Exactly two years after state investigators questioned Buchanan County’s public administrator and seized items from her office, the government investigation still hasn’t concluded.

The Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office — an original player in the investigation — says it is out of the loop.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City — which decides if there will be formal charges — won’t confirm an investigation is ongoing.

But the FBI — the lead investigating agency — said the investigation widely reported in the media in 2006 is still an open matter.

Meanwhile, former Public Administrator Bonnie Sue Lawson — who resigned in August 2006 from the county job where she grossed $145,554 in 2005 — was let go as a substitute teacher in St. Joseph and now works as a gas station clerk.

Reached at the Farris Truck Stop in Faucett, Mo., on Thursday, she declined to comment. She hasn’t been charged with any crime.

In the public administrator’s office in Downtown St. Joseph, the office is barely recognizable from the summer’s day that investigators seized computers, shredded documents and questioned Ms. Lawson about alleged missing funds from clients’ accounts.

The office serves as guardian, conservator, personal representative or representative payee for more than 400 incapacitated county residents, like minors, the mentally incompetent and those with disabilities.

County Administrator Bill McMurray said the post-Lawson overhaul has included client money now going through the county treasurer’s office, regular audits, and his job becoming a salaried position.

The previous fee-based system, which charged each time a client’s assets were managed, made Ms. Lawson Buchanan County’s highest-paid official in 2005.

The measures are aimed at restoring the public trust in the office and are a departure from the days when, Mr. McMurray says, bills weren’t being paid and cremated remains were in cardboard boxes.

“It was almost like a standalone office within the county, with little oversight,” said Richard Boehner, the office’s current chief deputy.

Mr. McMurray also has reviewed the FBI’s evidence. In the alleged public corruption case, those findings are sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for possible indictment.

“They hope to end it by the end of the year,” he said.

The investigation into alleged wrongdoing began in December 2005, when the Missouri State Department of Health and Senior Services received complaints from elderly residents in St. Joseph long-term facilities that they never received their Social Security payments. A state investigator soon began probing the allegations, and by early June he cited Ms. Lawson’s lack of cooperation in getting a search warrant on the office, according to previous News-Press reports.

On Aug. 17, 2006, the warrant was served. The state investigator and St. Joseph Police Department detectives seized items and questioned Ms. Lawson about alleged missing funds from her clients’ accounts. The FBI took over the case early the next year.

With the close of the investigations possibly coming soon, Mr. Boehner hopes the public relations fiasco will also slacken.

“That perception is still out there from people who haven’t come in contact with us because of the Bonnie Sue days,” he said.

Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.