The former city treasurer of McCausland in eastern Iowa has been charged with first-degree theft after a report by the state auditor shows the misuse of several thousand dollars. State Auditor David Vaudt says they found about $188,000 worth of improper disbursements, undeposited collections, and unpaid personal utilities for former city treasurer Jeri Moore.

Vaudt’s audit found that city policy required Moore and the city clerk to both sign checks, but Moore got the clerk to sign blank checks. Vaudt says Moore then used those blank checks for her own gain. Vaudt says Moore wrote about $155,000 in checks to herself and another $22,000 worth to her husband. Vaudt says Moore would write the original check to herself, and then write a carbon copy that showed a city vendor had been paid.

Vaudt says the city clerk eventually discovered what was going on. Vaudt says it happened over a period of about eight years, at a rate of about 25-thousand dollars a year. He says it ended up being a large amount of money for a city that’s about 299 people. Vaudt says he turned his report over to the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, the Scott County Attorney’s Office, the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Attorney General’s Office. Vaudt says Moore was charged Monday.