| Niekamp fails to get approval for forensic audit of Quincy School District |
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Former School Board president Tom Dickerson reads a letter from Daniel Bastean addressed to members of the School Board and selected members of the media, as well as other area organizations, that alleges financial misconduct during a Quincy School Board meeting at Baldwin School in this file photo. (H-W Photo/Philip Carlson)
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Published: 7/2/2009 | Updated: 7/10/2009
Quincy School Board President Melvin “Bud” Niekamp failed in his call for the board to approve a forensic audit during a special meeting board meeting Thursday.
Niekamp made a motion to have a multiyear forensic audit of the Quincy School District’s finances done, but the motion died for lack of a second.
Niekamp previously had said he wanted an audit, based on research done by Daniel Bastean, who has written more than 100 letters to board members and others detailing what he believes to be accounting errors.
Bastean, who operates a rock drill at Central Stone in Quincy, says he taught himself government auditing standards. He told The Herald-Whig earlier this week that the district doesn’t “know where their money’s at.”
During Thursday’s meeting, board member Curtis Lovelace asked Niekamp to explain why he believes a forensic audit is necessary. Niekamp said he has received an estimated 175 or more letters from a citizen, and Lovelace asked “are those letters from Daniel Bastean?”
Niekamp declined to say who sent the letters.
“Well, if they are the same letters I have received, then they are from Daniel Bastean,” Lovelace said.
Niekamp responded, “You said that, not me.”
After Niekamp’s motion for a forensic audit failed to receive a second, he said, “I didn’t figure I’d get one.”
He then made a motion for the board to form an ad hoc committee to explore the need to have a forensic audit done. That motion also was not seconded. Niekamp said he would name his own committee at a later date.
Board member Tom Dickerson read a letter that he said was written to the school district and The Herald-Whig by Bastean to “give you the type of credentials of the man who wants this forensic audit.”
Dickerson said that Bastean wrote that Superintendent Lonny Lemon was an “unethical and immoral liar,” a “disgrace to the school district” and a “despicable human being.”
Niekamp responded that he asked Bastean not to come to Thursday’s special meeting and read his letter, and he chastised Dickerson for doing so.
“I’m sure that we’ve all written something that we regretted the next morning,” Niekamp said.
Niekamp said he would name his own ad hoc panel to explore the need for an audit, with the members to be announced later.
— hwagner@whig.com/221-3374
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