Fired Eldridge city worker loses jobless benefits amid utility board probe
Eldridge City Hall in Scott County, Iowa. (Photo via Google Earth)One of the City of Eldridge workers fired during an investigation into the utilities board is not entitled to unemployment benefits, a judge has ruled.
State records indicate Jody Coffman was hired in May 2012 as the city’s full-time utility billing clerk and was responsible for preparing employees’ reimbursement requests for submission to the city’s Electric & Water Utility Board.
Coffman was fired in May of this year, which led to a public hearing before Administrative Law Judge Sean Nelson on her application for unemployment benefits.
According to Nelson’s written findings, some of which aren’t entirely clear or fully explained, Coffman at some unspecified point in time “started a rumor in the office that disrupted the employer’s snow removal operations that day.”
Coffman also was alleged to have submitted employee reimbursement requests to the board without the required receipts.
According to Nelson, Coffman also refused to comply with a directive to transfer to another employee her duties related to sales tax assessments. In addition, Nelson found, the city conducted or received some sort of “audit” – Nelson’s decision doesn’t indicate who conducted the audit or why – that revealed Coffman had “lied” about the timing of the city’s receipt of an unspecified piece of equipment, which meant that the equipment was accounted for in the wrong fiscal year.
In late March, Nelson found, the city placed Coffman and other employees on leave as part of an investigation. The city, according to Nelson’s ruling, “could not find some computers and believed the equipment was misappropriated along with funds that were also missing.”
The city, Nelson stated, “suspected widespread violations among staff and members of the utility board.” Coffman and some of the other people interviewed as part of that investigation, Nelson found, “were not cooperative with the investigation.”
On May 22, 2024, Lemke fired Coffman and “several other employees” based on the results of the investigation, Nelson stated.
In ruling that Coffman was ineligible for unemployment benefits, Nelson cited her refusal to surrender her duties related to the assessment of sales tax. “This is misconduct,” Nelson found. “The past acts revealed by the investigation show that (Coffman) had a pattern of acting in an insubordinate way.”
Board member facing criminal charges
Court records indicate Coffman has not been criminally charged with any wrongdoing. However, former Eldridge Electric & Water Utility Board member Jacob Rowe is currently facing criminal charges of unauthorized use of a credit card, second-degree felony theft, unauthorized computer access to confidential records, tampering with records, and conspiracy to commit an aggravated misdemeanor.
According to police records, Rowe was ordered to turn in all city equipment when he was placed on leave in March, but he retained possession and control of utility records and other information.
He allegedly modified a document entitled “clothing allowance” and then modified or deleted files from a city-owned computer, disabled various operating systems, deleted email communications on his city-owned email account and deleted work-related text messages.
Police allege that an analysis of those actions concluded the “deletions were excessive, consistent, unusual and in violation of Iowa law requiring preservation of public records.”
Police records state that an internal affairs investigation confirmed Rowe had submitted an expense reimbursement request for a purchase made at Dillard’s from the store’s “pajamas and robes” department. The investigation reportedly confirmed that the purchase was for men’s underwear.
According to police, the city administrator calculated the unauthorized use of city money included $900 in clothing expenditures. The theft charge is tied to two city-owned laptop computers, a separate hard drive and an iPad, all allegedly in Rowe’s possession and worth an estimated $2,800.
An arraignment in the case is scheduled for Thursday.
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