February 20, 2011 City employee charged in theft www.privateofficer.com
Ronda M. Alves, who was employed as the permits clerk in the Public Works Department, was charged Monday with theft in excess of $2,000 from the city, according to court documents. A probable-cause affidavit filed in Jasper County Circuit Court alleges that Alves took that amount in cash sometime by March 2010.
Alves, of Carterville, allegedly acknowledged that she had signed the “pink copy” of receipts for the transactions and had taken in that amount of money, according to the affidavit. But she “could not account for or give any explanation as to why the cash or the ‘yellow copy’ did not make it to City Hall,” the affidavit said.
Mayor John Biggs said “strictly cash,” not checks, apparently had been disappearing between the time it was received by the department and transferred to City Hall. The issue surfaced recently when a resident went to City Hall to get a refund on a deposit he had made for a water meter, Biggs said. The resident produced a receipt for his $200 cash deposit, but no copy of the receipt or the transaction was found at City Hall, he said.
Biggs said the Public Works Department keeps a receipt book of deposits for items such as building permits and water meter installations. He said employees periodically file a report with City Hall related to their transactions — reports that investigators sometimes could not reconcile with the department’s original receipt book.
Alves was the primary person responsible for taking deposits and filing the reports with City Hall, Biggs said.
Alves began working for the city in October 2007 and resigned at the end of January, Biggs said. She also had been a member of the Planning and Zoning Board and the Adjustments and Appeals Board.
The Webb City Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated, Biggs said.
Source:Joplin Globe
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