Darling said supervisors will allow the process started by Van Der Maaten to unfold as scheduled.  In his letter Van Der Maaten gave Bjergum two weeks to respond to his letter, meaning an answer is due by next Monday, August 16th.

The complete text of Van Der Maaten's letter is attached.