MARK KIESLING: Task force now target of missing cash probe

Missing money continues to be a concern for the Lake County Sheriff's Department, which this month was the target of a troubling audit by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

The latest problem is within the sheriff's Environmental Task Force, which was shut down in 2008 and which now allegedly cannot account for more than $100,000.

The Lake County Solid Waste Management District gave the task force about $159,000, and sources within the department now say $110,000 of that amount cannot be accounted for.

Former Sheriff Roy Dominguez said some of the money was allocated to build a fence around a dump site near Lowell, and records bear out the claim that some $50,000 was used by the task force to assist in construction of the protective fence.

Of the remaining $110,000, said one sheriff's department source, "no one can account for it."

The source said both solid waste district Executive Director Jeff Langbehn and the district's attorney, Cliff Duggan, have been to visit current Sheriff John Buncich looking for a little help locating the cash.

It's not like it's a major blow to the district, which has a $5.7 million annual budget -- the largest in the state -- and which pays Langbehn more than $100,000, the top salary for an Indiana waste district director.

But still, you know what they say: Watch the $100,000 and the $5.7 million will take care of itself.

Also unaccounted for is $36,402 out of a miscellaneous revenue fund, missing from about $183,225 in that fund. Although the rest is accounted for, that's still a decent amount of cash to have vanished.

It could well be there somewhere among the paperwork. I've seen the paperwork and can't pick it out, although I will be the first to admit accounting is not my strong suit.

Dominguez said a couple weeks ago when I asked him about the money allegedly missing that "the State Board of Accounts audits us every year and no one has brought to my attention any money missing."

It could be some sort of oversight, some sort of bookkeeping mistake.

But it comes on the heels of State Board of Accounts reports on what might amount to fraudulent accounting in the sheriff's commissary fund and problems with the Lake County Drug Free Alliance.

Lake County Commissioner Fran DuPey, by the way, was named in the alliance report only because she was president of the Board of Commissioners.

She's asked that it be duly noted that she was the only one of the three commissioners to vote against funding the alliance, which later was shut down because of questionable expenditures.

Where will this all end? Don't know yet, but there's said to be more to come.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.