**UPDATE** DAN ANDREWS COMPLAINT AFFIDAVIT

I have obtained a copy of the complaint affidavit from the investigation into financial misappropriations by Sebring City Councilman Dan Andrews. The early details are covered in my earlier blog from today.

Mr. Andrews was hired as the Executive Director of the Sebring Chamber of Commerce in March 2005. His annual salary was set at $38,000 including his health insurance of $5,862 with a payroll deduction available for family coverage. After Mr. Andrew's employment agreement was signed, his salary was increased to $50,000 in October 2005.

The Sebring Chamber employed Toni Kopp as bookkeeper, her employment began prior to the arrival of Mr. Andrews. Ms. Kopp was terminated in February 2006. During Ms. Kopp's time at the Chamber with Mr. Andrews, she had issues with Mr. Andrew's Chamber credit card charges. The complaint affidavit states that, "Around Christmas 2005, Dan bought jewelry for his wife and charged it to the Chamber credit card." That purchase appeared on the January 2006 statement and when Ms. Kopp informed Mr. Andrews that he would have to reimburse the Chamber, the report states that Ms. Kopp was terminated a short time after.

The affidavit further states that according to Chamber bylaws require and annual audit or review of the financial statements. The last audit was conducted in May 2005 and was performed by Wicks, Brown, Williams & Co. The next review or audit would have been due for the fiscal year 2005 to be completed in 2006. Due to the termination of Ms. Kopp, no further reviews or audits of the financial statements were conducted or have been conducted since.

Mr. Andrews received Board approval to hire NCT Group to handle accounts payable, cut checks, and do basic accounting support work. Of specific interest here is that, prior to his employment with the Chamber, Mr. Andrews worked for a local CPA firm, Carlson Accounting, owned by newly elected County Commissioner Jeff Carlson. Bill Benton of NCT Group was assigned to handle the Chamber's account with NCT Group. According to the affidavit, "NCT Group was never able to fully complete the accounting work for the Chamber since they never received complete information from Andrews."

NCT Group made numerous requests beginning in September 2006 to Mr. Andrews for records to allow NCT Group to help in "catching up" the records. Apparently, Mr. Andrews' excuse for failing to provide the financial statements to NCT Group was that he was "catching up" on the paperwork. There was a letter to the Board that was dropped off at the Chamber offices by NCT Group requesting a discussion about the records. The affidavit states that the letter, "never made it to the Board." This was in October 2007, now fast forward to January 21, 2008, NCT Group sent a letter directly to Board Members and then receives a response from the Board.

Since March 2005, Mr. Andrews charged $4,106.85 to the Chamber's credit cards for meals at restaurants and asked for additional reimbursement for other meals. Mr. Andrews regularly received mileage reimbursement checks from the Chamber, but still saw fit to use the Chamber credit card for gas, car washes, and other service to his vehicle. The total for those purchases are shown in the affidavit as totaling $1,908.45, which has not been reimbursed to the Chamber. Mr. Andrews' assistant and current Interim Executive Director, Sarah Pallone states that she, "had often ridden with Andrews for business meetings and had never observed a mileage log nor Andrews recording mileage on the trips." Mr. Andrews was asked about the gas charges on the credit cards, which totaled substantially higher than $1,900, Mr. Andrews made the claim that the charges incurred during business trips in which he rode with others. Shortly after offering that explanation, Mr. Andrews reimbursed the Chamber which included the gas charged to the company credit card as well as cell phone charges for his wife. But there are additional charges not reimbursed by Mr. Andrews including, Beall's Department Store on 03/15/06 for $137.38 and South Florida Community College (SFCC) Box Office on 04/12/06 for $460.

The Sebring Chamber sponsored an event called "The Key Leader Reception". This event was held at the home of Mr. Andrews. There was never any approval given by the Board for any charges to be made or paid for using Chamber funds for this event. However, Mr. Andrews appears to have made as many as four charges for this event. Those four charges appear to be for home improvements. The total of these charges are $1,252.88, again NO CHARGES were approved by the Board related to the Key Leader event. But this is where things get interesting, the Key Leader event was held November 2006, one of the above mentioned transactions was to Robbins Nursery for the amount of $325.40. Now it's time to cue the dramatic music....the Robbins Nursery transaction was not until March 2007!! Nearly 4 months after the Key Leader event. And yes, the affidavit states, "the plants were installed at Andrews' home on Lakeview Drive."

Now for you golfers out there, we have something just for you. Around November 2007, Mr. Andrews purchased a set of Mazzuno irons fro GolfUSA in Sebring. The irons, while nice, are not the type of clubs that the staff at GolfUSA would recommend be used by a novice golfer or be given away as a raffle gift. The total of the set of irons was $625.91. The clerk at GolfUSA remembers the transaction because, ready for this, Mr. Andrews was accompanied into the shop by Jeff Carlson! The two fellas spent quite some time trying our various golf clubs. The Chamber was holding a golf tournament around this time and Mr. Andrews claimed that the clubs were purchased as a raffle gift. However, no such clubs were given away during the raffle. During a board meeting on February 22, 2008, Mr. Andrews was asked to explain certain discrepancies. He claimed that the golf clubs were door prizes and he denied the clubs were his and said that he would, "find them". Man, I have lost some things in the past, but never a set of golf clubs!

The affidavit goes on to cover a diversion of funds from a scholarship that had been in place for some time. Without getting into this portion too deeply, Mr. Andrews continually reported the balance of the scholarship to be near the $75,000 level. However, there appears to have been nearly $65,000 of transfers out of the scholarship fund, without the primary contributor to the scholarship's permission or the permission of the Board. The funds transferred out were moved to the operating account of the Chamber, along with deposits totaling $12,100. At the February 22, 2008 board meeting, Mr. Andrews was asked about the Scholarship account. He stated that he "borrowed the money for operating cash". But he failed to show the correct account balance for the scholarship account.

There is also detailed information regarding checks being writing for mileage reimbursements, even after records indicate reimbursement had already happened. Undeposited membership dues were found in the Chamber's storage unit, along with paychecks bouncing, vendors going unpaid, and numerous other issues.

Folks, I am here to tell you that I believe that this is just the tip of the corruption iceberg here in Highlands County. Some may even say it is a modern day "mafia". The "Don" of this mafia was not Mr. Andrews, but someone else. I am going to enjoy looking into various tips that I have received over the last few weeks and writing about them here. I have already publicly called for Mr. Andrews to step down from his position on the Sebring City Council and will continue that demand until he does it. I believe he is innocent until proven guilty, however, he also owes the citizens that voted him into office his full attention to the duties of the City Council and with the ongoing legal issue, how can he??

If you would like to review the entire affidavit for yourself, here is the link:
http://www.newssun.com/images/andrews.pdf