By Amanda Lubinski
ALubinski@cherryroad.com
CLAY COUNTY – Former Clay County Republican Election Director Patricia “Patty” A. Lamb, who faces felony charges of fraud and fraudulent use of a credit device, has been arrested in Montana and is awaiting extradition back to Clay County.
A warrant for her arrest was issued after failing to appear in court in the fall of 2024 on the charges. Court records show issues were discovered in September of 2023 when the Clay County Election Board was reviewing credit card statements from Lamb’s county business credit card and allegedly found non-business-related expenses. A forensic audit was done and uncovered more than $15,000 in undocumented reimbursements, unauthorized expenses and extra payroll payments to her.
Lamb was taken into custody by Belgrade, Montana police after being contacted by Clay County Sheriff’s Office. According to Gallatin County, Montana Detention Center’s inmate roster, Lamb was booked in Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The Clay County Election Board, which is appointed by the governor to administer elections in Clay County and is responsible for hiring and supervising a Republican and Democrat election director, placed Lamb on paid administrative while an investigation was conducted after the 2023 issues were discovered. Third-party firm Fox Forensic Accounting was hired by the board to conduct the forensic audit of Lamb’s expense reports, credit card statements and payroll from 2021 to 2024. Results were then provided to the election board and its attorneys.
“(The) report showed Ms. Lamb’s credit card had a total of $8,126.51 in non-business charges,” reads the probable cause statement.
Auditors also discovered $1,336 in expense reimbursements for mileage that had no supporting documentation, $200 in unsupported petty cash payments and two additional payroll payments to Lamb between April and May of 2022 totaling $6,278.40.
As a result of the audit findings, Lamb was terminated by the board on Jan. 24, 2024. The probable cause statement noted when investigators with the county sheriff’s office attempted to conduct an interview with Lamb regarding the allegations, they learned she moved out of state.
Lamb was replaced as Republican election director by Interim Republican Director Heather Hall in 2023. Tiffany Ellison, the Democrat election director, told the Courier-Tribune Hall left the position in December of 2024 and was replace by Interim Republican Director Denise Hart. There are no other allegations of wrongdoing by any other election director or by the election board commission.
A call to county election board Chairman Darla Wierzbicki was not returned.
Other government leader responses & next steps
The Courier-Tribune learned of the charges against Lamb after one of Clay County’s commissioners, Jason Withington, posted details on Facebook Feb. 18.
Withington told the Courier-Tribune he learned of the charges after Clay County Auditor Victor Hurlbert requested to speak with the commission to discuss how the county could recoup some of the money lost due to the alleged fraud.
“People need to be able to trust our county officials,” Withington said, adding these issues are “embarrassing” for all of county government. “We need to be able to trust everyone at the county, especially our election board, that’s a very important position… .”
The county commission does not have oversight of the county election board as the election board is its own entity with its own commissioners. The “About Us” section of the election board’s website shows four governor-appointed commissioners, two Democrats and two Republicans. Election Board Commissioners Wierzbicki and Tom Brown are Republican and Megan Word and Anthony Bologna are Democrats. The state’s website shows Word’s and Brown’s terms expired in 2023, Wierzbicki’s expires in 2025 and Bologna’s expired in 2013.
“The election board is appointed by the governor and a majority of the members have terms that have expired, according to the state website,” Withington wrote in his Facebook post. ”Gov. Mike Kehoe needs to appoint all new members to the election board.”
After learning of the charges against Lamb from area news media, Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, who represents part of Clay County, took to social media platform X to say, “Misuse of taxpayer dollars must never be tolerated. I’ve contacted the governor’s office regarding new appointments to this important board.”
In speaking with the Courier-Tribune, Hurlbert said he was alerted to the charges against Lamb by a member of his staff last year and then approached the election board to have the county reimbursed for funds it was charged related to the alleged fraud.
“The operating costs of the election board, per Missouri statute, are split based on population between the county and the city of Kansas City. So, I held a meeting with them and said, ‘We want roughly half that amount, we want it back’ and was seeking was to improve this so we can prevent this from ever happening again.” he said.
Hurlbert said he also uncovered the election board has overestimated its census calculations, resulting it in overcharging the county since 2020 by more than $200,000.
Hurlbert would like to see the county become the fiscal agent for the election board, meaning the county would have oversight of checks and would be the entity writing them for election board expenses. The change, he said, would create a separation of duties so that election directors would not be able to request reimbursements or payments for themselves and also be the ones to approve those payments.
