The future of suspended Toledo City Auditor Jake Jaksetic, and the details of his alleged misconduct, remains unclear.
Toledo City Council on Tuesday morning scheduled a Wednesday special meeting about the auditor — who is nearing the end of a 30-day paid suspension for unspecified behavior "unbecoming of his position" — but canceled it hours later.
In the interim, council held its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday afternoon, where Councilman Katie Moline introduced a motion to hold an “independent and impartial investigation” into the auditor before council takes any further action on his employment status.
"While there certainly are issues that cannot or should not be made public, one way that we can make sure that this employment issue is not political is by doing an independent investigation," she said. The motion failed.
There has been no formal investigation, either internal or independent, into Mr. Jaksetic since he was suspended Nov. 1, councilmen acknowledged Tuesday.
Council also does not appear to yet have answers about how many formal audits or other reviews he conducted in his eight-year tenure, or clarity on why Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has so strongly pushed for his termination.
Mr. Jaksetic, who was hired in September, 2014, serves under the direction of council, not the mayor, so council is responsible for disciplinary action including firing him. They have until Dec. 1 to make a decision as to how to proceed.
Council President Matt Cherry, who initially issued the suspension and called for Wednesday's meeting that was later canceled, did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday. Mr. Jaksetic also did not respond to a message seeking comment.
"If we terminate the auditor before a fair and impartial investigation occurs, it looks like we're doing the mayor's dirty work, or his bidding," Councilman Katie Moline said earlier Tuesday in an interview.
Councilman Sam Meldon said an investigation wasn’t necessary, because “the position in question is fully subject to the removal of council at any time.”
"We don't need outside investigators,” he said at the meeting. “We don't need to go call some big town square hearing. We are the town square. We were elected by the people to make decisions now.”
The auditor situation has caused a rift between the mayor and council in recent weeks. Mr. Kapszukiewicz cut off contact between members of his administration and the council immediately after council opted to suspend — not fire — Mr. Jaksetic on Nov. 1.
The no-communication policy remained in place as of this week.
"It's really quite frustrating," Councilman Nick Komives said, who noted he had received "no response" to recent inquiries with city department directors and the deputy mayors.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz has said the auditor has made his staff feel unsafe but has not elaborated. The mayor has also said the auditor hasn't done his job adequately, stating in a recent radio interview that "city council has employed a ghost employee for nearly a decade" and that Mr. Jaksetic has been wasting taxpayer money with his $90,000 annual salary.
"We have never been provided a report, review, audit, or any work product from the city of Toledo auditor," city spokesman Gretchen DeBacker said Tuesday.
The Blade has obtained nine reports authored by Mr. Jaksetic, however, after three additional reports were found last week. It remains unclear exactly how many he has completed since he was hired.
Toledo Clerk of Council Jerry Dendinger said officials had not found any more audits or reports as of Wednesday, but they could not search Mr. Jaksetic's laptop for the records because the suspended auditor had taken it home with him.
Seven of the reports were investment and banking activities reviews, which the auditor is required to complete twice a year under the city charter. The other two reports were a review of ordinances about expenditures and other transactions, and a review of 2022 youth summer programming payments.
Beyond the twice-annual banking and investment reviews, the auditor's responsibilities include providing an “independent and objective review of the financial and operational functions of the city” through financial and operational audits of all departments, divisions, boards, commissions and other agencies. The city charter states the auditor is allowed to have staffers including assistant auditors, but officials said Mr. Jaksetic does not have any.
Councilman George Sarantou, who leads the council's Finance Committee, expressed his concern about Mr. Jaksetic’s job performance in a September email that he sent to Mr. Cherry. Citing a lack of completed audits, Mr. Sarantou noted that former auditor Dan Hiskey, who served the city from 2001 to 2006, completed 151 audits and former auditor Scott Wheelock, who served Toledo from 2007 to 2014, conducted 68 audits.
Previous auditors would issue the reports to council and place them on a public server.
But there is no requirement that the auditor completes a certain number of formal audits or reviews each year, other councilmen have pointed out, and some current and former members say Mr. Jaksetic performed his watchdog duties well enough even if he did not crank out lots of formal reports.
Ms. Moline, a certified public accountant, said it's up to an organization to determine the definition of an audit. And when she's asked for a report from Mr. Jaksetic, "he's been able to produce it."
His access to the city's internal financial system is especially helpful, she said, so that council can keep a close eye on various expenditures and accounts councilmen do not have visibility into otherwise.
Mr. Komives said Mr. Jaksetic has helped him keep an eye on ordinances the council has passed that have dollar amounts attached to them. The auditor was able to track if a certain payment to a local organization called for in an ordinance was actually made or not, for example.
"Moving forward, however this shakes out, there needs to be expectations, and deadlines, and accountability," for how the city auditor does his or her job, Ms. Moline said.
"At the end of the day, there will have to be a review of process, in terms of who gets to make suspensions, how we investigate [an employment] scenario, at what point do we provide people with feedback for their positions," Mr. Komives said.
Mr. Jaksetic was credited, in 2017, for identifying more than $8 million that was sitting idle in a fund for five years. In recent months he flagged what he said were unsecured sensitive tax documents in a room at One Government Center, though city officials dispute that claim.
And former Councilman Rob Ludeman said the suspended auditor also "dug deep" around the former project to overhaul Summit Street, and how Buckeye Broadband's underground equipment was moved at taxpayer's expense as part of the project while other communications companies paid for it themselves.
Mr. Jaksetic reiterated his concerns about the Summit Street project, and said that he was being targeted for them, in a letter to council before he was suspended.
Block Communications Inc. owns Buckeye Broadband and The Blade.
"Between Jake and the [Kapszukiewicz] administration, the falling out came definitely over the Summit Street project," Mr. Ludeman said.
Mr. Ludeman, who worked with prior city auditors as well, said Mr. Jaksetic did not produce as many formal audits, but he was "a little more hands-on," attending council meetings and committee meetings.
"He did look at an awful lot at contracts, who was paying for what, what was the city going to be on the hook for," the former councilman said.
He added: "Do you want an auditor that gives you all the issues and answers, or an auditor that only gives the issues and answers you want to hear?"
Staff writer Mike Sigov contributed to this story.
First Published November 23, 2022, 12:20 a.m.
