Belvue Fire Barn, site of where the Belvue City Council meetings are held. (Brandon Peoples/KMAN)
Days after sentencing in the case of a former Belvue city employee charged with stealing thousands in city funds, the current city manager has come forward with some additional details about the woman who committed the crime.
In an email to KMAN Monday, City Clerk Joe Peterson said former treasurer Kim Fitzgerald entered a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to nearly $89,000 in restitution to be paid. Peterson says city records for some of the years are poor, but indicated Fitzgerald was the acting city treasurer starting in 2008, and took over clerk duties at an unknown time during the past decade. According to Peterson, Fitzgerald was appointed to both positions under her father Leroy Brunkow, the town’s former mayor.
Fitzgerald was fired in January 2020, after Norman Stutzman, who succeeded Brunkow, was sworn in as mayor. Stutzman testified in court last week that Fitzgerald refused to share passwords with him and claimed much of the town’s infrastructure has not been maintained due to her actions crippling the city’s finances. Stutzman also told Judge Jeff Elder that at one point, four family members held city positions in the small community, which has a population of roughly 200.
The exact amount of money stolen isn’t clear, but dates back to 2010, according to a criminal complaint filed last June.
Fitzgerald is serving a 60-day sentence in the Pottawatomie County Jail which will be followed by seven months of probation.
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