Engineer: Woods used county card for personal purchases
The firing of Chester E. Woods III involves an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by the Knox County Prosecutor’s Office and Mount Vernon Police Department. County Prosecutor Chip McConville, who complied with a public records request by the News for Wood’s personnel file, said it did not include receipts and descriptions of items Woods purchased for himself because of the ongoing investigation.
County Engineer Cameron Keaton hired Woods as a fiscal officer in September 2016 at a salary of $47,000 without interviewing other applicants for the position. Woods started his duties Oct. 17 of that year, which included day-to-day oversight of financial accounts for the engineer’s office, its highway department and the tax map office. His functions also included budget tracking as well as performing accounts receivable functions to prepare invoices, and accounts payable functions to process purchase orders.
Woods faced more than 20 years in prison for the two aggravated burglary charges, both first-degree felonies that included firearm specifications in each count. He and his accomplice held Bob Evans and K-D Pizza at gunpoint, on Jan. 6 and Jan. 8, 2005, respectively, robbing one business of approximately $300 and the other of $200.
Woods’ prison sentence was reduced to six years, the last two involving release from prison under community control. His sentence was completed Jan. 6, 2011, five years after the date of the first of the two burglaries.
Keaton was asked why he hired Woods to handle Engineer’s Office finances, knowing his criminal past.
“I was well aware of Mr. Woods’ past when I hired him in October 2016,” Keaton stated. “His job application acknowledged his past conviction. The past events happened (15) years ago, and nothing on his current background check indicated more than a traffic citation. Since his conviction, he went back to college, obtained his degrees, got married, started a family and was employed at other companies.”
Keaton was also asked if he knew Woods before hiring him. Keaton responded that there was a church relationship, without mentioning the church by name.
“I first met Mr. Woods when he was speaking at my church about his past,” Keaton recalled. “I first learned of Mr. Woods’ education and experience when he submitted an application for employment with the city of Mount Vernon Engineering Department.”
He added Woods was not hired by the city as it was an engineering technician position “and he lacked the required knowledge for that position.”
Asked what qualifications Woods possessed to handle engineer’s office finances, Keaton described him as “very qualified to do the job of fiscal officer.” Keaton noted that Woods received a bachelor of business administration degree from Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Woods, however, did not state on his employment application what he had studied or the year his degree was attained.
Keaton also said Woods held degrees from Ashland University and Walden University, but Woods did not list either on the application.
Woods’ prior job experience listed before his hiring as a fiscal officer did not appear to include direct accounting or financial management experience. For two years from 2010 to 2012, he listed being a sales trainer for an auto group in Ontario, Ohio. Woods’ next listed working for nearly two years as an office administrator and laborer for an Ohio-based company, with nearly two years elapsed until taking his next job, as project manager for a Lexington, Ohio-based pipeline company. That job lasted five months. He then listed taking a job in November 2014 as a remodel manager for a Wooster, Ohio company before his hiring as the engineer’s office fiscal officer.
Keaton said no other candidates were interviewed for the position.
“I did not publicly advertise for the position,” he said. “This is an ‘at-will’ position and does not require it to be opened up to the public.”
Woods’ personnel file also did not contain any performance evaluations of Woods, despite many county employees typically being evaluated on an annual basis, according to county Administrator Jason Booth.
Keaton said he only has four office staff members and “I work with each of them on a daily basis.”
“During Mr. Woods’ time here, I did not conduct performance evaluations on the office staff,” Keaton said. “Had evaluations been conducted, he would have scored very well. He performed all the necessary functions of the fiscal officer.”
Keaton also did not require Woods to submit his employment application before he was hired. His employment application was completed Sept. 5, 2016, after Keaton had already sent him an offer of employment letter with a date of Sept. 1 of that year.
“We had his resume and had conducted a couple of in-person interviews with him and the other staff members,” Keaton said. “The offer of employment was (contingent) on him completing a number of items, one of which was the official employment application.”
In the separation of employment documents filed with Ohio Job and Family Services in late May, Keaton stated he was unaware of Woods allegedly making unauthorized purchases until May 13, when he began conducting his internal investigation. The $4,685 Woods had spent using county engineer’s office resources, such as credit cards, had gone back to at least 2018, Keaton alleged. And those purchases kept occurring until near the time of Woods’ termination.
“Mr. Woods made unauthorized purchases on (April 21, 2020) from Lowe’s and (April 27, 2020) from Sam’s Club,” Keaton informed the state in the separation of employment forms. “Knox County Engineer’s Office did not have receipts for the purchases. This was discovered May 13, 2020 while checking billing statements.”
Keaton also stated Mount Vernon Police have video surveillance in their possession, allegedly showing Woods and the April 21 merchandise pickup at Lowe’s.
“Following an internal investigation by the Knox County Engineer’s Office, it was determined that unauthorized purchases were traced back to 2018,” Keaton stated. “Some online purchases from Amazon were shipped to Mr. Woods’ home address. Mr. Woods falsified an email from Lowe’s customer service to try and cover up one of the unauthorized purchases.”
Keaton also indicated more than one county credit card was used to make unauthorized purchases, along with his Knox County email address. Keaton said he and his staff spent “a number of hours going over receipts and billing statements from 2017 to 2020.”
Keaton said he questioned Woods by phone on May 18 about the unauthorized purchases. Woods did not “verbally” admit to dishonesty but did turn over false documents, Keaton said.
Much of the Woods’ personnel file provided by McConville had redacted items that had been blacked out. Included was a copy of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office background check on Woods, as well as Woods’ contact information including his phone number.
