(Radio Iowa) – A special investigation by the State Auditor’s Office has found the former city clerk in a small eastern Iowa town improperly spent about 127-thousand dollars in city funds. Yamira Martinez, the part-time city clerk in Conesville, left the job in March of 2024 and her replacement raised concerns about the city’s accounts. State Auditor Rob Sand says auditors have determined Martinez overpaid herself by about 47-thousand dollars. “Unfortunately what we have seen across the state of Iowa far too commonly happened in Conesville,” Sand said, “a city clerk who had the keys to the kingdom made off with taxpayer money.” Auditors conclude that over the 34 months Martinez was the city clerk, she failed to deposit nearly 18-thousand dollars worth of utility payments AND failed to send out bills for about 23-thousand dollars worth of sewer and garbage services. Sand says Martinez adjusted accounting records to make it appear bills that were due had been paid on time.

“We don’t know if someone paid their bill and it went into her pocket with cash or it was uncollected,” Sand says. The report from the state auditor’s office also shows Martinez used the town’s credit card to make 14-thousand dollars worth of Amazon purchases for things like clothes and make-up, Gucci sunglasses, mattresses, Apple air pods and toys for children. The report from the auditor’s office has been forwarded to Muscatine County officials. “The consequences that she will face will be up to law enforcement,” Sand says. Sand has recommended changing Iowa law to require mandatory prison time for a public official convicted of large scale theft of taxpayer dollars.

“It doesn’t mean that we lock people up and throw away the key, but we shouldn’t be giving them probation when they are stealing tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayers. If we did that, if we made that a mandatory prison sentence, it would send a message across the state of Iowa that this kind of crime is taken seriously and that it will have consequences,” Sand says, “and that would stop some people from doing it.” Some cases involving the theft of taxpayer dollars are referred to federal courts.

Last year, the former city clerk for the small Tama County town of Clutier was sentenced to nearly two years in FEDERAL prison after pleaded guilty to stealing over 100-thousand dollars from the town of about 200 residents.