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Indiana State Board of Accounts examination reports B29903 (FY2006), B32116 (FY2007), B39135 (FY2010), read whole at in.gov/sboa; report B37402 proven by citation within B39135
The State Board of Accounts examined this town's books through the era, and its verdict on the records themselves never varied. For fiscal 2006 (report B29903, 26 April 2007; Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Gridley; Council President Dorothy Snyder, 1 January to 31 December 2006), the report carries a disclaimer of opinion: "Financial records presented for examination were incomplete and not reflective of the activity of the Town's funds." The findings, in the report's own figures: no bank reconciliations performed for 2006, the records showing a balance $74,383.15 above the adjusted bank balance before identified errors that included an unposted $100,000 loan repayment from 2005 and an unreceipted $28,642.15 deposit of 15 November 2006, later identified as town auction proceeds; no annual report presented; General Fund appropriations overdrawn $37,290 and the Rainy Day Fund $63,754, "the direct result of large amounts of legal fees" — legal invoices paid in 2006 totaled $159,867 against $80,611 appropriated; six funds' cash balances overdrawn; of 43 checks issued in October 2006, 21 lacked any supporting documentation; payroll records incomplete and W-2s understated; no capital asset records; the Clerk-Treasurer's $15,000 official bond "was cancelled by the insurance company… effective April 22, 2007"; internal controls "has weaknesses and cannot be relied upon"; and at 31 March 2007 an adjusted record balance of $62,730 against known unpaid claims of $66,410 — "it appears that the Town of Roseland may not have funds available to meet its cost of operations." The report's Note 7 records numerous lawsuits pending against the town, one tentative settlement totaling $89,048 and another of $7,500.
The 2007 report (B32116, 31 March 2008) reads the same, at larger figures. Its officials schedule closes Gridley's tenure (to 31 December 2007) and opens Susan Hammons's (from 1 January 2008), with Shields president in 2007 and Elizabeth McCombs in 2008. Again a disclaimer, on the same ground. The records showed a balance $42,877 above adjusted bank balances; two receipt postings totaling $81,113 to the Major Moves Fund "were in error. No such funds were ever received"; General Fund appropriations stood overdrawn $202,376, of which $199,322 "was charged to nonappropriated expenditures which mostly represent legal fees and court ordered or negotiated settlements"; many claims paid by the Clerk-Treasurer in 2007 were not approved by the Council; of 25 checks over $3,000 reviewed, 14 had no invoice or documentation; and at 29 February 2008 the town's bank balances totaled $32,802.26 against unpaid claims of $44,262 — "The Town does not have sufficient cash on hand at March 1, 2008, to pay its outstanding bills." A fourth report, B37402, is proven to exist by B39135's repeated citations of it as the immediately prior report, covering the period between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2010; its own text was never returned by any search run, and its period, schedule, and findings are therefore not reported — the citation is the whole of its record here (gap G-L90-2). No report for fiscal 2004–2005 was located, though B29903's internal references prove a prior report exists; no separate fiscal 2008, 2009, or 2011 report was located either.
The era's last report (B39135, fiscal 2010, 28 July 2011) closes the course — and leaves the era's most consequential single instrument. Clerk-Treasurer Susan J. Hammons; Council President Elizabeth J. McCombs (2010–2011). The opinion is again a disclaimer: "The Town did not properly maintain accounting records." The capital asset ledger "has no entries since 2003"; the town's 2010 budget was not approved by the Department of Local Government Finance (the last approved budgets were mostly for 2009); the General Fund exceeded 2010 appropriations by $131,924; tax distributions were posted to wrong funds, with corrections directed; and the report states the bond course whole: "Town Council Ordinance 11-2008 authorized the issuance of bonds for the purpose of providing funds for the payment of judgments entered against the Town" — the proceeds were deposited in the General Fund rather than the separate Judgment Bond Fund the ordinance required, and 2010 bond interest of $5,625 plus the January 2011 payment of $27,812.50 were paid from the General Fund. The reports do not name which judgments the 2008 bonds paid, and no carrier read connects a specific judgment to the issue; none is asserted. The town that could not reconcile its bank accounts borrowed, by ordinance, to pay the judgments its quarrels had produced — that is the era's financial course, in the state's own words, and it needs no adjective from this build.