Saturday, January 19, 2008

KC faulted after probe of IRS tapes missing from City Hall

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/451282.html
Alright, I just have to interrupt my rant about the latest audit to start a conversation about this gigantic management failure.

We have to hope and pray that these tapes were inadvertantly lost or destroyed. These tapes contain all of the information on your 1040 (ss #, children's names, income, etc.). If the information fell into the hands of criminals, Kansas Citians would be at a huge risk of being victims of identity theft. If you don't care about City Hall, maybe you do care that his ineptness has placed your personal information at risk and possibly into the hands of criminals.

This screw-up was absolutely predictable. Cauthen has blown up every department in City Hall. Finance has not had consistant leadership for four years. He has hired his Denver buddies, gotten rid of capable staff, and allowed the Finance Department to crumble. Remember, they didn't do monthly Financial reports, required by Charter (that's the law, duh!), for two years.

Before Cauthen chased out the last capable Finance Director in 04, Kansas City had a model security program and was recognized by the IRS several times for this achievement. The article states that the IRS is no longer sharing this information with KC. Someone needs to ask Cauthen how much revenue will be lost -- it is millions. KC no longer has the information needed to effectively enforce the e tax. Cauthen's inability to manage even the most basic functions of the organization is the root cause of this failure and ohhhhhhhh so many others.

True to form, Cauthen will throw someone to the wolves on this one. Who will be sacrificed?

Welcome to Wayne's World! You can't trust Cauthen with City Hall. You can't trust him with your personal information.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There needs to be someone fired over this. If you can't be competent enough to realize how important these tapes are, why are you employed by anyone.

Wonder if Marcason would be so pro-Wayne if her information got stolen.

The majority of you people on 26 don't care about doing what's right and you are a travesty to the City.

Anonymous said...

How come the no-star seems more interested in missing state emails than missing information would potentially could ruin over 500,000 people who have worked or live in the KCMO city limits?

Anonymous said...

http://www.nist.org/news.php?extend.201

According to NIST.org up to 10 million taxpayer's personal information could be in the hands of identity thieves thanks to your City Manager and his hand-picked Finance Director who did not follow the Fed's clearly defined security requirements.

Look around you folks... you and everyone you see should know that your personal information is on the missing tapes and that in all probability you are at risk to have your life turned upside down if and when identity thieves start using that information.

One would think that Wayne Cauthen would have the common decency, knowing that all efforts to find the missing tapes had been exhausted, to ask Lynn Horsley and the Falling Star to notify their readers of steps they could take to protect their pocketbooks/wallets.

Well Wayne Cauthen and Common Decency have never met and we all know the Falling Star only cares about keeping racial tensions stirred up so let one of those "lazy City employees" that should "get back to work" help you out. Here's a link that explains steps we all should take:

Identity Theft Victims: Immediate Steps
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/con_steps.htm

"You may ask that an initial fraud alert be placed on your credit report if you suspect you have been, or are about to be, a victim of identity theft."

p.s. To the 9 Wayne fan club members,

When registered voters realize the enormity of this issue, alone, how many of them do you think will make the mistake of voting for you again? I think they could get enough signatures on a "Kill the Earnings Tax" petition to have it on the ballots in November. Oh but they don't know you "Sovereigns", do they?

p.p.s. L.T. It's 9:15 p.m. Saturday, January 19, 2008. I don't have to get back to work until Tuesday.

Anonymous said...

Well, you know Wayne's personal song and it certainly holds true to everything he has done:
"Wayne's World, Wayne's World,
It's party time and Excellent,
Wayne's World"

Everyone he hires has lived in Wayne's world...for a while...then they go right under the bus when things go wrong. Note those party goers: Dee Williams (didn't hire her but used the ever luvin' heck out of her til he threw her away); Stacia Johnson, went with her tail between her legs; Deb Hinsvark, went down in a screaming match w/LT over the Citadel (I've heard) and is back in Denver licking her wounds; and the BIGGEST FISH of them all (stinky fish, I might add) was Latrisha Underhill! She probably took it the worst, because she was never qualified for anything she ever did (more likely, didn't do, including coming to work on a regular basis). She took care of all of his dirty work that he didn't want his name or email on. Of course, her inappropriate emails didn't help her any. Now she is without a job and any potential employer who googles her name will get quite a story. She'll probably never have it so good again (which is probably discipline enough - considering he didn't fire her for her email issues, but let her resign over a 3-week period and left her in charge of the City for her very last week). There is still no housing department to speak of. The wife of the inept Codes man has the job...haven't heard anything since the day she was named to the dept. Anyone know if there is housing work going on? Gail Roper (former IT director who gladly did his bidding) left without a trace and won't talk to auditors about the Perfect Output RFP process.

Once again, the bodies are piling up and the stench is getting to be too much to bear! Councilmembers (you know which 9 you are) Wake the Heck UP!! We Need help - and if we don't get it, we're going to help you - OUT OF A JOB in 3 1/2 years - yeah, that's right, when Wayne goes, you'll all go with him!

Anonymous said...

They say there is no trail, but somebody had to sign for those tapes and hand them over to another person. I'm sure there are SOME names out there, although I'm half afraid some underpaid file clerk will go down for something they had nothing to do with. I'm furious - that could be my information out there. What if someone absolutely knew what they were doing and had access to the necessary machinery to read it? I'm sure there are identity thieves who know way more than we'll ever know about how to steal such information and probably know what machinery is needed. They could have jobs that give them accessibility to the machinery needed and can do the work after hours. This is INSANE that the KC Star is taking it so lightly! I hope that if anything happens it hits Lynn Horsley and Dave Hellings accounts first!!!

Anonymous said...

According to the site below (cut and paste in your browser) "Social Security number with name and address can retail for up to $500 each."

Curiously, the link within the quote at the NIST site is to a Denver Post news article. Maybe this is a RICO case, eh????

Just selling 1% of the possible 10 million i.d.'s @ $500 each would make $50,000,000. That would line the pockets of a bunch of current and former Denverites. Of course some of the pockets are already bulging from the CIMO capital improvement dollars.

All Kansas City (and vicinity) citizens should notify the FBI if their identity is being abused when they had no knowledge of their information being compromised. Likely it could mean the information is coming from the missing IRS tapes.

Looks like the whole midwest will rue the day that Kay Barnes started the Denver exodus.

http://www.nist.org/news.php?extend.201