As Town Clerk of Red Rock, Jolavon Childs was responsible for recording and maintaining board agendas and minutes, documenting all town ordinances, and maintaining custody of documents, records, and archives.
For the three-year period of the forensic audit performed by the State Auditor and Inspector’s office (January 2021 through November 2023), only one board agenda was located and no board minutes were found.
Childs stated that she did not print and file board minutes but kept them on her computer, yet none could be located. Town records were poorly maintained. Many documents were haphazardly filed in boxes, cabinets, or stacked on shelves and desks.
Records from multiple years were intermingled, making it difficult to locate support for specific town transactions. Noble County Sheriff’s Investigator Micah Haga located a cache of records, and state auditors found a “tub of files,” Morley reported.
As an elected official, Childs’ compensation was required by state statute to be documented by ordinance. Board approved ordinances defining her pay for 2019 through 2023 could not be located.
In the absence of ordinances, Internal Revenue Service W-2 forms were used to define the payments credited as allowable wages to Childs.
For 2023, Childs was not issued a W-2, so her wages were calculated based on verbal statements, available board minutes, and one town ordinance from 16 years earlier, in 2007.
The town failed to calculate and withhold payroll taxes from board members and employees’ wages. During calendar years 2019 through 2022, wage and withholding information for Childs and one PWA employee were provided to the town’s accountant at year-end. The accountant prepared W-2 forms and calculated and paid the payroll taxes, along with penalties and interest.
In 2023, no payroll taxes were withheld for town employees, no information was sent to the accountant, and no W-2s were filed with the IRS.
The State Auditor’s office found no evidence that IRS Form 1099s were provided to board members for their pay.”
Except for a few random ordinances that were located atTown Hall, state auditors found no evidence that Red Rock’s ordinances have been officially updated for 37 years.
Red Rock’s ordinances have not been updated since 1987 “except for a few loose ordinances located at Town Hall,” state auditors discovered. And those records contain conflicting information about the positions of town clerk and town treasurer.
The 1987 ordinances designate the clerk and treasurer as separate elected positions, but one ordinance from 2001 was located which combined these roles into a single clerk/treasurer position.
Documentation from the Noble County Election Board shows that Jolavon Childs was reelected as the town clerk-treasurer in 2023.
After Childs resigned as clerk-treasurer in December 2023, Michelle Cline-Cameron was hired as town clerk and Vanessa Rocha was hired as town treasurer. “No board minutes could be located to indicate Cameron’s hiring, Rocha’s approval as town treasurer, or to indicate the board approved the separate of the two positions.”
Without official minutes, it is unclear whether Childs was compensated appropriately as the town clerk/treasurer or if Cline-Cameron and Rocha were improperly paid for their separate roles of town clerk and town treasurer, respectively.
Mayor Cory DeRoin acknowledged the “weakness” of the town’s government and told state auditors on Sept. 30 that the Red Rock board is now recording its meetings “and has all of them saved,” and “hired someone to do their accounting…”