MADISON COUNTY, Iowa– It has been a turbulent year for local government in Madison County.

The former Treasurer is facing criminal charges with an upcoming trial. The former Auditor reportedly stopped coming to work weeks before she resigned. And the current Board of Supervisors Chair has a pending lawsuit filed against the Sheriff, the County Attorney, and other officials.

During Tuesday night’s regularly scheduled BOS meeting, more concerns were raised.

Auditor Flags Financial Irregularities

Newly elected Auditor Michele Brant, who took office after a late-August special election, appears to be working to steady the ship. But according to her report at the meeting, she has uncovered numerous concerning issues in recent weeks.

“We found deficiencies in the last six weeks,” said Brant during her department update. “We’ve been able to deal with most of them.”

Among some of the issues Brant reportedly identified are:

• County libraries, which are generally paid quarterly, had not received funding since January
  • Past due amounts included: $11,503 for Truro Library, $13,391 for Earlham Library, $11,188 for Saint Charles Library, and Winterset Library was only behind one quarter and was owed $18,584.
• VPN access was given to non-employees for sensitive county software.
• Included among a list of approved expenses after the county budget was certified on April 22nd and then amended in May was:
  • The First Deputy Auditor was given an $8,000 raise to her annual salary. That was six days before the elected Auditor left office. It was approved by resolution from the Board of Supervisors.
  • There was a roughly $2,900 overpayment of wages on July 10, approved by the interim Auditor. That will be repaid by December 31st.
  • Sequential wage increases were given to the Elections Deputy from $28 at hire to $28.25 at 90 days, and then another raise to $28.99 per hour, six days before the Auditor left office, and approved by the BOS.
  • Permission was given by an unknown person for a temporary part-time assistant who was being paid $28.99 an hour to work past June 30th. That person continued working through the Special Election on August 26th, and then was given permission on September 2nd by the outgoing appointed Auditor to continue working through the end of September. This amount netted after taxes $1,765.63.
• A lack of narrative or notes for the budget throughout 2025.
• The county budget was reportedly deleted from the county’s third-party IT software company Solutions, Inc., around July 18 and was later re-entered. In her after-hours, Brant said she will be comparing the notes she has from her time as the board clerk this past Spring with what was entered online due to the lack of a narrative explanation.
• The Taxable Wage Report due to the Iowa Workforce Development was not filed in April or July, which generated $6,100 in fines.
• The 2025 Indirect Cost Allocation Plans were due on September 6th. The Auditor’s Office was reportedly advised about it on August 7th, 2025, before Brant took office. Brant is now working on the final component, which should have been completed in July. Brant did not expect the county to incur any financial penalties.
• CCOG dues had not been paid in July
• Several audits had not been completed, including for HR purposes and the Iowa Workforce Development.

Brant also said that she has been assisting the State Auditor’s Office with completing the Audit of FYs 2023 and 2024, after emails from the state went unanswered by county employees for six months. She is also planning to create an onboarding and offboarding process for county employees, she said.

Brant has been pushing to hire a part-time Second Deputy Auditor to help get the office back on track. But that request has been denied by Supervisors Heather Stancil and Jessica Hobbs, who said they want to review Brant’s budget first.

Legal Fees Draw Scrutiny

During public comments, attention turned to the first invoices from an outside law firm- retained in August with votes from Supervisors Hobbs and Stancil. This, despite the county already having legal representation through both the County Attorney and a separate firm that is currently on a $2,800-per-month retainer for HR-related matters.

Invoices obtained by the WHO 13 newsroom show the county was billed nearly $8,000 by the new firm for September and October- more than half the cost of the recent Special Election. Part of the charges are labeled as “attention to pending litigation.”

But there is a catch.

As of now, neither the Iowa courts nor the federal PACER court system show any pending litigation involving the county.

County Attorney Stephen Swanson addressed the issue directly at the podium- raising the same question we had emailed him about just hours before.

“I’m curious as to where the ‘Pending Litigation’ comes from, and what that is, seeing as I have to file a report,” said Conty Attorney Swanson.

No Clear Answer from Supervisors

In response during the meeting, Supervisor Chair Stancil told Swanson she would send him information on the alleged “pending litigation.”

Neither Stancil nor Supervisor Hobbs immediately responded to a WHO 13 email on Tuesday night requesting clarification on the matter.