Jul 21, 2026 · 15 min · 8 segments
A local utility company just posted a 15.6 million dollar deficit. Tosha Anderson breaks down what really happened at Kirkwood Electric and why she does not think fraud is the answer, even though…
So to kind of set the framework, this particular utility company ran up a $15.6 million deficit over a final 20 months of a director's 20-year tenure, right? So come to find out, this is the consequence of five to seven years of planned capital investments that were all wrapped up in a two-year window, draining reserves, right? So it was a five to seven-year plan, it was all done within two years.
Interestingly enough, regular financial statements stopped coming to the board or, um, senior leadership for about a two-year window.
Um, and the c- uh, the excuse that we were given, or at least in the, the article cited, that there was a system migration.
Now, I've been part of many system migrations, so I can understand why that might seem like a reasonable excuse, but stay with me.
No financial reports were given to the board or leadership for, for many, many years.
And ultimately, the chief administrative officer basically said, "Hey, I didn't know about this unauthorized spending.
I didn't know we were in this situation." Long story short, the entire council, all of the leadership were completely thrown off by the fact that they were essentially broke as a utility company.
Now, in this particular, um, organization, they were pretty flush with cash leading up until that point, and they were, um, even in a position to lend money to, um, various, um, um, initiatives locally, including building, um, what I understand is an art center.
So they were in a much better situation, um, just a couple of years ago, and somehow we went from one extreme to the other.
Now, the council is debating on spending somewhere between 150 and $350,000 on a forensic audit.
And I'm gonna tell you why I'm skeptical about fraud and what I think is actually happening here.
We're talking about how did we lose so much money? But I really wanna talk about the 18 months leading up into this point and nobody asking for the numbers, nobody asking why we don't have numbers, what's happening.
So the question is, is this fraud or is this a lack of oversight? And I'm gonna dive in, and you all can probably sense where I'm going with this.
So to kind of set the framework, this particular utility company ran up a $15.6 million deficit over a final 20 months of a director's 20-year tenure, right? So come to find out, this is the consequence of five to seven years of planned capital investments that were all wrapped up in a two-year window, draining reserves, right? So it was a five to seven-year plan, it was all done within two years.
Interestingly enough, regular financial statements stopped coming to the board or, um, senior leadership for about a two-year window.
Um, and the c- uh, the excuse that we were given, or at least in the, the article cited, that there was a system migration.
Now, I've been part of many system migrations, so I can understand why that might seem like a reasonable excuse, but stay with me.
No financial reports were given to the board or leadership for, for many, many years.
And ultimately, the chief administrative officer basically said, "Hey, I didn't know about this unauthorized spending.
I didn't know we were in this situation." Long story short, the entire council, all of the leadership were completely thrown off by the fact that they were essentially broke as a utility company.
Now, in this particular, um, organization, they were pretty flush with cash leading up until that point, and they were, um, even in a position to lend money to, um, various, um, um, initiatives locally, including building, um, what I understand is an art center.
So they were in a much better situation, um, just a couple of years ago, and somehow we went from one extreme to the other.
Now, the council is debating on spending somewhere between 150 and $350,000 on a forensic audit.
And I'm gonna tell you why I'm skeptical about fraud and what I think is actually happening here.
We're talking about how did we lose so much money? But I really wanna talk about the 18 months leading up into this point and nobody asking for the numbers, nobody asking why we don't have numbers, what's happening.
So the question is, is this fraud or is this a lack of oversight? And I'm gonna dive in, and you all can probably sense where I'm going with this.
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