Cuyahoga County finds $600,000 in missing checks

Friday, January 28, 2000

By ANDREA SIMAKIS PLAIN DEALER REPORTER

Cuyahoga County officials, stung by the disappearance of more than 1,000 checks mailed to people doing business with the county, have tracked down $600,000 in missing funds.

On Wednesday, the county auditors office said payments totaling $6.5 million had been mailed over two days last week, and that some of the checks had disappeared. Yesterday, officials said they believed that less than $3 million in checks vanished. But they wont know for certain until they track down all of the checks sent out last week.

On Jan. 18, the county auditors office cut 1,500 checks to pay a wide variety of county vendors, from day-care providers to lawyers who represent poor clients. Some of those checks - the county auditors office doesnt know how many - never reached their intended recipients.

Auditor Frank Russos spokesman, Mark Daniels, said yesterday that some of the checks obviously made it to the right addresses because they had been cashed. About 450 were delivered in-house to county employees and were never missing in the first place; the rest were placed in the mail Jan. 19 and Jan. 20.

Yesterday, the county cut replacement checks to 100 people, totaling more than $300,000. County officials expect to reissue 20 to 30 more today. The county treasurers office said another 138 checks, totaling $614,000 of the missing funds, had been cashed.

"What we know is that we had 100 vendors call us and we reissued checks to those 100 people," said Daniels.

But that leaves almost 800 checks unaccounted for, and officials still dont know how many of those will eventually show up.

The trouble started Monday, Jan. 24, when people who were due their monthly payments from Cuyahoga County began calling Auditor Frank Russos office, complaining that the checks hadnt arrived.

Most of the calls were from baby sitters who contract with the county to provide child care services for low-income and welfare mothers.

Workers in the county mail room on Ontario St. and Postal Service employees searched for the missing checks, but came up empty-handed.

Russo ordered that checks be reissued immediately to women who provide child day care, saying he was concerned they "would have problems buying diapers and formula" and paying their utility bills.

What is most mysterious to county officials is that some checks mailed Jan. 19, the day the bulk of the checks were sent, did clear, so they are not sure why some of the payments made it safely into mailboxes while others didnt.

"Were as eager to find out whats going on as they are," said Mark Reynolds, spokesman for the services Cleveland district. "Weve continued to look and we have not found anything."

In the meantime, the auditors office is asking that all those people due to receive a check who have not gotten it to call (216) 443-7323.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/cc28chec.ssf

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 28, 2000