Clinton council votes to reprimand city manager, mayor, self

CLINTON — The Clinton City Council has voted to give its city manager, the mayor and itself a written reprimand over $83,000 that was lost when the FDIC closed Centennial Bank on March 7.

City manager Dennis Cluff also will be docked three days' pay, about $1,300.

The city treasurer will have more oversight, and new policies will be implemented to make sure the city never loses uninsured money in a bank account again.

"I think this won't happen again," said Councilwoman Anna Stanton, who made the motion that ultimately passed 3-2.

Council members David Pearson and Cheri Reed, who wanted a stiffer penalty, voted against it.

The lost money was the bulk of the interest that the city's perpetual care fund for the cemetery had earned since it was placed in a certificate of deposit in 2000.

The city maintains the principal investment from the CD and some of the interest, which has since been invested with the Public Treasurer's Investment Fund: $250,000 out of the $333,000 that was in the CD.

Eventually, the city plans to use the interest earned from the fund to pay for the annual costs of maintaining the city cemetery.

Tuesday's vote came after a three-hour special City Council meeting during which residents addressed the council, mayor and Cluff with various opinions.

Becky Vervloet, who addressed the council first, said the council should fire Cluff because he's responsible as the city's budget officer for maintaining city funds. Vervloet said no one in city government should have been surprised that Centennial Bank closed and that it was foolish to leave more money above the FDIC-insured $250,000 in that CD.

"If you let this slide, you do not have the best interests of (Clinton residents)at heart," she told the City Council.

After the meeting, Vervloet said she appreciated the council's decision.

"I'm glad that they did something," she said.

Debra Barlow said the city had plenty of time from January, when the council discussed the need to move the funds, until March, when Centennial Bank closed, to get the excess money into other accounts.

Cluff apologized to residents during the meeting.

"I am extremely sorry that I did not pay close attention to the perpetual care fund," he said. "Since the bank's closing, there has not been an hour of my awake time that I have not mentally berated myself and soulfully regretted what has happened. I am truly, truly sorry."

For the remaining three hours, residents' opinions went back and forth between forgiving Cluff because of his record of saving the city money over the past 16 years and calls for some sort of tangible punishment, not out of anger, residents said, but out of a sense of responsibility.