Marionville is facing allegations that city money is being misspent.

Those charges are coming from the town's own citizens, who successfully petitioned the state auditor to take a closer look at the books.

This state audit comes just weeks after Marionville's former city clerk faces felony theft charges, and no one is quite sure where the money trail leads.

At a time when Marionville's revenues are down every month.

"We're beginning to feel the pinch now," Alderman Dan Clevenger says.

He and fellow alderman Max McBride say the city is opening its wallet way too often.

"Wasteful spending," Clevenger says.

"We just keep spending, spending, spending," McBride says.

They say the city's new fire truck is an example.

"They probably just wanted a new one because it's got air conditioning," Clevenger says.

He says a new truck just scratches the surface.

"Some of the city employees that were taking out  personal loans on the city's cash drawer," Clevenger says.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation says the former city clerk wrote personal checks to the city for cash, but never deposited those checks in the city's account.

"Apparently some money was taken, but we don't know how much," Mayor Doris Rapp says.

She agrees the state should review the books.

"I welcome the audit," Rapp says. I don't have anything at all to hide."

That's where opinions differ.

Clevenger and McBride say on the mayor's watch, the city repeatedly made late payments to a sewage company, the state of Missouri and the IRS.

"I know we paid a lot of penalties, but I don't know how much," McBride says.

As for allegations of wasteful spending, Rapp points to the same new fire truck, calling the 2001 engine a necessary upgrade from the department's old 1976 model.

"I don't think ours is at all wasteful compared to some communities," Rapp says.

Despite their differences, the aldermen and the mayor hope the audit leads to something they say is lacking in government: accountability.

It seems the numbers support that sentiment. State Auditor Susan Montee says when she got the job three years ago, she did about 12 or 13 audits that year. Last year, her office investigated 26 cases.

Rapp says the audit could cost the city of Marionville up to $30,000, and she calls that wasteful spending.

The auditor's office will likely start the investigation after the new year.