"Either that is the most thorough audit ever conducted in Monroe County or they're just dragging their feet to delay making the report public."
That's how one long-time government-watcher described Court Clerk Danny Kolhage's investigation into allegations that former County Chief Court Reporter Lisa Roeser "double dipped"— handled freelance jobs on County time.
Kolhage launched an audit of the judiciary's books here back in mid-September— seven months ago— after Key West The Newspaper reported the allegations by former County court reporters Kathi Fegers and Rex Lear. Both Fegers and Lear had written letters to then-Chief Judge Sandra Taylor reporting Roeser's alleged double dipping. Both said they had also sent copies of their letters to the other judges, but that none of the judges had responded.
Judge Taylor has since said that she did not call for an internal investigation at the time because she thought the charges were too general.
But Kolhage told KWTN this week that a preliminary audit report had been completed and forwarded to Chief Judge Mark Jones for review.
"As soon as he responds to the preliminary report, we will finalize it and make our findings public," Kolhage said. He would not speculate when that might be.
He did say, however, that he had already turned over some of his audit findings to the State Attorney's Office.
In the meantime, the National Court Reporters Association's (NCRA) Committee on Ethics has already recommended that Roeser be reprimanded.
Back in September, Roeser abruptly quit her job after KWTN called Court Administrator Theresa Westerfield and started asking questions about the double-dipping allegations. That investigation uncovered at least two instances in which Roeser reported on her timesheets that she was at work in her County office when, in reality, she was across town handling freelance jobs.
Roeser told the NCRA Ethics Committee that the incorrect timesheet entries were inadvertent and that she had not intended to double dip.