During the July 7 county commission meeting, Collector Pat Schwent said the auditors have consistently docked the collector’s office for County Clerk Kim Gibbs not creating and reviewing the property tax adjustment books.

“As you guys know, that all down through the years the auditors have gone after the property taxes, and that property tax system included the clerk, the assessor and the collector,” Schwent said.

She presented a timeline that the three offices, of which she claimed the collector’s office is the “low guy on the totem pole,” should be following regarding the property tax system. She said the outline is currently not being followed in Crawford County.

Taking the advice of the auditor, Schwent said that the commissioners needed to be involved with the tax book adjustments.

Once the tax book was created, Assessor Kelly Vestal sent it to Schwent, who presented the commissioners with a recent example of a tax adjustment.

“The first page is what comes over to me on the copier. The second page is what Kelly (Vestal) gives, by state statute, to the taxpayer to bring to my office, so we can process it. The third is the result,” Schwent said.

The alleged issue is that County Clerk Kim Gibbs is not reviewing the adjustments.

According to Schwent, in her 16 years in office, 14 county collectors within Missouri have been removed from office because their clerk didn’t review the documents, and the collector or collector’s deputy were stealing from taxpayers.

“So it’s very important to me, as my integrity and how I feel like this office ought to be run and stuff, and so therefore the state auditor said give it to (the commissioners), and it’s (their) responsibility to make sure whomever is supposed to get it done, not me,” Schwent said. “It is your responsibility to see and protect those books. Once those books are done, they’re your books, they’re not my books, they’re not Kelly’s books, they belong to the county.”

Gibbs claimed she knows what she has to do now, but before, her clerk’s association never instructed her on how to do the books.

“I can’t do something that I don’t know how to do,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs added that she has started the process, but Schwent said she hasn’t been given the correct documents yet to start her books.

“This is the distribution of the money monthly. This has nothing got nothing to do…with this,” Schwent said.

Gibbs said that when Schwent gives her the documents she needs, she will take them to her clerk’s association and ask them what she needs to do.

Vestal claimed that former clerk John Martin, when he held the position, decided he didn’t want to create the tax adjustment book.

Black said that’s why Gibbs had no knowledge of creating the books when she came into her position.

Vestal said that once she turns over the assessment book in July, by state statute, it is out of her hands.

Before she took the county clerk position, Schwent claimed she told Gibbs about starting the books on March 1 after the previous books were closed.

“You start with the book, and you do the adding and subtracting all the way around, so whenever I create the book in October, and everything, that’s where we’re starting on the tax season,” Schwent said. “It goes all the way through until we end it in February, and then it starts all over again.”

Schwent added that her office uses DEVNET, which is a check and balance for them. If someone goes into her office, voids a payment and pockets the money, then they would know within 24 hours.

“My whole point of this is I’ve got all this in place, and I’ve done all this, but I still get written up for it because the simple fact that other people aren’t doing their job, okay, and I would like for that to stop,” Schwent said.