Checks go in mail, dont come out

Thursday, January 27, 2000

By ANDREA SIMAKIS PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

For hundreds of people awaiting $6.5 million in Cuyahoga County funds, the check is in the mail. Maybe.

On Jan. 18, the county auditors office cut 1,500 checks to pay a wide variety of county vendors, from day-care providers to attorneys representing indigent clients. The Postal Service picked up most of them from the auditors mailroom the next day.

Then they disappeared.

Nearly a week later, the checks are still missing, county phones are still ringing, and postal employees are still searching.

"We have turned the building upside down, looked in every nook and cranny, but we have not been able to locate the checks," said Mark Reynolds, spokesman for the services Cleveland district. "We just cant put our fingers on them at this time."

While the search continues, Lynn Price frets.

She is one of hundreds of women under contract with the county to provide day care for low-income and welfare mothers. They were expecting their checks to show up on Jan. 20 or 21, but still hadnt received them yesterday.

For Price, who cares for six children daily in her East Side home, the delay is critical.

"This is my only income," Price said. "Ive been borrowing money from my girlfriends to get gas and pay for the kids snacks."

Edna Shepherd is in the same predicament.

"House notes are going unpaid, car notes are going unpaid," said Shepherd, who also cares for six children. "I havent paid any of my utilities, and if they turn my lights and gas off, I cant have mothers bringing their kids over."

At first, Shepherd and Price thought the problem was theirs alone. But when they began talking among themselves, and realized how many shared it, they started burning up the phone lines to the county.

For county officials, who have spent days trying to figure out what went wrong, making everyone whole won't be easy. They can't simply reissue the checks, because some of them might have been cashed already.

"There is plenty of opportunity for fraud and abuse," said County Administrator Tom Hayes.

To ensure that opportunity is not exploited, the county treasurer's office is feverishly checking the books to determine whether any of the 1,500 checks have cleared.

Officials already have determined that 60 day-care providers have made legitimate claims and have promised to issue new checks today. They have promised to cut new checks for other intended recipients as well - provided they call first so the treasurer can verify that their checks have not cleared.

Anyone who still has not received an expected check should call the county auditor's office at (216) 443-7323.

The Postal Service's Reynolds said the checks eventually would be found, that no one pinched the county's mail. In fact, he said, the checks "may be on their way." http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/c27check.ssf

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 27, 2000