News : Who says crime doesn't pay?

Amber Bell, former Atkins City Clerk, receives 2 year's probation

After tens of thousands of dollars were misspent, Amber Bell, 41, former City Clerk for the City of Atkins, pled guilty to Felonious Misconduct in Office, a Class D felony. In exchange for admitting to the crime, the charges of Ongoing Criminal Conduct - Unlawful Activity and Unauthorized Use of Credit Card were dropped. Bell received a deferred judgment and will be on two years of probation.

Bell was hired by the City of Atkins as the city clerk from 2015 to 2020. She was responsible for handling the city’s mail, making purchases,, collecting payments, making bank deposits, and signing and distributing checks, as well as other duties.

It was discovered that Bell was responsible for improper financial transactions after Atkins' officials requested an investigation. She was placed on administrative leave during November 2020. 

A special investigation identified:

-$46,795.00 of improper disbursements which includes:

   • $9,074.24 of unauthorized payroll costs resulting from excess wages, excess comp time payments, holiday bonus checks, and separation agreement payments issued to Ms. Bell;

   • $2,914.31 of reimbursement checks issued to Ms. Bell for health insurance and other costs;

   • $21,291.37 of net insurance premiums for coverage of City employees that were not properly deducted from the employees’ payroll;

   • $3,275.25 of improper purchases made with the City’s credit card, late fees, and interest;

   • $3,799.16 of improper payments to vendors and cash withdrawals; 

   • $567.83 of late fees and interest to IPERS.

-$21,255.38 of unsupported disbursements is composed of transactions for which the City could not provide supporting documentation. This includes reimbursements to Bell, purchases made with the City’s credit card and purchases from vendors. Each of the instances of unbilled and uncollected utility billings identified resulted in lost revenue to the City, it was not possible to determine which specific transactions identified, if any were utility payments received by the City which were not properly deposited in the City’s bank account because sufficient records were not available. 

-$27,941.53 of unbilled and uncollected utility billings

   • The unbilled and uncollected utility billings include $23,526.53 of billings that should have been billed for services but were not, and $4,270.00 of fees that were not properly billed to customers.   

The investigation determined that it wasn't possible to find all of the other improper spending because she didn't keep proper records. Bell also falsified city documents and entered them into public records, and conducted unlawful activity that resulted in personal gain during her time as the City Clerk.

She was finally arrested in November of 2023. 

The full Auditor's report can be seen here.