By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — The Indiana State Board of Accounts has re-issued its audit report on Winona Lake town government after discovering a major error involving an allegation against Town Council member James Lancaster.
Jennifer Gauger, the chief of staff for the State Board of Accounts, said the department realized on Wednesday that Lancaster had indeed filed a conflict of interest form with the state as well as one with the town, which was never in dispute.
The problem arose because the person who filed the state paperwork on behalf of Lancaster used their name instead of Lancaster’s on the form.
That meant Lancaster’s name did not show up when they searched during the investigation.
Failure to file with the state could potentially lead to a felony criminal charge, the original report said.
“It was just filed under the wrong name, but it was on file, so we will be re-issuing that report and removing the conflict of interest,” Gauger said late Wednesday afternoon.
She said they were alerted to the matter on Wednesday, but did not say who reached out to their office.
The new version of the report removes the entire portion that looked at the conflict of interest issue, and a representative of the state board of accounts said they reached out to Lancaster Wednesday afternoon.
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Here is an updated version of the report
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The audit recapped problems over four years with Winona Lake town government, dating back to January of 2019 and the now-retracted accusation against Lancaster was a very small part of the overall report.
Lancaster, who is a former town council president and is a longtime executive with Zimmer Biomet, formed a company with another individual a few years ago to manage the Miller Subnset pavilion after it was constructed.
The town council in 2024 raised concerns about the arrangement and the firm then discontinued its contract with the town.
Gauger said town leaders were invited by SBOA representatives and shared the report, and tht local officials were given time to respond and clear up any misunderstandings before its release.
“It was only after that period of time had concluded that we were told of that issue,” Gauger said.
“I don’t believe it was necessarily our fault,” she said.
Gauger said the entire report was re-posted and made public Thursday morning, Gauger said.
News Now Warsaw reached out to Lancaster offering him a chance to comment. As of early Thursday morning, he had not replied.
He did not respond to a request for comment when the original report was released.
