The Fond du Lac city council vice president says he wishes a former Fond du Lac Management Information Systems director would directly apologize to the city for his role in a fraudulent invoicing scheme. Former MIS director Mark Beveridge and three others were convicted of stealing more than $200,000 from taxpayers to purchase mostly electronic equipment for personal use. In an interview with WFDL news this week Beveridge said he was taken advantage of by his staff and and was appalled what they did. Council vice president Gary Miller is the only current council member who was on the council when the scandal broke several years ago. “Mr. Beveridge has gone through the legal system, he had every opportunity to present a defense…it didn’t work,” Miller told WFDL news. “He was found guilty, he’s done his time and he’s making restitution, but you just simply can’t make claims after the fact of a full hearing before a judge, the opportunity to call witnesses, and later on basically recant the whole thing.” Miller says regardless of Beveridge’s role, he was the boss and could have put a stop to it. “Only when a new employee came into that department and was approached by the people in that department to be a part of the scheme and decided no this is not right, blew the whistle.” Miller says the since the incident the city has taken steps to try to prevent this type of activity from occurring in the future. “Every budget that we now go through I want to make sure all of the things are in place to make sure the voucher system works, that nobody is pulling the collective wool over the city’s eyes.”
