When Excelsior Estates was audited, no one could have expected the results to come back the way they did. No one that is, except former Mayor/City Administrator Gary Fesenmeyer Sr. who had allegedly been funneling city funds through his two businesses as well as his personal bank accounts over the seven year span he spent in office.
A report came from the Missouri State Auditor’s Office detailing how Fesenmeyer “improperly transferred money and issued checks from city funds to himself and his two businesses, totaling at least $37,496. In addition, $798 in city receipts collected by Fesenmeyer were not deposited and are missing.”
The audit covers the time period from January 1, 2014 through April 30, 2021. Fesenmeyer served as Mayor from April 2004 until December 15, 2019, when he was appointed as the City Administrator. He continued to serve as Administrator until he was terminated April 19, 2021. The board of Excelsior Estates did not appoint a new mayor when Fesenmeyer stepped into his new role, so he performed all duties he had been performing as Mayor as City Administrator. A new mayor was not elected until April 2021. During this time, Fesenmeyer paid himself and his two businesses approximately $306,000 and supporting documentation was missing for approximately $202,000 of those payments.
The audit reads like a novel. One hundred and six pages detailing everything Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick discovered during his audit. It all started in July 2021 when the State Auditor’s Whistleblower Hotline received a complaint about financial handlings and operations in Excelsior Estates. An initial review was conducted in December 2021 and after reviewing those findings the State Auditor’s Office determined an investigation was warranted.
Fesenmeyer owned two businesses, CAD Midwest, Inc. and Visual Sewer Inspection, Inc. (VSI). VSI performed work for the city during the time Fesenmeyer was in office. Fesenmeyer routinely wrote checks to himself and his two businesses. Fesenmeyer, through his business VSI “improperly billed the city $14,390 for work he did not perform. When questioned about a particular invoice the during a recorded interview, Fesenmeyer indicated, ‘I probably owe that back to the city.’”
The city repeatedly violated the Missouri Clean Water Law despite VSI billing the city approximately $269,000 for sewer services. In fact, the city did not obtain an annual audit of its sewer system at all in 2018, 2019, 2021 or 2022 as required by state law.
The audit uncovered several violations of the state’s Sunshine Law as well. The Sunshine Law requires regulation of government agencies’ meetings and records. A review of meeting minutes found minutes for 24 meetings were either missing or ineligible and 17 of 69 minutes reviewed were not signed nor did they indicate who prepared them. In addition, the minutes for 36 of the 69 reviewed indicated they were prepared by Fesenmeyer but were not signed. These meetings included discussions about hiring Fesenmeyer’s businesses and payment they would be receiving.
The audit found the city storing some city records in the bed of a pickup truck with a camper shell on top. The pictures below were taken during an October 2022 visit. City officials said this was “the only storage available” at the time Fesenmeyer turned over records.
The poor recording, receipting, and storage of important documents is just one of the ways Fesenmeyer was able to get away with this for so long. The audit indicates employees were not using timesheets to keep track of time worked but were being paid. People were signing off on checks without asking questions. Fesenmeyer also made unauthorized transfers of funds through multiple bank accounts which allowed improper disbursements to occur and not be detected commingling city funds with his personal funds. There was a clear lack of oversight.
During recorded interviews some Board members did express concerns regarding payments, but it was too little too late. In fact, due to Fesenmeyer going unchecked by the Board the city incurred $500 in overdraft and maintenance charges in the general bank account from July 2019 through April 2021. Shortly before Fesenmeyer was terminated the city’s general bank account balance was $87.
Mandy Rivera served as part-time Billing Clerk from February 2015 to April 2021. Joyce Snider served as a part-time City Clerk from May 5, 2017, to December 3, 2020. Fesenmeyer and the Billing/City Clerks were primarily responsible for city financial accounting and functions and city records from January 2014 to April 2021.
In May 2021, after being terminated, Fesenmeyer sent the city a letter in which he indicated that some of the transfers made were a “Microsoft hack”. The audit goes on to say, “It is unclear how an outside ‘hack’ would have resulted in funds transferred between city accounts and Fesenmeyer’s personal savings account rather than the alleged hacker’s account.”
You can read the audit in its entirety here. This is an ongoing story as no charges have been filed at this time. Stay tuned to the Citizen for more updates.
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