Published: April 25, 2008 11:51 am            

Jeffersonville clerk-treasurer will get bonded

Jeffersonville Clerk-Treasurer Peggy Wilder will get an individual performance bond, even though she and city attorney Larry Wilder, her ex-husband, believe she’s already covered by the city’s blanket bond.

Peggy Wilder said she’s getting the bond merely to quell complaints from former Mayor Rob Waiz, who has long questioned her about not having one.

Indiana Statute requires public officials to have a performance bond in order to insure their service for municipalities. They act as something of an insurance policy for city officials. Jeffersonville officials, including Peggy Wilder, used to have their own individual bonds, until the city began buying a blanket bond to cover everyone during the Waiz administration.

Both Wilders say the blanket bond covers the clerk-treasurer’s office. Waiz says that it does not. And all parties cite the same state statute in making their claims.

“I think maybe she should get it to satisfy the state statute,” Waiz said.

“She did not secure a personal bond when the city went out and bought a general bond,” Larry Wilder said. “The Indiana State Board of Accounts audits every year. The Indiana State Board of Accounts has never thought there was any flaw in Peggy serving with the blanket bond.”

The statute says certain elected officials require a bond, said Charlie Pride, office supervisor at the Indiana State Board of Accounts. However, he noted there is a subsection in the statute which says that a blanket bond by the city can cover those officials, including the clerk-treasurer.

It is correct that the law allows for such a blanket bond as long as there is an ordinance authorizing the use of a blanket bond, said Les Merkley, former city attorney under the Waiz administration. He said in an e-mailed statement that the Jeffersonville City Council has never adopted such an ordinance to cover the clerk-treasurer.

“Rather, there is an ordinance that specifically says that all city officers, except the mayor, shall have individual bonds.”

Larry Wilder said he was aware of no such ordinance.

“If this was a problem, they would have done these things while they were in power,” he said,

The Wilders believe that Waiz’s pursuit of the bond is personal. Peggy Wilder said none of this started until after Waiz lost a bid for re-election last year.

Larry Wilder said his ex-wife was getting the bond “because of just this inane stupidity created as a result of Rob Waiz being a sore loser.”

“This is nothing personal — it’s just business,” Waiz said.

Peggy Wilder and Waiz have had a history of disagreement, often clashing when he was in office. The two have sparred over issues ranging from office space to sewer-billing software to city insurance to employees.

The city’s insurance agent could not be reached to explain how much the bond would cost. Larry Wilder believed it would not cost the city anything. Peggy Wilder believed that it would.

The bond purchase will take place in the next week or so, she said.

        

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