The Town of Ignacio’s embezzlement losses are rising and the thefts went on longer than initially believed, town trustees were told Wednesday night.
The loss is now at $70,677, Town Treasurer Diana Briar said, up from the initial report of $46,484.
Town hall front desk employee Jackie Mejia was arrested Jan. 21 by Ignacio Police, according to an arrest affidavit filed with La Plata County Combined Courts. The citation listed then was Class 4 felony theft/embezzlement.
Mejia is scheduled for a court hearing at 9 a.m. March 3.
Briar and Town Clerk Georgann Valdez said Mejia received utility and other payments, which she was expected to deposit daily at the night drop at Ignacio’s Wells Fargo Bank.
“She always deposited the right amount but not the right cash amount,” Briar said. “She used checks to make it work. ... At the end of the day, it tells you how much cash, checks, credit cards. After it’s closed out, your bank deposit matches. ... The level was right. Everything matched. She pulled out the cash and took checks to make it balance. Now we make sure the cash and checks match” from the daily tally to the deposit.
She also told trusteess, that accounts were short on money collected for business and contractor licenses.
The town is insured for losses up to $100,000. A forensic auditor from the insurer is going through the town’s records.
Interim Town Manager Mark Garcia said, “The ladies have a system for opening and closing (the daily receipts). When someone is on vacaion, they don’t have that. She (Mejia) got ahead of us on a couple deposits and the theft continued.”
Garcia started with the town in September. Police Chief Kirk Phillips was acting manager last summer after trustees fired the previous manager on April 22.
Valdez and Briar also cited staff turnover at the bank. Briar said, “When we talked to our (bank) rep, she said it’s a red flag because of the lack of cash, but because of the turnover, it wasn’t spotted.”
Many town residents, especially seniors, pay their utility bills with cash, Briar and Valdez said.
Now, Briar said, “I’m checking the (deposit) receipt every day against the cash report. If anything like this happens, it will be caught immediately. I think our biggest mistake was doing night drop deposits. They weren’t. They were going home.”
Trustee Alison deKay said she wanted to ensure the town knows when the thefts started. “We need to look at everything and get it back.”
Briar said she has gone back through all of 2015. Everything (cash, checks, credit cards) matched in January and February last year. Starting in March, they didn’t.
Trustees discussed getting new audits going back to when Mejia started with the town in 2013. Briar said insurance wouldn’t cover that cost, just the financial loss.
In the arrest affidavit filed on Jan. 22, IPD Sgt. Wes Crume wrote that Mejia came to him on Jan. 19 and said she had been taking money since early November because she has a gambling addiction. She initially said she had taken around $17,000 and had gambled it away, Crume wrote, but then she said the amount was probably higher. Crume listed it at $46,484.50.
