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Last updated on Monday, May 14, 2018
(YORKTOWN) - The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Yorktown clerk-treasurer should lose her job, saying she neglected the town’s financial records “for forty-eight consecutive months.”
Prosecutors filed a complaint against clerk treasurer Beth Neff in July 2017 for neglecting to perform several of her official statutory duties.
In a 3-0 decision, the appeals panel overturned a 2017 ruling by Delaware Circuit Court 1 Judge Marianne Vorhees that Neff could remain in office.
In Friday's ruling, the appeals court directed Vorhees to conduct "proceedings consistent with this decision."
"The removal statute does not require a town's clerk-treasurer to refuse or neglect to perform each and every duty before removal from office is warranted," read the opinion.
Neff's attorney Jeff Heinzmann plans to file a petition to transfer this case to the Indiana Supreme Court to appeal the decision.
Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold had earlier filed a complaint accusing Neff of "misfeasance and nonfeasance."
The state's lawsuit alleged Neff has refused, on numerous occasions, to perform her duties as clerk-treasurer including balancing the town's financial books.
Prosecutors argued Neff also failed to follow the direction of the Indiana State Board of Accounts and, despite being cited in audits, continued to post more than $3 million worth of errors in recent years.
Monthly water and sewer bond interest transfers have not been recorded in a timely manner, which amounted to $127,472.35 in errors to date that have not been corrected on the town's records, according to the lawsuit.
The Town of Yorktown has had to hire an independent firm and pay almost $70,000 to do the work Neff was elected to do.
Neff has been Yorktown's clerk-treasurer since 2007.
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