UPDATE 10 a.m. Thursday: This story has been updated to include information from the KWCH report.
The City of Salina released this morning the following statement concerning allegations made against Salina Fire Department personnel in a KWCH report Wednesday night.
The City of Salina is aware of allegations relating to the Salina Fire Department conveyed in a recent news story that aired on KWCH. Such allegations are being taken very seriously by the City of Salina.
City legal counsel previously engaged BKD CPAs & Advisors to perform forensic accounting services and prepare a forensic accounting report (“Report”). The Report is scheduled to be released and presented to the Salina City Commission by BKD on Monday, August 16, 2021.
To preserve the integrity of potential administrative action(s) regarding specific employees, no allegations or findings regarding specific employees will be discussed during the presentation, nor will such detail be disclosed by the Report.
In Wednesday night's Factfinder 12 report by Alex Flippin, KWCH claims that its investigation, after hearing of time fraud from former Salina firefighter Tim LePage, "could have cost taxpayers into the hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Additionally, city officials were made aware of the time fraud accusations in October 2019, the KWCH report states.
LePage retired from the Salina Fire Department in July after 22 years of service. He was placed on leave until his retirement because of his reporting to city officials about the alleged time fraud, he said in the KWCH report.