Utah News Dispatch
Review finds ‘weak’ controls allowed $188K theft from Iron County department; employee charged
Utah Auditor Tina Cannon’s office in the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 7, 2025. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch)
Poor practices surrounding account reconciliation, receipts and cash deposits allowed for the theft of about $188,000 from the Iron County Building Department to go undetected, according to a review by the Utah State Auditor’s Office.
The office manager in the department is accused of pocketing cash payments made to the department for building permits from 2018 to 2025, the review released Wednesday found.
A call to the Utah State Auditor’s hotline that prompted the investigation, according to the review, after a similar complaint made to Iron County Auditor Lucas Little failed to identify any missing funds.
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Chelsea Boxwell, 42, was charged Sept. 3 in 5th District Court with misusing public money and theft, both second-degree felonies. Details of the charges in that case are sealed; a probable cause statement filed in connection to a separate case said that Boxwell told investigators she had taken “some of” the building permit payments and used them for “bills, child expenses, and other things.”
That separate case, filed Sept. 5 charging Boxwell with theft, a second-degree felony, alleges that when Boxwell spoke to authorities about the building department investigation she told them she had also taken money from a property management company she worked for part time, and was paying it back. Bank records from 2022-2024 showed Boxwell deposited $119,609 in checks to herself, investigators wrote in the probable cause statement.
Boxwell’s attorney declined to comment on the case.
Utah State Auditor Tina Cannon in a statement issued Wednesday praised the whistleblower who used the hotline to report the money missing from the Iron County Building Department.
“With that information, our Office was able to initiate our limited review, bring additional facts to light, and ensure proper safeguards were implemented going forward. Our role is not only to identify weaknesses, but also to help counties and cities strengthen their systems so public money is protected,” Cannon said.
The review notes that hotline tips are the most common and effective way that misuse of public funds is exposed. The State Auditor’s Office will use what it has learned in Iron County to train other entities, the news release says.
According to the review by the State Auditor’s Office, the building department’s office manager submitted spreadsheets to the Iron County Auditor’s Office for monthly reconciliation rather than proper records. The report also found that the county auditor did not account for missing permit numbers from the sequence listed on the spreadsheets.
When first notified about the misused funds, the Iron County Auditor’s Office reviewed only the spreadsheets, failing to uncover the missing money, the review found.
Additionally, the report found the building department was depositing the cash payments it received just once a week, while Utah Code requires funds be deposited at least once every three banking days.
Auditors also reviewed receipt practices for nine Iron County departments, finding two of them — the building department and the County Events Center — at higher risk for misused funds.
In its response, the Iron County Board of Commissioners acknowledged the department’s insufficient reconciliation process, saying the auditor’s office was previously unaware of the software system the county uses to log permits and deposits, but is now using the program.
The commissioners also wrote that steps are being taken to improve receipt practices and to deposit funds twice weekly.
