A Davenport firefighter claims higher-ups took advantage of a tax-break by opening bank accounts and using the city's tax-exempt ID number. News 8 has an exclusive interview with the man calling for the state to do an investigation.
18 year veteran on the Davenport Fire Department is asking two months now after the city's finance director warned the department to close 13 bank accounts that were wrongly set up with the city's tax-free ID.
"They raised an ethical question with me," said Reyes.
While the accounts have been closed, Reyes is still calling for an investigation and a financial audit of those accounts. Take for example, the Davenport Safety House fund, which was set up for educational purposes. Records and receipts obtained by News 8 show fire marshal Michael Hayman bought lunch on the account at least 21 times from places like Happy Joe's or Barrel House.
Records for another account, the Davenport Fire Department Clothing account show Fire Chief Lynn Washburn was reimbursed $300 to buy Amazon.com gift cards for two people who served on an internal interview team. Reyes claims he and other firefighters have lost out two ways, first he claims the money that's been spent has been contributed by the firefighters themselves, not taxpayers, to cover departmental costs and he doesn't like what its been spent on.
"The gift cards involved were given to some panel members on our interview team and they determined you know which candidates are placed a list for hiring. You know that again raises an ethical question were these gifts or were these gift cards to influence their decision," said Reyes.
Second, Reyes claims that because the accounts were tax-free, the taxpayers themselves got shorted.
"This is our money they're spending, you know it's reaching into our pockets, taking our money and going out to lunch with it or providing gift cards," said Reyes.
It's just two examples Reyes says doesn't add up, he claims more will come out to light when an investigation is completed.
"It's no different than someone reaching into one of these salvation army buckets and grabbing a handful of change and moving along the way," said Reyes.
After reaching out for a comment, the city emailed news Eight with a response from Chief Washburn that said she used private money to thank the two people for volunteering their time to serve on a recruitment panel. Haymen says he spent money on meals for work purposes. As far as the investigation goes, city leaders say they welcome any independent review by the state auditor should she choose to launch one.