Still footing the bill for Nixon

Audit: Governor still spending money from other departments

In this Feb. 12, 2015 file photo, Gov. Jay Nixon addresses members of the media following the annual Missouri Press Association luncheon at the governor's mansion.
In this Feb. 12, 2015 file photo, Gov. Jay Nixon addresses members of the media following the annual Missouri Press Association luncheon at the governor's mansion.

Gov. Jay Nixon's office and Mansion operations continue to spend money lawmakers budgeted for other state offices and agencies, the state auditor's office said Wednesday.

"The records are there that show the money for expenses that we think were incurred by the governor's office were paid by Corrections, Agriculture, Economic Development and so on," Deputy Auditor Harry Otto said. "And it continues, even after some legislation was enacted which tried to deal with that (complaint) from the prior audit."

The new audit covered governor's office operations from July 1, 2011-June 30, 2014.

It said 14 different state agencies paid for all, or part, of the salaries and travel costs for six employees.

While it's possible to make a case that agencies should pay the costs of a governor's office employee whose work benefits that agency, Otto said, "To take the National Governors Association dues and the Southern Governors Association dues and have those paid by someone other than the governor's office, I don't see how you can make that case."

During that period, Otto said, lawmakers budgeted about $6.6 million for governor's office and Mansion operations.

But, because of the $1.9 million in expenses paid by other agencies, he said, "We think it's closer to $8.5 million that has been spent. ... That's about 29 percent over the appropriated amounts.

"It's not minor. It's significant. And it's more significant now than in prior administrations."

And, Otto noted, the governor's office in the 2013-14 business year spent more than it had available, and had to use funds from the 2014-15 budget to pay some bills.

"This is a new finding this time," he explained. "Even though the governor has the flexibility, authority, power to shift these dollars around, he still ran short of money in one year and couldn't pay the bills.

"He had to wait until July, when the new money for the new (budget) year came in, to pay for a ($152,000) bill from the old year."

The governor's office responded, in the audit report: "The office accounts for its operational costs in a manner that properly reflects the nature of the work that it performs."

As with other agencies studied in recent years, including Attorney General Chris Koster's office earlier this year, the auditors said Nixon gave better raises to a half dozen of his employees than most state employees received.

"These increases totaled approximately $42,000 annually and provided annual increases ranging from 5 to 21 percent to these six employees," the report said.

The deputy chief of staff said those raises were made because of "changes in job responsibilities."

But - as they have done in other reports - the auditor's staff said Nixon's personnel could not provide documentation of those changes.

Otto said, even though the office is small, with about 30 employees, it should have a written policy manual and a formal job performance appraisal procedure.

And as with other audits, the report criticized governor's office employees' travel costs, noting they didn't cancel "a hotel reservation, and paid for a reservation that wasn't used. It's not a big dollar amount, but it's no way to operate," Otto said. "They're not always shopping for the best room deal, sometimes waiting too late to make a reservation, when there aren't any more rooms available at the government rate, and making a plane reservation too close to the departure time," when ticket prices are higher.

There's no documentation to show when those arrangements were made at the last minute, he said.

Auditors were concerned the Mansion hasn't paid its true costs when groups use the official residence for events, and the billing and receiving duties should be assigned to different employees with supervisory reviews made that are not done now.

The audit questioned a November 2012 staff retreat at Montauk State Park, about 100 miles from the Capitol, and stated the office didn't do enough to reduce the costs or get better rates.

The audit also questioned an August 2011 one-day float trip, saying the office "maintained no documentation supporting the business purpose of the trip," which was said to be promoting Missouri's tourism.

The audit covered a period when current auditor John Watson served as Nixon's chief of staff, and Watson recused himself from the audit process and the report.

Otto said the auditor's report looked at financial operations, like all other audits, and wasn't written to make political points.