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For 21 years, the City of Marion had an Information Systems Committee on its books, a committee with the power to oversee every piece of the city’s technology. Yet, as a Marion Watch investigation reveals, this committee was a ghost.
For 19 consecutive years, its members were unknown, it held no recorded meetings, and it remained perfectly silent as the city’s $935,000 New World software was purchased, implemented, and began to fail—leading to over 20 state audit findings, theft by a city employee, and a fiscal crisis.
Then, just as the full, multi-million dollar “Silent Sabotage” of the city’s finances was being exposed—and months before a new mayoral administration was set to take office—the committee was abruptly and unanimously eliminated.
The official records, when pieced together, paint a deeply suspicious portrait of deliberate, multi-decade neglect that allowed the city’s current IT crisis to take root and fester, all while the designated “watchdog” was kept dormant.
A Committee Created, Then Vanishes (2002-2021)
On March 25, 2002, the Marion City Council established the Information Systems Committee by ordinance. The minutes show no public discussion as to why it was needed.
Then, for the next 19 consecutive years, the committee vanished from public records.
From 2003 to 2021, not a single council summary mentions the committee, its members, or any meetings. This 19-year period of inactivity is highly suspicious because it coincides with every major IT failure and financial red flag the city is now facing.
2008: The $935,000 Purchase
In 2008, under a new Democratic supermajority administration, the city faced a severe financial crisis brought on by the Great Recession. As reported by the Marion Star, expenditures far exceeded revenues for at least four years.
In the fall of 2008, the council approved the purchase of a new accounting software system called “New World” for $935,000. It was installed by July 2009.
The Information Systems Committee, the one body meant to provide oversight on such a purchase, was nowhere to be found.
2011: “A Lack of Fiscal Management”
The software purchase did not fix the city’s problems. In fact, they got worse.
- 2009 Audit: The State Auditor issued 12 findings, including failures in bank reconciliations and training on the new software.
- 2010 Audit: The State Auditor slammed the city again, citing 22 findings (11 of them repeats) and a “lack of fiscal management and reporting.” State Auditor Dave Yost stated, “The city needs to take some action.”
2015: Theft in Utility Billing
In 2010, the long-time Utility Billing supervisor was fired for “not fully embracing the new software,” according to Mayor Schertzer. His replacement, Brenda Nwosu, served until 2015, when she was fired for stealing over $34,000 from the city.
The fact that it took years to discover the theft, and all the issues immediately after implementation are all red flags in the information technology field that the controls were not configured or installed.
For nearly two decades, as the city’s IT and financial controls were collapsing, the council committee responsible for oversight did not exist in any functional capacity.
A Brief Reappearance, Then a Silent Death (2022-2023)
The committee suddenly reappears in the January 1, 2022, organizational minutes, when members are finally named: Rollins (Chair), Meade, and Feliciano.
This is the first time in 20 years members are publicly listed.
On April 11, 2022, the council was officially warned of the ticking time bomb. Auditor Meginness admitted that the New World “bank reconciliation module… is not currently being used,” and Treasurer Reese admitted he was “not trained on the New World system.”
This was the IT committee’s moment to act. Instead, it held no recorded meetings for the entire year.
The final, suspicious act came in 2023. As consultants from Veritas began uncovering the full extent of the “Silent Sabotage”—confirming the software was misconfigured and producing corrupt data—the committee was quietly killed.
- On March 13, 2023, Councilman Ratliff proposed eliminating the committee.
- On April 24, 2023, the council voted 9-0 to eliminate it permanently.
This vote occurred just months before Mayor-elect Collins would take office.
In a move that defies logic, the council eliminated the only committee dedicated to IT oversight at the precise moment the city was entering a multi-million dollar financial crisis caused by IT and financial failures. No public reason was ever given. The “ghost committee” that provided no oversight for 20 years was simply erased from the books. Was this to ensure a new administration could not use it to investigate? This is added to the growing list of highly suspicious activities surrounding the Silent Sabotage!
A System Rotten to the Core: What Veritas Found
The 2023 investigation by consulting firm Veritas proved that the New World software, which had operated for over a decade without oversight, was fundamentally broken.
- Key Module Not Implemented: Veritas confirmed what the Auditor admitted in 2022: the bank reconciliation module was “underutilized” or “has not being fully used.” A November 2023 press release from the Auditor finally confessed it was “not implemented correctly” from the start.
- Misconfigured Settings: Consultant Greg Blate stated “some of the system settings in New World… are not accurate.”
- Data Corruption: Blate demonstrated the severity of this. By changing a single setting—with no financial data change—he created a $137,000 difference in a report total. He also found reports that should have been identical had “differences of upwards of $600,000.”
- Incorrect Automation: The system was found to “automate certain transactions, and it books them into cash for non-cash transactions.”
A Culture of IT Chaos
The lack of software control was matched by a stunning lack of physical and access security.
- IRS System Lock-Out: Auditor Meginness reported she “had previously been locked out of the system” used for filing IRS 1095C forms, contributing to massive penalties.
- “Google Scam”: A fraudulent purchase was made with a city card, which was blamed on a simple “lack of fraud education” rather than a failure of IT security controls.
- The Treasurer in the Server Room: In a move that stunned observers, City Treasurer Ron Reese was placed in a “supply room” that Auditor Meginness confirmed contained the city’s server. Mr. Ratliff noted a security camera was also in the room, monitoring the Treasurer and “all of the city account numbers and information.”
A Call for Accountability: Industry Standards Ignored
The failures in Marion stand in stark contrast to industry-standard IT and financial controls for municipalities. Best practices require strict segregation of duties, ensuring no single person can initiate, approve, and reconcile transactions—a principle violated when the New World system’s automated booking of cash was left unchecked. Effective oversight demands independent monitoring of system access and regular audit log reviews, controls that were demonstrably absent given the “Google scam” and the Auditor’s lockout from the IRS system.
Furthermore, critical IT infrastructure like servers must be physically secured in restricted areas, not housed in an active office with surveillance cameras monitoring sensitive financial work.
The consequences of ignoring these standards are severe and ongoing. The city has already faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS penalties, a $5,941 fine from the pension fund, over $1 million spent for Veritas to recocile one year of financial data, and the loss of taxpayer funds to theft. The failure to properly close the books in 2020 and 2021, as admitted by the Auditor, has created a “ripple effect” of financial uncertainty that persists today.
Most damning is the legacy of the “Landon” administration. Former Auditor Robert Landon left office with $154,399 in findings for recovery issued against him for failing to remit income taxes to the IRS—a direct result of the same lack of reconciliation and internal controls that plagues the city today.
The Information Systems Committee remained silent, the software issues were left unaddressed, and the cycle of failure was allowed to continue, costing the taxpayers of Marion millions in lost funds, penalties, and broken trust.
Marion Watch has begun reaching out to officials and will update with findings.
Works Cited
Master Council Summary Directory:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oD2bpT_LbMYMbrUxq1OtNwB1avNm0yw4
Files:
- 2002 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2003 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2004 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2005 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2006 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2007 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2008 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS_Optimized.pdf
- 2009 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS_Optimized.pdf
- 2010 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2011 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2012 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2013 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2014 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2015 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS_Optimized.pdf
- 2016 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2017 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2018 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS_Optimized.pdf
- 2019 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2020 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 2021 SUMMARIES OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220101 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220110 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220124 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220214 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220228 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220314 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220328 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220411 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220425 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220509 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220516 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS — SPECIAL MEETING.pdf
- 20220523 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS — MEETING CANCELED LACK OF BUSINESS.pdf
- 20220613 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220627 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220711 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220725 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220808 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220822 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220912 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20220926 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221010 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221024 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221114 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221128 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221212 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221219 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20221227 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230313 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230327 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230410 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230424 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230522 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230724 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20230925 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20231009 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf
- 20231023 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.pdf