State audit: Two Muncie parks employees took more than $20K
A state audit of Muncie’s parks department shows two employees spent years diverting more than $20,000 in fees from the city to their own pockets. As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, the city says both have been fired.
Audio Transcript
Two former parks employees were named in the State Board of Accounts investigation – program director George Foley, Jr., and assistant Nikki Eckerson.
The investigation audit covered the years 2020-2024.
The investigation says Foley did not deposit $14,975 in events fees, rental fees, and the like intended for the city. It shows Foley took multiple checks written to the city and either deposited them into his own bank accounts or cashed them himself. For others, he had vendors write checks directly to Tailored Technology, LLC, which he owns.
According to the investigation, Eckerson did not deposit $6,496.10 intended for the city. In her job, she took cash payments for cabin and shelter rentals at many of the city parks and entered it into city software as zeros or changed the fee in the system to zeros.
The State Board of Accounts requests that Foley and Eckerson reimburse the city for that money and reimburse the state for the cost of the special investigation. Between the two of them, that totals $42,924.27.
The audit was forwarded to the Indiana Attorney General and Delaware County’s prosecutor for any possible charges.
Read More: Muncie City Council adopts ethics code for city employees and elected officials
The city of Muncie issued a statement on the investigation last week, before the audit was publicly available. It said Foley was fired in December 2024 and Eckerson was fired recently.
The statement also said, “steps have been taken to strengthen oversight, improve financial tracking procedures, and ensure greater accountability within the department.”
The audit also says Foley and Eckerson were solely responsible for various parts of the department, without internal controls and double-checks, which allowed their behavior to go on for so long.
The state report says the investigation was triggered in 2022 after the city saw what the report calls a “suspicious invoice” linked to Foley. That was deemed a “isolated unintentional incident.” At that time, Muncie publicly acknowledged the investigation, but said the two employees would keep their jobs.
In addition to Foley and Eckerson, the audit shows the city parks office wasn’t conforming to several state laws, including making timely deposits of large payments and letting employees use parks facilities without fees and without specific rules about when that is allowed.
This isn’t the first time Muncie has made headlines for employee behavior. A years-long FBI investigation into Muncie City Hall found, among other crimes, payments made for fake housing demolitions sent to a company partially owned by the then-city building commissioner. Several officials were charged and convicted of federal crimes, including the sitting mayor.
Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host. Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.
