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2008–2010 — the audit report of 4 November 2010
The finding: The State Board of Accounts' audit of the School City of Mishawaka for 1 July 2008 through 30 June 2010 examined the district's contract with Bonham & Associates, LLC (RJ Bonham & Associates) and printed its objection under the heading "Lobbying Expenditures." The district had paid the firm $15,000 in 2008-09 and $16,007 in 2009-10 out of its General Fund, under a contract whose stated services included to "build and/or participate in coalitions with other school corporations or other allies and associations to fight or support legislation…" and to "work with local legislators to introduce legislation…" — and the school board's minutes of 8 December 2009 recommended renewing the agreement. The auditors' claim, printed in the report: the contract violated the Board of Accounts' guideline as an expenditure for a political purpose.
The defense, in the same document: The audit prints the district's answer whole, as an appendix letter dated 3 November 2010 from School Corporation Attorney Michael A. Trippel. The hiring, Trippel wrote, "is not done for any political purpose or any specific political contribution to a candidate or political committee"; Bonham served as a consultant "to inform and guide School City with respect to pending legislation and assist in dialogue with other school corporations and or legislators"; and employing consultants, he argued, is "a specific statutory power granted to school corporations in the Indiana Code."
The stakes, as the audit states them: The report closes the item by quoting the guideline the district was measured against: "Expenditures for political purposes, contributions to political campaigns, directly or indirectly, which are not authorized by statute may be the personal obligation of the responsible official or employee." The officials of record in the audit's own schedule: Treasurer Randy J. Squadroni; Superintendent R. Steven Mills (to 28 April 2010), succeeded in the interim by Daniel R. Towner; Board President Larry E. Stillson.
The disposition — a named gap:The fight is therefore printed open, with its settler named: the School City's board minutes and the State Board of Accounts' subsequent audit cycle for the district.
The three tests, printed working: (1) Documented — yes, in an official finding of the state's auditor, with the contract language quoted. (2) Genuinely contested — yes: the guideline claim and the corporation attorney's statutory-power rebuttal are both in the record, unreconciled. (3) City-significant — at district size: it put $31,007 of public money and a personal-liability warning on the record of the city's school corporation, the largest public body seated wholly in Mishawaka. It passes, at its size — a real money fight, in a small room.
Sources:
- Indiana State Board of Accounts, Audit Report of the School City of Mishawaka, 1 July 2008–30 June 2010 (in.gov/sboa, report B38176), "Audit Results and Comments — Lobbying Expenditures," pp. 47–48, with the Trippel letter of 3 November 2010 and the Schedule of Officials.