The City of Winterset claims it received close to $260,000 that was meant for other area cities.
WINTERSET, Iowa — Winterset City Administrator Drew Barden claims the Madison County Treasurer had a history of misallocating funds, even before she allegedly falsified government documents to avoid paying her vehicle registration fee.
Madison County Treasurer Amanda DeVos was arrested last Friday for theft in the third degree, felonious misconduct in office and tampering with evidence.
However, the accusations coming out of Winterset are entirely separate from the one that led to DeVos’s arrest. This new case involves Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, which are taxpayer dollars used to support developers and make public improvements.
Between Oct. 16, 2024 and Jan. 15, 2025, DeVos allegedly made monthly TIF deposits to the City of Winterset. The funds totaling $258,081.85 were supposed to go to the City of Patterson, City of West Des Moines and Madison County.
Barden said city officials directed DeVos to remove the funds from bank accounts on Oct. 22.
“Each city in Madison County and the county at large has a different 100 series (number for tax revenue statements),” Barden told Local 5. “The code for Winterset, for example, is 800s. So when we realized we had 600, 700, 900 series payments, it was obvious to us that it was not our money.”
Despite multiple written notices, no correction was made by DeVos. On Dec. 16, Barden alerted the Madison County Board of Supervisors about the issue.
Then, on Jan. 6 the Winterset City Council directed Barden to notify West Des Moines, Patterson and Madison County: the entities that were supposed to get the funds.
About two weeks later, on Jan. 21, DeVos still hadn't removed the funds from the City of Winterset’s bank accounts. That day, the city administrator wrote a cashier’s check to Madison County to give back the misallocated funds.
Barden just recently learned the check was picked up by DeVos at the bank that both Winterset and Madison County use.
“The City of Winterset hopes that the funds that are obligated to those taxing entities are returned to those entities and individuals that benefit from those economic development funds will soon receive their payment,” Barden told Local 5.
Barden said the incident wasn’t the first time he received misallocated funds. On Oct. 13, 2023, DeVos allegedly deposited $95,565.44 in TIF funds. The issue was quickly resolved when Barden handed DeVos a cashier’s check to balance the amounts.