Saturday, May 23, 2009

Rep. Jacque Clements In A Heap Of Trouble

Hoosier Access' Josh Gillespie picks up on the details of a lawsuit Clinton Co. Commissioners have filed against State Rep. Jacque Clements, the county's former auditor, and one of its computer software vendors, accusing the two of fraud and intentional interference with a contract based on reports in the Frankfort Times. Clements worked for Manatron, a software vendor for the auditor's office when she was chosen at a Republican caucus to fill the vacant office in 2004 according to the lawsuit. Clements never disclosed her relationship with Manatron on her statement of economic interest the county contends. Manatron's contract with her office for tax billing software ended in December, 2007, along with Clements' employment. At that point, the county claims that Clements negotiated a new contract with Nikish Software on her own that allowed it to convert Manatron's software program to Nikish's software. According to the lawsuit, Clements worked as either an employee or consultant of Nikish. Nikish's software doesn't comply with Indiana law the suit alleges, and the county has incurred damages as a result of its contract with Nikish. The county is now in the processing of converting the software back to Manatron's.

This isn't the first time Clements has been in trouble. The county dismissed her from her county job awhile back over "unauthorized personal use" of the county's e-mail system. Clements potentially faces criminal charges in addition to the civil lawsuit arising out of the alleged self-dealing activities.

UPDATE: See Clements' response to the lawsuit here.

7 comments:

artfuggins said...

Those people from Frankfort!!!

Sir Hailstone said...

Very interesting to note the top of the clients list on Nikish's website

http://www.nikish.com/corporate/ourclients/default.htm

(watch that word wrap might need to copy & paste - that's CTRL-C and CTRL-V for those of you in Rio Linda)

Unknown said...

http://blogs.indystar.com/education/2009/05/officers_pepper.html

You need to post the story that we mailed to you. It is the story about IPS

artfuggins said...

I am not sure what story Gregg mailed to you but if the public ever found out about the mismanagemnt, conflicts of interest, coverups going on in the IPS upper administration, they would be outraged. When that flood gate opens, the info is going to come pouring out....it cant be too soon....AI, you live in IPS district, it is YOUR taxmoney being used to hire more administators than last year, pay raises for administrators and trips to China etc.

Gary R. Welsh said...

If anyone has evidence of corruption with in IPS, please forward it to me and I will be happy to take a look at it. What Greg sent me related to a story about IPS police using mace to control students at John Marshall.

Unknown said...

read the story we mailed to you. The person in the stories that were mailed to you is the same person who is in charge of the community high schools. It may sound crazy but Arlington and Marshall have gotten worse. Fuggins is right. If you post the stories, the flood gates will open. Eugene White would be out of town within weeks.

artfuggins said...

Ok, AI...now we find from the media that IPS covered up a teacher molesting a student at Marshall High School. They covered it up in August but now the tv stations have revealed another incident. Where is Eugene White? Where is IPS Human resources? Perhaps someone should check that teacher's former state and see why he left there quickly>