BELLAIRE -- A Bellaire village official who served for a decade as executive director of the Antrim Conservation District pleaded guilty to a criminal charge.
Janet Sue Person, Bellaire's village council executive, pleaded guilty Thursday morning to willful neglect of duty as a public officer, a one-year misdemeanor. Person until March 2006 served as director of the conservation district, a Bellaire-based state agency dedicated to managing and improving natural resources.
Person, 52, of Ellsworth, used roughly $5,500 of conservation district funds for personal use from 2004 through 2006, Antrim County Prosecutor Charles Koop said.
Person was authorized by the district to obtain a cell phone only for herself, Koop said, but she instead obtained additional phones for her family. She also used a district credit card to purchase plane tickets and charged car repairs to the district, Koop said.
Person paid back some of the money she took, Koop said. She will be ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution, with $8,000 going to cover the cost of a forensic audit.
The district noticed financial irregularities after Person left and approached authorities, current district Executive Director Christy Roman said. Person split time between her job with the village and the district before eventually leaving to take the village position fulltime, Roman said.
As council executive, Person assists with grant writing, day-to-day village operations and "whatever the council asks her to do," Village President Butch Dewey said. She remains employed by the village.
"She's on paid administrative leave until we can determine what the scope of this issue is," he said.
Dewey said the village completes an audit each year, and there's no evidence of any mishandling of village finances.
Sentencing for Person is set for Sept. 24.
