What began with an anonymous source alleging disability insurance fraud in Council Grove City Hall has devolved into a Wall of Silence as all affected parties refuse to answer follow-up questions to their initial responses.
The informant alleges City Administrator Nick Jones approved a disability insurance application from Aflac for a city employee, knowing that the employee was not disabled. It’s further alleged the employee received a laptop to work away from the office and made several return trips to the City Hall workplace, telling fellow employees if an Aflac representative called while the employee was present to tell the company the employee was not in the office. (We have chosen to keep the employee’s identity hidden, as the fraud allegations have not been proven.)
The Sentinel reached out to City Administrator Jones by email for comment, and Jones responded, requesting a phone number to explain the issue. When no call was received from Jones later in the day, we called his office, were told he was out, and we left our name and number to return the call. When no call was received the following day, another call was placed to City Hall, where we were told Jones was “in a meeting.” Again, name and number were left on his answering machine. No phone call has ever been received from City Administrator Nick Jones.
We reached out to Council Grove Mayor Debi Schwerdtfeger for her comment, but the mayor did not respond.
Another request for comment was sent to City Council President Mark Berner to determine if the Council had involvement in approving the disability insurance application.
Berner initially responded:
“I must decline to comment, under HIPAA Guidelines, we cannot divulge or discuss any information related to a medical issue of an employee. However, our city attorney and Aflac were contacted regarding this situation as soon as it came to light. Appropriate measures were taken according to Aflac Policy and no wrong-doing was found to have occurred regarding the city administrator.
That’s not the understanding of Aflac’s Jared Jones:
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will accept this information as referral and will open an investigation pursuant to our standard practices.”
We sent follow-ups to the two men to try to resolve the apparent conflict in their responses. Mr. Berner did not respond. Mr. Jones did but declined to provide a resolution:
“We have no further comments beyond what we have provided.”
We also asked Mr. Berner for any communications the city has had with Aflac regarding the employee’s application for disability. Again, he did not respond.
Additionally, we contacted Council Grove City Attorney Brian Henderson, who offered this comment:
“It is the position of The City of Council Grove that there has been no wrongdoing on behalf of any city employee regarding any insurance claims. We cannot, nor will we address any specific issues regarding the medical or insurance status of any employees of the City of Council Grove, nor can we provide any such records as you have requested which would be confidential and protected by law.