Lewiston Morning Tribune Thursday, August 14, 1997
OROFINO -- A series of letters may offer some insight into where a federal investigation of the Clearwater County flood control center is focused.
The letters, which were made available by the county at the request of the Lewiston Morning Tribune, show there were ongoing concerns over cost estimates prior to the July 18 control center raid staged by agents of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Four days before the raid, Clearwater County Sheriff Nick Albers, who serves as incident commander for the center, wrote FEMA officials asking for more time to review audits on flood recovery projects.
"At this time, we do not feel that any project has been finalized with a clean audit," Albers wrote in a letter to FEMA's Ron Peterson at Bothell, Wash. "There are several cases that (the) Road and Bridge (Department for the county) would record the wrong road or forget to tell us that they took supplies."
Albers then listed 32 projects and said eight of them were incomplete.
On July 17, one day before the raid, Clearwater County Clerk-Auditor Robin Christensen wrote to a private contractor who had done work during the flood recovery asking for more detailed information to satisfy FEMA audit demands.
"Therefore, the county is requesting that you provide that information for each day for each piece of equipment that was used on the 1996 recovery effort," Christensen wrote. "We realize the magnitude of this request and apologize for not requesting it earlier. However, the county was just informed of this requirement during the audit process on July 9, 1997."
Clearwater County Prosecutor John A. Swayne has said the county was working diligently with FEMA through the Idaho Bureau of Disaster Services (BDS) in attempts to meet record requirements necessary for reimbursement of more than $5 million in federal disaster funds.
And then suddenly, said Swayne, FEMA agents seized more than 40 boxes of documents amid allegations of attempts to defraud the federal government.
The letters also show that some two weeks after FEMA conducted the raid, Disaster Services officials were still seeking more detail and expressing concerns.
"Some of these concerns are in the comparison of the contract work records and the materials records submitted by Clearwater County on April 29, 1997," reads a letter from Charlie Axton of BDS addressed to Albers and Randy Curtis, an engineer working for the command center.
Axton lists seven so-called concerns, which amount to less than $500 discrepancy between various cost estimates.
"Each of the above concerns is not significant alone, however, since there are seven concerns found in the records submitted, it is vital that we resolve each concern prior to the submittal of this information to FEMA for approval of payment," Axton wrote.
Swayne said the reimbursement process with FEMA proved to be a cumbersome task and no doubt some mistakes could have been made. Curiously enough, said Swayne, the county received $500,000 in reimbursement money from FEMA just two weeks prior to the raid.
What's more, the county was notified last Friday that a reimbursement check from FEMA through BDS in the amount of $60,000 was on its way. Only a day before that, FEMA agents took more documents from the courthouse and from Curtis' home.
"Apparently, based on information from an informant, believing a large volume of records were kept at the house, 10 agents assisted by the Orofino Police Chief and three officers, appeared at this individual's home to perform a search," Swayne wrote in a news release.
"They brought 14 empty bankers boxes in anticipation of what they expected to find. Only a small amount of material, such as would fit in a large briefcase, was removed by the federal agents."
Swayne said the confiscation of documents has delayed the county's efforts to recoup the dollars it has requested from FEMA. But he said officials of the U.S. Attorney's Office at Boise have advised FEMA officials in Seattle "that there is no reason to stop processing the county claims for reimbursement on flood work."
In the meantime, a federal grand jury at Boise was expected to continue hearing testimony from a number of persons subpoenaed in the wake of the July 18 raid. However, information about potential suspects or details on potential charges remains unclear. U.S. Attorney Office spokespersons refuse to confirm or deny an investigation is even underway.
Officials have said the grand jury process, which is cloaked in secrecy, could last between six months to a year on such cases involving large amounts of documents.