MADISON COUNTY, Iowa — Madison County leaders are taking the first steps to fill the hole left by the arrest of county treasurer Amanda DeVos.

She’s charged with felonious misconduct in office, tampering with records, fraudulent practice in the third degree, and third-degree theft. Prosecutors say she falsified county records to show she paid vehicle registration fees when she had not. DeVos’ attorney filed paperwork Wednesday waiving her preliminary hearing in court.

County leaders formally relieved DeVos of her duties as county treasurer on Wednesday and the Madison County Board of Supervisors then appointed Kylee Barber as acting treasurer. Barber already serves as the county’s first deputy treasurer.    

Last week, a representative from the city of Winterset confirmed that the city had erroneously received more than a quarter of a million dollars in Tax Increment Financing Funds. The money was supposed to go to other municipalities in the county.

At Wednesday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting, an angry crowd voiced their frustrations to county leaders — in part over their inability to supervise DeVos’ work.

The board is divided over whether it did all it could in that regard. Board chair Heather Stancil says she didn’t realize there was a problem until it was too late, and Supervisor Diane Fitch disagrees.

“I found out about the treasurer when it was announced. No one had any idea this was going on,”
said Stancil.

Fitch said, “When we would bring up that this wasn’t working right we would go (to Devos) and say ‘can we help you? Can we bring somebody in?’ A board member would beat everybody else up and protect the treasurer. We were just trying to be fair and honest and (shrugs). Which board member was that? Supervisor Stancil.”

“It is definitely a black eye on our county and I’m hoping we can find out exactly what happened so we can prevent it from ever happening again,” said Stancil.

DeVos does not face any charges connected to misappropriated county funds.