Vinton Today

When the Vinton City Council gathers this Thursday for its regular meeting, the future of City Administrator Chris Ward is a likely topic.

Ward now faces a felony charge of misconduct in office while at his last job. The Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office has filed the charge on Monday.

The charge is the result of an investigation that involved a review by the State Auditor of Iowa’s Office.

That report concluded that West Liberty over-billed electric customers $259,231.58 for electric service for the billing periods May 15, 2013 through January 15, 2014. Also, the overbillings occurred “because the former City Manager (Ward) instructed the utility staff to use a base rate approved during the December 15, 1998 meeting instead of the adjusted rate approved on June 15, 2007.” The over-billing includes approximately $100,000 for residential customers and $149,000 in over-billing for the West Liberty Foods turkey processing plant from May of 2013 through February of 2014, when the new city manager reduced the rates to those authorized by city ordinances.

The auditors determined that the amount of over-billing per month per residential customer was less than $10.

"We also recalculated two residential customers’ billings based on their usage and determined the first customer was over billed $3.00 and the second customer was overbilled $5.89 for the billing period May 15, 2013 through June 15, 2013," they state in that report.

Ward said he could not comment on the case as this time, although he did acknowledge that the people involved in filing this complaint were not numbered among his supporters when he was fired from West Liberty in October of 2013. The Vinton City Council approved Ward’s appointment by Mayor John Watson seven months later, in May of 2014.

West Liberty leaders cited concerns about how that city’s recycling was being handled when it fired Ward, who had been the city manager there almost a decade.

See the Auditor of State’s Report on the West Liberty utility billing issue HERE.

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KL February 26, 2015, 11:35 am A quick search on this website using the names Jeff Horne (Aug 22 & 26, 2013) and then Chris Ward (May 7, 2014), will produce more accurate information regarding the chain of events regarding the hiring of Chris Ward.

I agree with previous postings about the City\'s poor job of hiring for this position. The City of Vinton (and the consulting firm they hired), probably could have performed a little more \"due diligence\".

DC February 25, 2015, 10:56 pm Jeff Horne was the interim city manager after Andy Lent left and then Chris Ward was hired. This is not an opinion of good or bad, just want to keep the information accurate. Jeff had some issues with his previous job which was extenuating circumstances.

JZ February 25, 2015, 6:10 pm If I remember correctly, the situation was well known to the city council and mayor, and made public, when the applicant was working here on a temporary basis, filling in for the former manager. I am under the impression that they did \"due diligence\" research and felt very positive about hiring Chris Ward after getting to know him as a temporary appointment. I agree with Mary Kay that readers should take a deep breath and listen before rushing to judge him or piling on our City Council and Mayor. Media has some responsibility here too, not to rush in with superficial information from other reportage in order to break a story \"first.\"

TL February 25, 2015, 5:58 pm I am stunned that the City of Vinton would hire someone with this record in their past.
Even if there were extenuating circumstances, yet to be revealed…high on the list, in fact maybe Number One on the list of things to ask an applicant, \"were you ever fired from a previous job?\"
Let\'s start with that question. Followed by a few confirming phone calls or a thirty second Google search.

MKC February 25, 2015, 2:28 pm I highly recommend everyone read the auditors findings and not judge on the short article - which doesn\'t say anything about the reasons for the previous \"firing\". I trust the majority of people reading this article will not pass judgment based on a tidbit of facts shared with the public. I don\'t know of anyone that hasn\'t made mistakes or been accused of things they are not guilty of or made the scapegoat. I hope that everyone will remember that we are all human and mistakes and accusations are part of life. We are told in the Bible not to judge lest we be judged the same....

jb February 24, 2015, 6:15 pm aren\'t our city leaders smart enough to check someone\'s past before hiring them? better get third opinion on sewer repairs

BT February 24, 2015, 5:13 pm Please? Please explain to me WHY we would want someone FIRED from another City????

News \'Felonious Misconduct:\' City Administrator Ward faces charges from last job

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