The City of Covington announced in a statement yesterday that a city employee had resigned after an internal investigation revealed “irregular” credit card purchases were made.
The Covington Board of Commissioners held a special meeting Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. before their regularly scheduled legislative meeting. However, prior to the legislative meeting, Covington Mayor Joe Meyer announced “no action” was taken during the special executive session.
The legislative meeting concluded without a hitch. At the end of the meeting, Meyer spoke on the issue of “irregular credit card purchases.”
Meyer said the issue was uncovered by a city employee and was immediately raised through the chain of command. The city manager Ken Smith then initiated an investigation. When the investigation yielded enough conclusive evidence, the employee was confronted. She promptly resigned on the spot.
“Unfortunately, our hands are tied on the details because of the ongoing investigation by law enforcement,” Meyer said. “There’s very much that we simply do not know at this stage and it would not be wise or appropriate to make any comments on the specifics.”
In 2013, Covington Finance Director Bob Due stole $793,000 from the city over 12 years. Due pleaded guilty in March 2014 to one count of abuse of the public trust in excess of $100,000, one count of unlawful access to a computer, one count of theft by unlawful taking, and twelve counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument.
“One of my principal goals as a candidate many years ago was to restore the public trust. We have been working hard to restore and maintain that trust through a whole variety of actions that we collectively have taken,” Meyer said. “I value public trust as a sacred responsibility of all of us. This situation is a major setback. The public is less likely to believe us when employees steal taxpayer dollars, no matter how small.”
Meyer described the employee’s actions as appalling.
“From the perspective of this entire Board of Commissioners, this will not be tolerated. After the investigation, and we know the full facts, and it may take months, he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as the circumstances dictate,” Meyer said. “We will aggressively seek to recoup any losses that occurred. Unfortunately, this is something that we are also angry about. All the work we as a body have had so many honest, hard working employees of the city have put in for the last several years has been wiped away through an act that words fail to describe. It is appalling.”
