Former area family welfare coordinator accused of double-dipping on income

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

An Iowa Auditor’s Office report is accusing a former area child and family welfare programs coordinator of collecting almost $20,000 in salary from those programs while working for other employers.

The report, issued by Auditor of State Rob Sand’s office last week, said that Jenna Haglund, the former coordinator for the FMC and P4C Decat programs, is linked to a total of $26,343 in “improper disbursements” while she was involved with the programs from September 2017 to the end of February 2019, although she repaid more than $2,000 of that.

The FMC Decat program covers Floyd, Mitchell and Chickasaw counties. The three counties’ initials make up the program’s name, which also stands for Families Making Connections. The P4C — Partners 4 Children — Decat program covers Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Winnebago and Worth counties.

Decat is short for decategorization, which refers to the state’s effort, begun in 1987, to change the previous way of providing services to children and families that was based on different categories of funding sources and program goals, to one that was more community-based and family-centered and helped avoid unnecessary foster care placements.

The state audit was requested by Floyd County, which serves as the employer for the area Decat coordinator and acts as fiscal agent for both programs, receiving state and other funds and paying payroll and other expenses and providing accounting functions.

A statement by the Iowa Auditor’s Office said that copies of its report have been filed with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, the Division of Criminal Investigation, the Floyd County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Floyd County Attorney Rachel Ginbey said Monday that her office has received the report but had not yet received the investigative materials.

“There is an open investigation within my office, which prevents me from making further comments,” Ginbey told the Press. She confirmed that at this point no charges have been filed regarding the matter.

When contacted by the Press Monday, Haglund said she had been advised by her attorney to not discuss the report.

The state report says that Haglund submitted her resignation as Decat coordinator on Feb. 3, 2019, with the intention of Feb. 22 being her last day of employment.

“On Feb. 14, 2019, the Floyd County auditor received a phone call from the store director of the Charles City Hy-Vee regarding the county’s Hy-Vee credit card account which had a balance due in excess of $1,000,” the audit report said. The credit card had been in Haglund’s possession, the report said.

“Because of the concerns identified with the Hy-Vee credit card account, Ms. Haglund’s last day of employment was Feb. 15, 2019. On March 7, 2019, the Floyd County auditor contacted the Office of Auditor of State regarding these concerns,” the report said.

County Auditor Gloria Carr told the Press Monday that she didn’t have any comments on the investigation at this time.

The state report said Haglund was hired to begin as Decat coordinator on Sept. 5, 2017, to work 40 hours per week at a salary of $42,000. She had an office in Charles City for the FMC program and in Mason City for the P4C program.

When she was hired, Haglund also had another part-time position with a local non-profit organization that provides adoption, mental health and mediation counseling services. She was allowed by the Iowa Department of Human Services to keep the part-time job with the stipulation that she work on it outside her Decat hours and that clients did not overlap.

According to the audit report, Haglund received a total of $22,001 in pay and benefits from the Decat programs while allegedly actually working for other employers, received $1,111 in pay and benefits for unrecorded leave time, $875 in improper mileage expenses, and $2,356 from improper credit card purchases, for the total of $26,343.

The benefits were the employer’s share of FICA and IPERS contributions and were not direct pay to Haglund. Total direct pay the report says was improperly paid was listed as $19,787.

The report also says Haglund repaid some of the improper credit card purchases and Hy-Vee waived some of the finance fees, making the total of “improper disbursements identified” as $23,987.

The report said it compared Haglund’s regular Decat programs work hours with appointment records from the part-time job.

“Based on our comparison, we identified 269 days which included overlapped time between Ms. Haglund’s expected work day for the Decat program and the appointments and classes she held for the non-profit organization. The time overlapped per day ranged from 30 minutes to 7 hours and 15 minutes and totaled 933 hours,” the report said.

As part of the investigation, the state Auditor’s Office interviewed Haglund.

“During our interview with Ms. Haglund, we asked if she met with clients from the non-profit organization between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. She confirmed she did meet with clients during that period. She also reported she was efficient and able to complete her Decat duties while also meeting with clients from the non-profit organization,” the report said.

“As a result, Ms. Haglund was being paid by both Decat and the non-profit organization for the same blocks of time,” it said.

Haglund also had a part-time position as a “lecturer in social work” at Wartburg College in Waverly during this time, although the report does not name the college.

It said it identified 64 hours that may have overlapped between when she was being paid by the college and when she was being paid as the Decat coordinator.

And the report said it identified 47 hours when Haglund was recorded as working while on vacation or on weekends or taking unreported leave where she had been paid but should not have been. It identified $1,111 in pay and benefits for these hours.

The report said that Haglund was to be reimbursed for mileage while doing her job, but that reimbursement was not to include travel between the offices in Charles City and Mason City.

The audit identified 35 alleged trips between the two offices for which she was paid $875.

Regarding the use of the credit card that initiated the investigation, the report identified $2,356 in purchases allegedly made by Haglund that were not for the Decat program, including $796 in grocery items and $1,453 in gift cards and fees.

The report said that $2,035 of that was repaid by Haglund, including more than $1,000 at the end of February 2019 after she was no longer coordinator, and some of the finance fees were waived by Hy-Vee.

As a result of the investigation, the Auditor’s Office made recommendations for managing the programs in the future, including requiring timesheets and having those timesheets reviewed by a person who is familiar with the employee’s attendance.

In the summer of 2019 Haglund was hired as a social worker with the Charles City School District in a shared position with the Waverly-Shell Rock District. In August she was appointed as the assistant high school cross country coach in Charles City.

The Charles City School District, in a statement issued Monday afternoon, said, “We are aware of the accusations made by the Iowa auditor. Charles City Community Schools and Waverly-Shell Rock have excellent safeguards in place to protect students and resources. The two school districts are in collaboration on next steps.”