Legislative Joint Auditing-Counties and Municipalities

Senator Stone, will you lead us in prayer, sir? OK, our first agenda, um, adoption of the minutes of July 11, 2024 meeting. Has everyone had a chance to look over there? Motion in a second motion. Who, who made the motion? OK, Mr. Senator Gilmore, who's second? OK, Senator Stone second, all those in favor say aye. Folks say no. Update on delinquent private reports. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The staff was requested to send out letters to all the delinquent water and sewer, um, entities and the delinquent city entities cities that had not complied with Act 453, uh, the all the cities are now current. We received all the 2022 city reports. We sent out 132 letters to the water and sewers that were. as of August 8th, we received 49 reports uh from them. They also received the additional 11 engagement letters which documented that those uh engagements are in in process and one entity notified us that they had dropped below the 100 connections that required a report. That's our report. Uh, we need to accept this report on private delinquents motion in a second. Got a motion in a second. Those papers say. Oppose no, can I ask one question, uh, what additional Act 453 states that this committee could stop the turn back of the 71. Engagements that we haven't heard from that are currently delinquent. Staff would recommend that we we send another letter and require a written response from these individuals by the October meeting. OK, got a motion, got a second. All those papers say aye, your friend, did you have something you needed to speak about, sir? Well, I was going, was gonna go through discussion, so Mr. Archer, the 71 delinquents that we have right now are, are these, these are just the reports Are these the right studies from the uh. Well, the, uh, the Act 453 requires that you have 18 months from the end of the fiscal year, so June 30th would have meant, would, would mean that the uh December 31, 2022 reports were due. They simply have not provided us with a report. I spoke to a yes sir. All right. Oh, so then let me get back in the queue after that since we're just talking about audit reports. One more time, Senator Far back in the queue since we're just talking about audit reports because I don't want to confuse the right studies with the audit report. Like we had a we need to go ahead in a second, all those s say aye. We're done with the delinquent and that Senator Love has additional questions. So Mr. Archer, are we keeping, are we keeping track of the right studies as well. We're supposed to be submitted to us, but we haven't started tracking them as of yet as far as who's delinquent and who's, uh, current, at this time. It, it, um, at what point are we gonna start tracking them to see if they're delinquent. Probably when the, the committee asks us to. OK, well then I'm, I'm gonna go ahead and start asking because that rate study, the rate study is really important to the legislation we passed in regards to making sure that the systems are financially sound. If we can begin to track it, I mean. I don't know if we just want to have a report immediately, but within the next couple of months if we can report on who has turned in the rate studies who's delinquent in. Um, we can begin to talk about the the physical soundness of these systems it's a 3 year process steps, so it's just the first one it's just the small entities are have been required at this 0.20 June 20th, June 30th of 24 was the 1st, 1st step on that rotation. How, how many systems do we have? I don't have that information. It's about 500 total as far as the, the ones that are connected to a city engagement, water departments are connected to more than. OK. All right. Thank you. uh. Representative, did you have something that you needed to speak about, sir? OK, all right, Mr. Gilmore, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Archer, uh, just following up on Senator Love's questions. What, what is involved with those auditing of the rate studies. Are we looking at whether or not they're they've completed the right study are we looking at how they arrived at uh. I guess what their new rates are going to be. We haven't taken any steps to examine them at all now. I mean, the law says that there's, you know, that they have to have the study to determine whether they need a, uh, increase and then how they there's several choices in the law to how they implement that either all at once if it's a large increase, they've got to implement it, I believe. I will say I fielded quite a few phone calls from citizens because I know they're getting done out there. Yeah, you know, and, and I have as well, so I, I, that's why I'm, I share some concerns with Uh, Senator Love, and so that's why I'm asking, are we going to be looking at again and maybe you don't know yet. Are we going to be looking at how they got to the rates in their rate study or we just could be looking at whether or not they've completed a rate study. We don't audit the water departments themselves. That's done by private CPAs, so unless there's a special request made of us, all we're gonna do is follow. For y'all to have the data there by uh questions y'all have. OK. So because that's, you know, we are at the cities, the all the water departments get private audits. OK. Thank you. Is that OK, Senator Gilmo OK, we'll come back. We'll come back if you need to, OK? OK. Uh, Representative Howard. Beatty, would you, you recognize her. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, I guess my, my question or, or what I'm gonna ask kind of following up on, uh, what the two senators were speaking of, uh, on these rate studies, uh, exactly what, um, leg audit. What the role in leg audit is on the rate studies and then if there's something that we could somehow you could provide us with the information. Uh, related to rate studies on all the municipalities that are under your jurisdiction and just kind of give us the status on on where those are and, and, and, and what's going on there because I, my understanding is that they have to have these rate studies prior to receiving loans through ANRC or even on some of the grants, the rate studies and an integral part of that process. And so it would be good to know, um, Where our municipality cities are in that process and also probably be good educational, uh, outreach to, um, Uh, to those, um, uh, bodies, uh, to understand the importance of having a current rate study, um, because I know it does take some time and it's not something that just happens overnight to get those rate studies completed. I know it can be a timely process, so maybe something along those lines for, for us to see but current law just states that they, they were the, I guess, the keeper of those reports. They just turn them into us and we, we actually, we've had some discussion on how we're going to how them whether they'll be on public information on our reports and that's something we do need to discuss, but as far as getting y'all information, we will do our best to get whatever answer whatever questions y'all have when that that is available. All right. Thank you, sir. Central of, do you have something else that you need to uh inject into this situation, sir. Mr. Chair, what I, what I do is, is I'll wait because the rate studies to me are, are very important if we can if we can somehow have somebody from ANRC to really just, just actually give a brief synopsis of of that that would be good so that the committee would understand and you know the. Not only the purpose of the race study but also if they're funding anyone at this point in time that actually has possibly had a rape study but have not implemented the new rates, different things like that. I mean like. The importance of those rights studies is just not for the sheer information but for the fact that the law says that that we're not supposed to be giving any funding to any cities or counties or towns or water systems that that have not increased their rates for the deferred maintenance. The deferred maintenance is what's killing this state. Uh, as it relates to the water system, so I mean, you know, things go hand in hand is, is, is, you know, we're talking about just the right study but things go hand in hand in to ensure that number one we're protecting, you know what we're supposed to be doing and at the same time, the systems are doing what they're supposed to do. So I mean we want to make sure that that you know everything is working. Uh together so if we can have somebody from ANRC come in and just talk briefly about that. Central Fred, would you like to put that in the form of a motion that maybe next month that we could get a report on that. Well, if my, if my seatmate were put in a form of motion because I'm not specifically on this committee, um, that would be, that would be good. Mr. Chair, um, I will, I will put that in the form of a motion. So Senator Gilmore does make that motion. Can we get a second? We got a second. All those papers say a poses on. Thanks, Senator Gilmore. Thank you for stepping in on that one. We're ready now to hear all the reports starting with deferred reports. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, we have 8 reports that were deferred from the July meeting starting on pages 1 and 2. We have, uh, Jefferson County, which was deferred in the July meeting, so the court could provide documentation that they, uh, complied with the finding which reads the Quote entered executive session during the meeting held on December 12, 2022 to review the 21 audit. In noncompliance with uh Code 25. 19106. Also the applicable meeting minutes did not document the review of the audit or accompanying findings in non-compliance with code. This was a repeat finding. In the July meeting, we requested that uh county Judge Gerald Robison. Uh, supply us with a copy of the minutes where this was done, which he did do. Uh, and Judge Robson was subsequently asked to appear here today. I've talked to Judge Robinson, and he is at the AAC meeting today has conflict, and he would be, uh, he told me I could say that he'd be more welcome to be here in October if that's the weekend, you're at now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, thank you, Mr. Archer, for that update. Um, So I just want to make sure we got the minutes. Was there video associated with those minutes? Did we verify actually took place. Excuse me, yes sir, I, I viewed the viewed the, uh, video, uh, recording of the meeting. OK, um, pretty, pretty concerning everything that's associated with what's going on down there and, and, and I, I understand a lot of things get said, so I'm not entirely sure of who's completely right and who's completely wrong in this case. I just think it needs a hard. Look, um, I don't want to defer this any longer as I made the motion last time, so I would say let's approve this, file it, um, and go ahead and get it to the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general's office as is per the law, I believe that's correct. Um, but with that, I would request that the uh judge, uh appear before us in October. Uh, that was part of my motion last time, so I'm going to reiterate that this time, um, and if we can compel him to do so, that would be great. OK. If I need to put any of that in motion, I'm happy to do it. OK, motion 2. Those folks say and that was also to file just for clarity to file that request file a report. Continuing with the reports that were deferred from the prior, uh, prior meeting on pages 2 through 6 with the chairs, um. Permission, uh, we're gonna skip straight to the county clerks, because that's my understanding that we We've covered the first set of findings, but the, uh, the finding that's, uh, this was deferred for was the uh Lone Oak County 2022 county clerk. A review of the payroll records in the county clerk's office for the periods January 1, 2022 through July 22 of 23 reveal the following questionable payments totaling over $4200 involving three employees as follows, for vacation. Lea taken before leave was earned, comp time without taxes withheld, overpayment due to hours worked being reported in the incorrect pay period, duplicate payments for inclement weather, personal leave without adequate supporting documentation for hours available and miscalculation of comp time. We recommend that the county consult with legal counsel regarding the legalities and irreconcilable nature of the clerk's executive office policy compared to the general county personnel, uh, policy. I believe we have the county clerk, uh, Don Porter, Don Porterfield and, and part of the request for the deferral was to invite a members at the meeting and we have uh Ms. Malcolm in to hear testimony. Sir, Ma'am, could you come to Sarah, before you sit in and ma'am. Could you identify who you are. Jason Owens, Lonoke County attorney. Don Porterfield Lonoke County Clerk and thank you both for you want to just tell us a little bit about the situation, please? I apologize. I got that turned on. Um, the primary thing had to do with, um, anniversary dates for leave time. Most of these were, were not actually cash payments, the taking of leave time in, in a way that, um, the, the primary thing to mine is anniversary date to be used for. New vacation and sick leave. The clerk had a custom of awarding that at the beginning of the calendar year where the corn courts policy in writing actually said that it should be awarded on the anniversary date of employment, um, that, that custom and the county clerk's office was because of the need for sort of an all hands on deck approach at election time and so they want to give vacation time earlier to allow for people to take vacation earlier in the year where they could be, um, but in light of the auditor's findings. The clerk has now changed where, um, that leave time dates, um, all those employees have either earn that in retrograde, in other words, the auditor's finding was that Vacation time, for instance, was awarded before it was earned. And so essentially created a negative balance on their vacation time allotment. Um, they either work long enough to bring that up to zero and, and even into a positive vacation time allotment or that amount was reduced from their payout when they left, uh, office. Um, the, um. Um, and so that, but that policy has, has been changed now to comply with what the core ports policy says. And so that speaks to the vacation time on each. of these 3 employees, um. Miscalculated comp time was owing to a confusion that um Uh, we all kind of became aware of at the at the county level at a court court meeting about a year ago that there was some confusion about when comp time accrued, whether that was a daily or weekly calculation, in other words, some officials, I think, were giving comp time if someone exceeds the federal and state wage and our laws are in a week. There was also some confusion about Whether that required those 40 hours actually and above actually be worked or whether vacation time counted toward. Again, the federal and state wage and hour laws are pretty clear about that. Um, you shouldn't count vacation or sick leave and that calculation about that. Um, I actually, um, as a county attorney conducted a course for the for the elected executive officials. What was it last summer, I think, um, um, maybe last fall. Um, where for a couple of hours I went over the wage and hour laws in considerable depth. Um, I think all of those, um, air comp time allotments were readjusted upon. Uh, notice from the auditor's office, um, this was, um. I think those were the two primary. Again, both of those have been remedied, uh, where the clerk is, is in compliance with not only the law but but also what the quorum Court has laid out as the policy fair questions, sir, could we open this up for a question Senator Pra, you will recognize. Mrs. Archer, did you have anything that you want to say in regards to this? OK, so let me ask you this. You said that you all did. You personally conducted Comp To who, who's who's actually keeping the records for comp time you keep the records for all employees for Cot. OK, you do. OK, you do now. I do now, yes, sir, a little bit on the. Ordinance to the court pass on comp time. When do you have to, when do you have to take it? Are you, are you just keeping it, uh, year by year, year over year now, or is it, is it, is there a mandatory time in which you need to take your comp time. The Korum Court, uh, well, I, I believe there is a comp time control ordinance in place that that requires you to keep under a certain amount, but when you get new vacation or, or, uh, those kind of things and on the comp time issue, it was about, um, it was being awarded. In some cases where it hadn't been earned because while their time sheet showed one of those days was a sick day, and thus shouldn't have been counted toward the overtime calculation. Makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. So, so now you're, you're actually keeping, you're making sure you're keeping up with all the time. You're making sure that they're taking it, you're deducting it, all that. Yes, sir. OK, alright and so Mr. Archer, do we keep, do we check these records also when we check the comp time records. Yes, so we do a payroll test and those in the payroll and then we do a uh competabsences examination as well. OK. All right. Thank you. Thank you, uh, rep representative Howard, you recognize, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, as city attorney, how many hours a week do you, or I mean as county attorney, how many hours a week are you? offices. Yeah, I don't work on site. You don't work on site. Well, except for court court meetings, I've appeared at every quorum Court meeting. Well, I mean, and the reason I asked that question is the last time we were here, Extensively all the questions were answered by the day to day operations and procedures at the county level, you address those. Um, it would be maybe a little. Refreshing to hear those procedures discussed by a county employees that are there full time, um, then. Hearing someone that's prepared. On behalf of the county, so I think what would make me feel better is to hear the clerk. Discuss the items that you just discussed instead of to hear you hear you. Uh, represent on their interest because they're the persons that are there day to day, and I think it's important for this committee to understand that the employees that are there that are charged with doing and, and, uh, performing the duties incumbent on that office understand those. Um, understand those duties and are clear in what the requirements are. And you answering these questions provides me no confidence and shouldn't provide any other member of this committee any confidence that the employees that are there will not make repeat violations and issues of these procedures and things have been identified in the audit. So I would, I would like to hear from the clerk to, um, instead of, of someone that's just prepared some notes and makes a good case. That may just be me, uh, but I heard a lot of it last time and it's, it's another repeat performance today. Well, certainly like any lawyer, I represent my clients. The clerk is here. So could Madam Clark, could you, could you explain and cover some of these from your perspective and your understanding of of now how things will work in the clerk's office. A lot of it was clerical, um, and I have gone to two AAC boot camp training sessions. I've been to Jackson's training session. I have a full understanding of how it's supposed to go and my policies have changed. I, I think that's what, what we really wanted, wanted to hear today instead of responsibility for what I did and, and I have corrected it the best I can. Everybody's back on the regular anniversary dates and this will not happen again, I assure you. And, and we understand that getting in a new position that there's always a learning curve in there and, and so I applaud you for it's available, uh, and, and, and trying to make certain that these things don't happen again. It's just we sit here and we hear A lot of cities and counties come to the table and speak, and most of the time it's the folks that are in the position that are, that are, you know, trying to, um, substantiate and, and, and tell us what happened. I think that's what we like to hear. We like to hear the folks that are, that are in the position. Talk about, they understand and Auditors were very um Help explain a lot of it to us too and was able to help me understand and my payroll clerk, the laws, and so. There's, you know, I commend them for their help too. Well, we appreciate that, that's what they're there for is, is committee. So thank you for those comments. And again, it was not an attack on you. It was just more we we want that reassurance. Representative Carroll. Thank you Mr. Chair. Madam Clerk, my question is really simple. Now everybody's on the same playing field, everybody's level and everybody started off at the where there should be in my office, yes, ma'am. That's all we're interested in. Yes, ma'am. OK, thank you. Senator Gilmore. Oh, I'm sorry, Rich, you go right ahead, sir. You OK? Representative Dabbing. If you got everything you need there. OK, we're good. OK, Senator. OK, OK, what about, what about, OK, OK, you need a motion to file a report a second All those in favor say aye. OK, continue on, uh, page 7 and continued under a deferred reports we have the uh. City of Edonia, uh, is there someone here from, OK, um, Uh, I don't you to 23 and 22, uh, the recorder treasure, adequate sporting documentation was not maintained for all disbursement is required by code, uh, repeated in the previous two reports. Bank accounts were not reconciled on a monthly basis as required by code. It's also repeated in the previous two reports. Cash receipts and disbursement journals were not properly posted to include all items of income and disbursements as required by code also a, uh, repeated in the previous two reports, a fixed asset listing was established, but records were not updated as required by code. In addition, the city has not adopted a fixed asset policy. This is a one time repeat. Yeah I believe we have the mayor, uh, don't notice it identify yourself and tell you a little, tell us a little bit about this situation, please. I'm Mark Cassy, mayor of Aona. And I'm Carolyn McAllister, the recorder and the treasurer for Adona. I am not a city clerk. I was hired as a treasurer and a reporter. That's OK. I'm glad we're glad that both of you are here today, and whoever wants to speak up can just begin this whole conversation. I talked for 38 years. Let me just get this going and we can get it over with. OK, whenever uh Mr. Ware came in when he did the audit, he did, um, identify where um some things that I had not done. And on the checking account I balanced Our checkbooks in the checkbook instead of doing it on the bank statement. Because to me, it was still balanced and I still had it, but I was written up for not doing it on a bank statement and not signing it. So we have corrected that. Another thing was, um, whenever we hired people to mow or to do work on our buildings. I did not have an invoice for this I thought these people since they were independently hired, they would do their own invoice for 1099. so now we have printed invoices and I do fill out invoices for these people that we hire extra. Uh, another one was the W-2s and the mayor and I are the only that had to have W-2 forms instead of 1099s and when I took all of our paperwork for the councilman that I pay them monthly and us monthly block. They informed me we don't need a W-2, you need to do 10 of the auditor said, and they said, well, we're going to do 1099 anyway. So now next year I know I need 2 W-2s. Forgot think of anything else, the fixed assets we have upgraded or fixed asset list, um. Oh, I was also informed that I needed to keep two separate journals one with all the disbursements that I made in all of our checking accounts for the month and then another journal had to include all of the deposits we received from the state of Arkansas or from the fire des for our fire department and I do have those two journals now. I've corrected everything because I sent a letter to Mr. Ware, and he came and And I left it for him. And he even showed me where to look up all these codes that I did not know existed, but I do now. So Is that it? Or was there something else Mr. Archer, have they satisfied everything as far as the auditing sounds like we're in good shape. Is there any questions that may have question? I got a letter myself about going over budget on the street in out here, is that something we need to discuss today or is it going to cost me another day off work. I'll say, uh, is this your first year as mayor? Yes, sir, you don't get, you get one free pass. OK, so if you don't, if you don't the it is a repeat, but since it Was repeated under your predecessor, we, we weren't going to bring you down here, but we do appreciate you coming. I'm glad to do it. There was some upgrades that need to be done 40 years ago and be 40 years before they they done again. Yes sir, thank you for being here though. And is there any questions that the committee may have? I being no motion to file a second. All those papers say. OK, I hope y'all don't see me next year. Thank y'all are going in the right direction and we do appreciate you being here. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Continuing on page 7 under defer reports that were previously deferred. We have the town of Alexa, 22 and 21. Under the mayor, the town council did not review the review the prior reports and accompanying comments at the first regular scheduled meeting following the receipt of the report in noncompliance with code. This is a repeat finding. The, uh, I talked with the Mayor Jason Turner, who was invited to the meeting. He is in the industry that this hurricane is required here um attendance in the field today, but I believe the city attorney M. Amy Green is here today. Yes, ma'am. Could you please identify yourself? You push the button, ma'am. We can't hear you. Amy Green, city attorney of Lexa. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for being here. Oh, I, I need to add one thing, Mr. uh, Mayor Turner did provide me with a copy of the minutes where this has been corrected on Monday night of September. That's correct. I also believe he emailed you guys a letter he had written apologizing for the oversight. Uh, it was a due to the changing of the guard with the uh secretary recorder and that has been corrected. We don't anticipate. Are there any questions that we may have? Got a motion to file on the motion file Carol and I need a second and we did. All those papers say ah, we go ahead and file that one. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for being here. Continuing on page 8 under the uh deferred report, the city of Whitaker Village, 23 and 22, uh, the recorder treasurer was invited here today, but, uh, I believe, um, I talked to her earlier this week and she is under the weather, staff recommends that we, uh, defer this report a motion to the report. Motion second. All those folks there. All right. A continuing on page 8, we have at the request of the chairman we're going to batch these next 3 reports. They're all for the Antoine water system for 22, 21. I believe is the mayor for Antoine here? This is this report is done by a private CPA and we had not received a response from the city on the findings that the private CPA had, so, um, we send a second letter. I believe the mayor's here to address him in person now. Yes, sir, David Hendrix, the mayor of the town of Antoine. Yes, sir. Thank you for being here today. And go right ahead with anything that you may need to tell the committee, sir. I do have the minutes that were requested, I don't really understand or know why they were not presented at the audit time. I'm afraid that right, the wrong person didn't get asked or the right person didn't get asked, but we do have our minutes for every meeting that we have, so I have a copy of those for you today. Um, The other findings. You asked for a report. About customer adjustments. We have all of our Bookkeeping is on a ledger cards, we do not have software to produce those reports. And so uh we don't have a means to produce that report either of the reports that you have asked for, all of our bookkeeping is manual. And so A little small system like ourselves, we just cannot afford to have a uh. Software. It is expensive to operate that. So we do it all by hand, but we do have those records. In our ledger cards if you'd like to see that. Representative Carroll, I have a question. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. You have access to Xerox machine or something like that. You can just make copies of it and provide audit audit would accept that, would they not, Mr. Archer? This is a private report. It's a water private report, so he refers to us, it would be the privacy auditor didn't have access to those. Yes, ma'am, he did have access to those. Uh, would you like to have a copy of every ledger card in our file? Mr. Archer, I would not. That answered that question, Representative Carroll, is there anything else that you want to add there? OK. I need a motion to need a motion to file this year. OK, all those papers say. OK, thank you, sir. Thank you. OK, that, that, uh, now on page 9, we have one report that was filed with the bond board. That's the city of Lake Village for the years 21 and 20. One of the chief financial officer, the CFO who resigned in March 23, was paid over $11,000 over a four year period for taxes and insurance premiums that were not withheld from payroll. The city paid health insurance premiums for over $1700 in over $6800 for 23 and 22 respectively for city council members, health insurance benefits that did not, that did not collect premiums from the council members. This transaction conflicts with the city's personnel policy which limited limits health insurance benefits to full-time employees and with Article 12, Section 5. This has been, uh, turned over to the bond board. Oh, we've got one more, uh, under the police chief, our review of the police department records. revealed undocumented cash withdrawals of $640 and $400 in the years 21 and 20. Respectively. Therefore, the validity of these disbursements could not be determined. Staff recommends we file this report. The motion to file a motion need a second, all those papers have. We've got 18 reports that were oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, I have just a quick question prosecuting attorney and attorney general without us making that in the motion. OK, that is correct. Representative Carroll is a good question. Yes, ma'am. We have 18 reports that were, uh, 18 reports that were, that will be filed with the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general. The first one is on page 13 to 14, uh, Magnolia Water and Sewer department and it will be presented by staff there she is I lost her for a minute, uh M A. OK. This report is issued in a response to a request from the 13th Judicial District prosecuting attorney for audit to review selective financial records of the city of Magnolia Water and Sewer Department. The objectives of this review were to determine if all funds were properly deposited in department bank accounts, determine if the Department complied with Arkansas code requirements for obtaining annual financial audits and assess internal controls for adequacy. The review was conducted primarily for the period January 1 of 2023 through October 30th of 23, located in Columbia County, Magnolia is a municipality of the first class operating under the mayor-council form of government. The city council consists of 8 members who govern the city and its water and sewer department. The department provides water and sewer services to approximately 4000 customers. The city employs a water department supervisor who is responsible for reconciling daily collections and. caring bank deposits. The employment of the individual who served as water department supervisor during the review period was terminated in October of 2023 after city officials discovered improperly voided receipts and improper adjustments to customer accounts. Our review of department financial records revealed that during the period January 1 of 23 through October 30th of 23, receipts totaling $15,000 for improperly voided and improper adjustments were subsequently made to customer accounts. Several internal control deficiencies contributed to funds being misappropriated and the misappropriation not being detected timely. It should be noted that staff determined that the department was in substantial compliance with Arkansas code requirements for obtaining annual financial audits of their water department. During an interview with Arkansas State Police on November 1st of 23. Mandy Azell, the water supervisor, acknowledged misappropriating department funds and was later charged with theft of property and abuse of office. The mayor has responded to the report and indicated that the city has implemented controls to ensure all money is properly accounted for in the future. This report has been forwarded to the 13th Judicial District and the Attorney General. Need a motion file. I was on the paper say. Continuing under reports filed with the uh the attorney General and the uh uh prosecuting attorney on page 15 and 16, we had the Wabacia Water and Sewer Department, which also will be presented by Ms. Ashley. This report is issued in a response from the 11th West Judicial District prosecuting attorney to review selected transactions of the town of Wabasea Water and Sewer Department. The objective objectives of this review were to determine if all funds were properly deposited, determine if selected disbursements were for proper department purposes, determine if the Department complied with the Arkansas code relating to audit reports and assess internal controls over accounting processes. This review was conducted primarily for the Period January 1 of 2022 through the end of 2022. Located in Jefferson County, Wabasa is an incorporated town operating under the mayor-council form of government. The city council consists of 5 members who govern the town and its water and sewer department and the department provides water and sewer services to approximately 115 customers. The town employs a recorder treasurer who is responsible for receding, depositing, and dispersing Department funds. The individual who served as recorder treasurer during the review period resigned on January 17th of 23. Our review revealed undeposited cash totaling $1250 in improper disbursements totaling 5540 during the review period. The improper disbursements included $4,311 in undocumented payments to a business owned by a relative of Recorder treasure. The recorder treasurer who resigned was responsible for depositing and dispersing department funds. Several internal control deficiencies contributed to funds being misappropriated and the misappropriation not being detected timely. In addition, staff determined that the department was not in compliance with Arkansas code that requires the department to obtain annual audits or AUPs within one year of the department's fiscal year in. The city responded to our findings and indicated that they have implemented proper segregation of duties, receipt reconciliation, invoice retention, and bank statement reviews. Additionally, they intend to obtain an audit within one year of the fiscal year in. This report has been forwarded to the 11th West Judicial District prosecuting attorney and the Attorney General. the question are there any questions? If not, we'll follow. Continuing with reports referred to the prosecuting attorney and the attorney General on page 717 through 28. We have 3 reports from the city of Augusta and to request the chairman, I'm going to batch those three together. Uh, there are for 22, 21, and 20. All three of these, as I said, will be referred to the prosecuting attorney. Uh, I'm gonna read most of the findings are in all three reports. I'm gonna read the findings and just indicate what years they refer to if that's during the course of the audit, it was discovered the city's payroll expenditure surpassed the allocated budget. Additionally, inadequate documentation was found to substantiate the reasons the payroll increases, indicating deficiencies in payroll management controls. It was noted that the standing authorization of a 3% raise was granted. However, the increase was not accounted for in the. City's budget. I find it appeared in the 22, the 21, and the 20 engagement. During the course of the audit, it was noted that the city wrote off and made adjustments to utility receivables. Without adequate documentation to support these actions. Additionally, it was observed that the city council has not established formal policies or procedures governing the process for writing off utility receivables. This finding was appeared in the 22, 21 and 20 report. During the audit, it was observed that there are deficiencies in supporting documentation for for credit card transactions, specifically, several receipts like signatures and failed to provide a clear business purpose for the expenses incurred. This finding appeared in the 2221 and 2 examination, it was observed that the city dispersed checks to both employees and contractors without maintaining adequate documentation for expenses. Some of the expenses were handwritten invoices. Signed by the mayor. We also discovered that a sequence of sequence of several checks, stubs, and they're supporting documentation was missing from the city's records. Those missing checks Stubs total over $128,000 for 22. There was a similar finding also recommends we file this report. First of all, are there any questions that we may need to ask, but there's no one here to answer the question, Joey. It would have to be you so well, they, um, the. was present at the I believe it was the June 24th meeting on the full meeting and the majority of this was covered during the our special report on just the, uh, fraud procedures we do that without objection. We'll file a report. Continuing with the reports filed with the referred to the prosecution and attorney and attorney General on page 28. Have the city of Dover 23 under the mayor. The city paid Chamber of Commerce $1700 without a contract for services in noncompliance with Article 12, Section 5. According to the city officials, these funds were used to pay for expenses relating to an event hosted by the chamber. Staff With without any objection we'll find this report. Continuing on page 29, again still referring to the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general, city of Louisville, 22 and 21 under the mayor and recorder treasurer, the city paid $3300 and almost $2500 in 22 and 21 respectively for gym memberships on behalf of city employees and apparent conflict with the public purpose doctrine in Article 12, Section 5. In addition, these benefits were not reported on employees IS W24. With not any questions, staff recommends we file this report. Joe, I would have, OK, Senator we'll go right here, sir. What, what gym, I've been to Louisville a few times. I don't know that they have one. I mean, not that I frequent gyms, as you can probably tell, but I mean. Just curious, thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other questions? OK. What that objection, we'll file a report. Continuing on page 30 again, uh referred to the prosecuting attorney and attorney general, a city of Marion for 22. This was a, uh, uh, report prepared by a private CPA. Receipts were not issued for all funds received. Deposits were not being made on a timely basis basis, often weeks in arrears. And when made appear uh appeared to have been inconsistent with the amounts collected. There was no reconciliations performed between the daily distribution reports and the bank account and there was a lack of segregation of duties over deposits and reconciliation process. Court receipts of approximately $400,000 were not deposited over a four-year period. Just a side note, uh, leg audit did an investigative report dated 12-423. And so this, that $400,000 has been, uh, presented to the full committee back in December, so it's the same just If it's the same amount of money. So, uh, continuing with findings, there was one individual who performed all functions including implying a signature stamp on checks, assets were misappropriated. If there are any questions staff recommends. That objection will file a report. Continuing with reports referred to the prosecuting attorney and attorney General on page 32. Through 34. We have Marion County. for 22. Under the county judge. We know that undocumented disbursements consisting of the following in noncompliance with code totaling $89,500. These payments were, uh, for checks to construct a construction company, financial institution that appeared to be a payroll with holdings and taxes, a local municipality for what appeared to be a purchase of equipment. A local attorney for juvenile local pharmacy, a company that sells handheld sonar devices to a local grocery store. Of 36, a little over $36,000 in credit card payments tested. We were unable to substantiate over 16,000 due to the lack of supporting documentation. Additionally, we noted over $1600 in credits posted as negative expenses of the appropriation journal without explanation or supporting documentation. The county purchased a vehicle totaling just under $50,000 for the School of New Hope and and nonprofit organization without a contract for services and apparent conflict with Article 12. Section 5, there was a similar finding noted in the previous report. There are no questions staff recommendations. We have a question. Senator Gilmore. I, I've just got to ask because I mean, this is. Just sitting here listening through all these it's getting a little ridiculous, but Mr. Archer, what is a portable handheld sonar device. Any idea it's uh from what we could research it is used for. Now that's, that's our research that's not provided by the county. OK. Senator Gilmore, I've got a question on that one too, uh, exactly who was responsible for you? Probably the sheriff's office, who I would be as safe as rescue equipment, I would assume it would be the rescue team or the sheriff's office, but we don't, I can, I can get you that answer if needed. Wouldn't be great, but you know you're supposed to be a client. And you're supposed to be signed by an official, isn't that right? That is correct. OK, sir. The follow up was, was that device by any chance attached to a boat? It was a handheld face. I mean, we don't have any documentation of what was bought. That's what the company, the, the check was made to a company that sells those things. We don't know, obviously it wouldn't be in the uh finding if we knew exactly what was purchased. Thank you, Mr. Archer. OK, Senator Stone, just out of curiosity, but did anybody check to see if the city had an official dive. We can check on that for you because if they don't, that's a problem within in and of itself. I mean, I used to be on the dive team. You had to have certified divers training and everything else, so they don't have a dive team one on hand held on or not. Thank you, thank you, Senator Stone. Any other questions? Without any objection, we will continue on page 35 on, uh, continuing with reports referred to the prosecuting attorney and the Attorney general. We have Newton County for 2022. The county judge and the uh county circuit clerk, the county paid over $4400 for unused accumulated sick leave to an employee who resigned in noncompliance with the county's personnel policy, which states employees who retire from the county shall be paid up to 30 days of accumulated sick leave. And just on the county clerk county circuit clerk. The remaining ballots in the circuit bond trust account were not identified with receipts issued but not yet set. I believe we have the, uh, county circuit clerk, uh, Donnie Davis and County Judge Warren Campbell here today. OK, why, why you gentlemen are standing please. Could you identify yourself and circuit clerk of Newton County. I'm Warren Campbell, the county judge. OK. Go right here make you have at home. Could Judge, could you explain this situation to us and what happened, which one. Judge, are you OK or do you just look at circuit clerk explains part of it on that, on the sick leave policy is we had a personnel policy in place and it wasn't really clearly written. And so we came back. And when she got paid these days, we realized that Do that. So we came back and did a new ordinance to amend the personnel policy and retroacted it back to cover what we had done to clear up the. That, that sounds that sounds good, doesn't it Mr. Arsher so far. The other finding was about the circuit bond trust account identified balance. Yes, and uh What we did is we got $23,450.76. In an account that was opened in 2008 I believe or somewhere, and, uh, I have no clue where that money came from. We dug through court cases and all its unidentified funds and I've been in contact with uh, The auditor State, Mr. Monson's office and uh They have sent us some forms to Send this to the state is unidentified funds. And I were a 2 year period of no, you know, nothing claims it, it'll come back to the. County general fund to be appropriate. And the same thing applies for another account. is Um We started out in 22. $332,186.32. That's when this audit was taken in 202. Then we go back to our 23 funds. And uh we have got it down to in 23 as of the balance of 12 to 131,820 that that many dollars has been paid out of that fund since in a year's time. Then we go back and We have got identified at the 81,000 we have got 80. OK, 2024 as the day of 2024 at 8:30, 24, that same account has got $60,800.14 in it. And we can account for all of it except 300 and something bucks. That's a that's in a case file. That's what we've been doing since the audit is trying to find that funds and I've been in contact with everyone, and I even talked to a circuit judge about signing an order to just deposit that in the great treasure hunt in late 2 years and that's my game plan. I'm hoping to have that done by the end of this year, because I won't really that money it's nothing but pain. That's a that's in a case file. That's what we've been doing since the audit is trying to find that funds and I've been in contact with everyone, and I even talked to a circuit judge about signing an order to just deposit that in the great treasure hunt in late 2 years and that's my game plan. I'm hoping to have that done by the end of this year, because I won't really that money it's nothing but a paying first time money is a problem, you know. Representative Carroll, thank you, Mr. Chair. When did you come into office under these funds being carried over all the way from 2005, so nearly 20 years of them have been, yes. OK, are there any, let's see, Representative Beatty, Senator Hammer, go right ahead, sir. Thank you, Mr. Sher. Thank you all for being here this afternoon on that issue about the, the fund you. I, I, I want to ask. Audit a question on this as much as I do y'all because I don't want y'all to do something that's going to turn around and come back to bite you as far as how you handle that account. But based on the explanation that he gave is that Or are you able to answer now? That's the proper way for them to handle that he referenced consulting with the circuit judge, that we're in favor of that. Yes, sir. OK, so that, because what I don't want to see happen is y'all come back here and didn't handle that correctly and then sit back in front of us again and. And so have you consulted with your county attorney to know that that's the proper way to handle it and that's the reason I'm almost been afraid to do anything with this money because I'm afraid someone will come back and open up and reopen the case or we'll owe it to someone and won't have it, kind of like what you're thinking, you know. OK All right. Thank you. Any more questions? Let's see, I think we do have, uh, it's OK. Representative Caroline. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, this question is for Mr. Archer, or maybe it should be for the AAC, um, We've been hearing today about a lot of Audit results that Um, are being turned over to the prosecuting attorney. So one would assume that they're going to try to determine if this was criminal behavior or just people weren't properly trained or sloppy or whatever. Is there anything that is done to educate other county officials to these kinds of things that have been going on that they are caught and that they are, you know, remedy is sought. I mean, what is done to Kind of put an end, I mean, slow this stuff down. These things are ridiculous, some of them offer training on numerous, uh, topics. It's all volunteer to my understanding that they they attend on their own, own record, no mandatory, uh. Well, I can, I can understand people making mistakes, and I, I do know that, um, people are crooks too, some are, and, um, I just, some of these situations are just off the chart. Thank you. Bworth Sir, you go right ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, two quick questions for you. I want to tag on to what, uh, representative, uh, Dalby was asking about, and, and I think it's probably as important for you to give an explanation as anything, but if you've been in office since 2005, how is it that this has gone on as long as it has that it's now been revealed through an audit finding or did you know about this before and just give a little history. If you don't mind, would you pull that mic a little closer for those Those of us that are a little hard hearing please. Yeah, I knew this money was there, you know, for a long period of time when I came in, you know, once I got into office and discovered it was there. I knew it was there, but I, I was afraid to do anything with it to a point because I didn't know who would be coming back to ask for it or, or what have you and in the last couple of audits and then we had to go back and try to figure out who this money belonged to. You know what, what's there's county cases, civil cases, I think there's some juvenile, you know, it's all different cases, but they got a list of cases here that has funding in some of them has $50 some of them have more, you know, it's just several cases now we've got to go back and and put it to all the paperwork together to get the circuit judge to sign off to get it to the auditor of state with the funds. OK, so that will cure the problem. The problem's cured at that point. OK. So you, you just basically been trying to figure it out and make sure where the. How long have you been working on trying to find out where it's come from? Well, the last year, but we've been on this for a few years, you know, because they're all paper cases. It's all paperwork, you know, and it's all cases and you got to really go through the cases to determine if there's funds left in those cases. OK. And then one other question, the employee that's expected to pay back the money, um, how is that going as far as the repayment, and I can't imagine, I mean. pretty hefty amount for them to have to work out. Can you just give us an update on that matter of fact, I talked to the county attorney yesterday and they're trying to get it affordable for them to, you know, a horrible. Price, you know, payback. OK. All right, question for staff, is this a repeat finding on this account? or the, the only repeat is the on the ther trust bond trust fund. Yes, sir. That 80. Yes, they the $80,000 yes, sir, he's trusted. OK. When did, when did staff first identify this in the 21 report because it just says it was uh repeated one time. And that 80,000 is down to 60,000 now, and that's the reason we've been holding off because there's money owed out of that money there, you know. Making sure we had it covered. OK. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion file. All those in favor say aye. Continue on page 36, still under uh referred to the prosecuting attorney and attorney general. We have Wata County 2022 under the treasurer. December 28, 22, a vendor contacted the county about a payment of over $2100 that had not been received. The county discovered that the check that was issued in October of 22 have been endorsed by an unknown individual who also altered the payee name and address. The county reported the incident. The sheriff's department and contacts the bank as a report date, the county has not recovered these funds. No questions staff recommends that we file Have any questions? Have any questions with that objection, we'll file the report. on page 37. I also want to refer to the prosecuting attorney and Attorney General with the city of Central City 23 and 22 under the record of treasure. A review of payroll and employee leave records for the period January 1, 22 through December 31st of 23 revealed the following questionable payments totaling just under $5000 to the district court clerk. These included, uh, funds for leave taken before it was earned, miscalculation of holiday back pay and miscalculation of a bonus pay. In addition, the city is not in compliance with its internal policy concerning leave carryover amounts or leave payout. No questions staff recommends that we file, OK. Are there any questions on this one without objection we'll file a report. City of Parkdale 23, 22 continuing on page 37 under referred to the PA and the AG under the mayor, wages of the payroll preparer extended exceeded previously authorized amounts by over $2600 and over $3100.23 and 22 respectively. These overpayments occur due to an increase in hourly rate. Unused sick uh vacation leave. A Christmas bonus not approved by city council or reflected in the minutes or city policy. Additionally, the budget was not detailed enough to determine the payroll for payroll's current authorized salary. There's no question city uh staff recommends that we file this report. The objection will file a form. On pages, uh, page 39 under, uh, continued under. Reports filed with the PA and the AGs. We have Phillips County 22. One of the county judge, the county dispersed funds totaling almost $9000 to the Phillips County Analysts Association without a contract for services in apparent conflict with Article 12, Section 5. This is a repeat finding. Although the county employed janitorial staff. The county paid over 172,000 and over $251,000 for janitorial services in the calendar year 23 and 22, respectively. Have you a view of these expenditures reveal the following questionable transactions. The county paid janitor a janitorial employee over $33,000 and over $68,000 in 23 and 22, respectively, without a contract for services in excess of salary. A janitorial employee and janitorial employees submitted invoices totaling over $20,000 and over $11,000 for 23 and 22 respectively. The county paid these invoices prior to services being provided. Based on available documentation we were unable to determine if janitorial employees provided these services during regular business hours. Additionally, a non-employee was paid over $66,000 and over 75,000 in 23 and 22 respectively. Although contracts were provided, payments exceeded the contract amounts. This finding has been repeated, uh, Since 2019. I believe we had the county Judge Clark Hall here today to answer questions. Please identify yourself and then tell us a little bit about the situation, please. Uh, Clark Coffin was county judge. Amy Green, County Attorney, Phillips County. OK. thank you guys for being here. Uh, could, Judge, could you explain this to us, sir? Could you explain a little bit of this to us? I can explain all of it. So kindly, what got us into this the 1st $8,977 is because we were paying the intergovernment agreement contract that we were supposed to pay between the cities and the county. To prepare for Ambush Company and one of our, one of our, uh, major cities quit paying and we were still under contract with Patford. We as soon as we could, we, uh, voided the contract and had a single standalone contract with the county and Pat Fernandez has to get their own individual contracts with the other entities we got out of the trying to support the county's ambulance service through. funds. Um, The second part. The corn court of Phillips County, due to the fact that COVID-19 and at that time, Phillips County, which at the time we Phillips County had the highest rate of murder per capita in the nation. And we also had we over twice the national average on uh property crime. We were having a tremendously number of criminal cases going on in our courthouse. We had hundreds of dozens of people coming in each day and I had, uh, we had uh our uh employees. Who claimed the courthouse during the day and make sure that it kept up. At night, they were given permission by the Crown Court for us to employ them to spray the 7 of the county buildings that public uses in the county. And our elected officials and our employees were fearful of their health due to the COVID-19 crisis that they were experiencing. And we spent, uh, we allowed them to spray those buildings each night to sanitize the buildings to keep it safe for our citizens. We, uh, Provided masks, gloves, hand wipes, everything we can to the to the subject matter to the people part of it we did everything in the corum court, the corn Court had given us given us permission to let us use these employees. Now, far as the, they never worked during regular working hours. This was done at night after work or on the weekends. Second thing is. We have worked to resolve this when it was brought to our attention that we had spent a lot of money, but I will remind this body most of this money came through the federal government. It was uh we received a a little over $600,000 from the federal government to to provide. COVID supplies and take care of our citizens. Which we felt we did an excellent job of even though we had the highest death rate from COVID-19 per capita of any county in the state of Arkansas. We had the uh the lower part, uh, the two checks that were written, paid was warrant signed, we signed, had the checks cut, they were held in my, uh, chief of staff office until the project was completed and they got their money. Yes, the checks were cut in advance, but they wouldn't delivered till after the service was provided. Thirdly, as far as the last there, the non-employment, those are contracts that we had with the uh pardons and probation for the state of Arkansas. The Phillips County Housing Authority, the uh Phillip County Health Unit and Phillips County library to help uh plan to help uh clean their facilities during uh contract library which the corn court did not feel like they could give me another 2 employees full time. In order to to make this feasible and keep these facilities clean we contracted out and if we went over it was just an oversight on our part that we didn't keep up on it, but everything we did was uh. Money is funded through the federal government source some way through the federal government and our. It was done and if there's errors made, it was just inadvertently errors. That's pretty much all I can say as far as the leather down at the bottom. Uh We try to be more careful with our finances offices. I'll go back and refer to y'all that, uh, uh, we've had 7 years I've had 5 treasurers, and we finally got a treasure now that's functioning and doing her job and learning and working to do her job. We're getting our finances and our cash flow better. We have a new county clerk that is more astute to trying to make sure she stays out of auditors eyes. And she's scared to death at the auditors. And uh So we're doing better, but I can't, uh, other than this is, uh, nothing was done without the corn court's knowledge. Nothing was done without the corn court's approval. So I felt like we were, we did our, our due diligence with the public notice and we passed the ordinance, ordinance I think it was ordinance or resolution of land on us to use existing employees. To do that after hours. Thanks Mr Jeremy. Thank you, Judge. Judge, we do have a few questions here, sir. Uh, Senator Gilmore. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Judge, um, probably a little different sitting on that end of the table since your service here in the legislature, so sure, may I interrupt you? Chaman, the reason I'm such a beloved mayor and a beloved county judge. I can't understand that far down, so you may have to repeat his questions, uh, Johnny, well, I'll try that I'm trying to be rude to him, but I don't, that's the reason everybody loves me in my county because I came here when they cuss me out. All right Go part comes in handy in the legislature as well. I'm, I've been there also. Well, that's what I said. It might be a little different sitting at that end of the table for years, so since your service in the legislature, can you hear me OK? I can hear you, yes sir, but you got to just speak a little more. Precise. I'll, I'll try to, uh, Try to do that. Um, 172,252,000 is a lot of money, Judge. That would, uh, COVID material or COVID uh mask, gloves, spraying, chemicals, uh, equipment to spray with, uh, all that would, uh, bought a bid process we had and the person that got it was lower than the other three bids when we reached out to get prices and they could get it delivered. to us, but I will tell y'all. We provided gloves, masks, sanitation, supplies, whatever we could to any publicly owned entity in our county that ran out or needed including schools, doctor's offices, hospitals. Medical clinics, anybody that was in the public domain to providing public safety for our citizens if they ran out or could not get the supplies, we made it available through our sources and we paid for it with the money that was coming through the federal government. OK. So, as I understand, that was for 22 and 23, correct? Well, uh, I think 23 kind of got out of hand and we, I'm not sure about 23, but in 22 is what I was uh referring to that was, uh, uh, we had a lot of court cases going on. We had a lot of people issues, OK. I, I'm just thinking back to the COVID pandemic. I know 1920 and 1921 was what, what you normally think of as the COVID-19. pandemic, right, I understand that. So 2 was bad for us too, and I got my still work if you let me finish, if you don't mind, sure, yeah, so I understand that maybe there were still COVID cases. I, I respect that and I respect everyone's right to, you know, wear the glove, wear a mask, that's fine. I'm just thinking that's a lot of money to spend on the very tail end of a pandemic. After, you know, we saw the increase in the peaks that we saw that was sort of flattening out and pretty much gone by those years. Well, the bills are still coming in. OK, so do these bills track back to, I, I, I, I don't, when the warrants come in, I sign them and I send them down to the county clerk to pay them. Uh, I'm not privy. I don't know that. I don't want to say something I'm not sure of. My report from talking to my, the people in the offices in the county clerk and the county treasurer and my my 6 chief of staff, is this all this money came from the purchasing of, of, uh, supplies to keep our office. I'm, we are right now 34th of the people in Phillips County are wearing masks. We have an Outbreak right now COVID-19 cases in Phillips County as we speak. And for some reason, we're, we're having issues now. They, uh, they're, they're asking for mask to wear in the courtrooms or Ash and masked for everywhere because they are my population has a, has a uh inherent fear. Of COVID-19. And I'm going to protect. I feel it's my responsibility in the county's responsibility to protect our citizens as best I can. I, I cannot answer your question. My answer is to my staff and the, and the, and the employees there in the courthouse tell me this money can't went to pay for the COVID-19. Most of it went on this two things and this money was paid through. I cannot give you a definitive answer on that. I understand. So my question, Mr. Archer, do we, do, do these figures tie back to invoices during the COVID pandemic, or? How does that work? If he's saying that that was bills that came in for those years. Do we, do we have an answer to that? Uh, the, just had to know that the 22 COVID supplies total a little over $60,000 and to supplies in 23 total a little over 26,000, the rest of it would have been salaries and it would have been posted to the appropriation Journal for those years, and it's a, uh, we pick up 60 days' worth of receivables and payables and pull them back in the proper year. So if it was paid in January and February and it was the invoices were dated from previous times, it would have been pulled back into 21 or the appropriate year. It's after the 60 days we post it where it is. That's regulatory basis of the county. OK, I find, I find that interesting. So, uh, you stated, Judge, you stated earlier that the quorum Court approved all of these expenditures. They're well aware of them and they approved them. I, I presume the minutes will that reflect that they gave us permission to use the employees after hours to do this work. The boys also did, uh, the 5 or 67 buildings they also clean the floors, wax the floors on weekends after work. They got paid for doing that extra, the corn court gave us permission or us permission to allow them to do that? Yes. OK, thank you, Judge Mr. Archer, do minutes reflect the approvals related to these expenditures, or did y'all look at that, the, uh, for the non-employees, the contracts, uh, were for, uh, A little over 18,000 and a little over 8000. And the 18,000 year contract, they overpaid the contract by $47,000 and the 8000 year they overpaid it by 60, almost 67,000. OK, and so the contracts were approved. That's what was approved in the minutes for the contracts were approved. The contracts were approved, but they overspent those. Yes. OK, which one, which one are we talking about? Which item uh the non-employees that were paid that was the contractor, yes, I didn't until we realized that we had overpaid it. That's an error on our part, no doubt. We'd had contracts, uh, we, uh, due to the fact that we have 1234567. Public public buildings and we did not have enough employees and We got reimbursed also. From the state pardons and parole up to $20,000 a year for to pay for cleaning in their offices that they are in the county. They're in this county office. They're in the county building, but they pay us $200,000 a year. And we're losing money, but they needed a place to stay, so we, we took the $20,000 that they were paying in their former place and we didn't up it any, even though it cost us a little money, the state of, uh, uh, they're paying us money and also, uh, the health department is paying us money for, for this, this last two items you're referring to the health department is paying money. The city of Helna is also in some of one of our buildings and they were supposed to be paying us $200,000 a year, but we haven't got any money from them, nor have we got any money for holding their inmates. But that to you, a lot of that money you're talking about should have been reimbursed if we had, and it is reimbursed from the state pardons and parole and from the, uh county and state health department through their budget. Now. If the city of Helena had paid their share, he would have wiped out most of this expense. All right, Judge, thank you. It's clear as mud for me, but I may have some additional questions. Senator Jim, well, I've got a question. I'd like to kind of ask the judge. Judge, once you put these contracts in, you know, to do all these different items. Was that injected into your budget through the corn cos it was OK and contracts are filed at the county clerk like they're supposed to be, uh, we have auditors have looked for contracts that we know we signed and was filed. They, we have not found them. I do not know. I cannot, I have no authority inside the county clerk's office or any other office of the elected official. That's so I don't know what happens to But I can document it it uh warrants come in if they're legal warrants, I sign them. Sent them down to be paid. I have no control over it after that. OK, Judge, we have a few more questions, uh. Senator Hammer, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, Judge. Can you hear me OK? Yeah. All right, good afternoon. My, my question is going to be on finding 2. Where it says the county paid a janitorial employee. Was there a janitor contract that was operating simultaneous to you paying the janitorial employee. Are we talking may I to make sure I'm on the right one. You're talking about the janitor. They got $33,000. Yes, sir, and then, um, well, that and then also got paid 200,400 and then 11,00175 was that paid to a a contract service or to an individual employee. The $20,41111,175 was for, for waxing, stripping and waxing all the buildings floors and they do that on the weekend. We had to with the warrants submitted the checks was cut, brought back to the county administrative assistant and was not released until after the the job was completed, passing the smell test. Now, the other one, we're back to this other. They were spraying. And working after hours and on weekends doing Projects that was approved by the Corn Court. Right. My, my question is though, was that. Was that paid to an individual, or was it put out for bid and paid under a contracted service. It was not put out for bid. OK, it was paid through the my interpretation of the corn Court giving us permission to use those employees to do work after hours. OK, and, and are they regular employees of the county full-time employees. My, I have a, a representative or senator. I can't tell where I'm at down there. Senator, Senator, I can't be represented Hammer, you and I served together. I know we did, but I, I, you know, y'all changed jobs down here so I can't keep up with all of y'all, uh, let's see. We have, we have all these public buildings. My county court only allows me two janitors. Which is not enough to claim all of the public buildings that and, and maintain a sense of uh Of progressionists in our county. So to, to, so they allow me. By ordinary they allowed me to use these people after hours and pay them. Right, and, and these employees are regular county employees' full-time employees during the during the 40 hour work week. All right, and then you're paying them after hours out of the money that came down from federal funds. Most of this money all came through the federal money in 2020 whenever they came out with those first grants that they were given out to everybody. OK, and I remind this body here if I didn't talk about it last year and last year 2021, 2022, I was $2.4 million in the hole due to our county treasurer not submitting money back to the school districts and levy boards and cities and all, and auditors called us at $2.4 million. I couldn't. The corum court wasn't going to let me hire any additional employees, uh, we were, we've been struggling trying to pay it, so we took the federal money and we and we used it wisely. We've taken the corn court gave me permission to do this because we did not have the resources to hire additional employees full time, uh, I remind this body that in 1960, Phillips County had 49,000 people and I got 14,500 today. OK. One last question, the, the janitorial employee that was paid 33,675 and 68,358. worked after normal business hours as a county employee and one employee was paid that much money for the additional work or was it here they had a two, both of my full-time employees work together. OK. So my presumption is we paid one person who had a company. He had a company and we paid that company. And that company used it, they worked together, and I assume they shared the, the, the benefit and the court's aware of all this, including including the overage. They're aware of everything we do. I do not. I do not hide anything from anybody. Thank you, Senator Hammer is one employee. OK, that's what I wanted to ask you is what's the name of the company or is it an individual employee? It's employees just individual name I believe what I'm being told. Mr. Newell has a company. Yeah, we, the check may have been made out to him. But he has a company and a partner that worked with him, enjoyed the benefits of the project in this area, it was a company or was it the Employee's name. All right, so the checks were made out to an employee, so but one employee and there's two of them there. So that employee shared the benefits with the other employee, to my knowledge they did because they didn't gripe about it. We just check out his cash. OK, it'll all come out in the wash. All right, thank you, Mr. Hall, Judge Hall. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hammer. Uh, Senator Hammer, Senator Representative David. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Um, Judge, my questions are also about the janitorial staff issues. So, I, I think I, I heard your answer, but I just want you to clarify why you were paying both employees and the janitorial company at the same time they were one and the same. what line are you referring to the finding says although the county employed janitorial staff, the county paid 1,720,251,000 for janitorial services. In county here. And then they take this I'm confused on what you're going for I understand this transaction, it says the two items in question from the money spent was the 323,67568,358. Sure, I'm asking you about the line above that. The finding where where it leads off just above that. Although the county employed janitorial staff. The county paid $172,000. And $251,000 for janitorial services. Hm Was the county paying both janitorial employees and contracting with the janitorial services company. We had No What you respond to that. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of. I can't answer. He's not, I can't. I'm sorry, you, were you not able to understand my question? May I respond to that one, sir, so. My understanding is that the employee that was paid the full-time employee that was paid, he was paid in his as an individual, but also at some point there was an ordinance that was approved by the Corum Court, uh, allowing him, uh, his cleaning company that he had where he employed a subcontractors that was approved too. The, uh, Second finding of the 172 836 and 251. That was for the 7 or 8 other buildings that the county owns, uh, the excess of salary amounts, I believe that was for the floor cleaning that was done after hours, um, in the courthouse, but the larger amounts on the previous line that you're referring to, um, there were just too many buildings for the two full-time employees, uh, to cover all those and as the judge mentioned earlier, um, we, we were having 234 days a week, circuit court and we were having hundreds of people in the courthouse. So at any given time, one or both of these janitorial employees were having to troubleshoot and act as plumbers and take care of the restrooms that would get clogged up and things like that. I mean, it was all they could do to keep up. I know this because my office is in the bottom floor down the hall from where that was sort of a repeated occurrence. So, uh, he, he did have to. employ additional help and the Court would not allow these additional positions because of the financial bind that we were in from a previous treasurers and So that's what led to the to the overspending. I do believe that's been corrected. Uh, I don't believe that'll be an issue in the future. OK, I was just trying to understand the situation so it sounds like there's there's two employees of the county that were janitors there and then. And then there was the 172 and the 251,000 were contracted for additional services, yes, and and that that was bid out and that was uh the county judge went with the lowest bidder on the in Phillips County for the, that the county owns? We have the Phelps County Health Unit. We have the housing authority, we have the road department which is separate. It's out in Poplar Grove. We have the Phillips County Library. We have the courthouse, which is a 100 year old three-story building. What else we have we have Esteban Hall for the county owns, like he said there were 9 buildings. OK. Or the, on the first bullet point there, um, the funds that were paid in excess of salary. Was there any effort to recoup those funds? Oh no. I think those were the amounts that he stated that the quorum Court approved. OK. Could you, could you turn your mic on, Judge? Mr. And when she cuts hers off, OK. Yeah, you said that was what the quorum Court had approved. OK. All right. And then who wrote the responses to these findings? County attorney and I. OK. I, I just. Given all this, I thought that the response that said the janitorial issues were oversights, just seemed a bit flippant, but. That's all, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank Representative Andrews. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Judge, you know, I, I see this audit report and I hear a lot of other things that come out of your county, you know, I, I wonder if your focus is elsewhere, because I do hear that you've, um, taking your place of residence not only out of the county but out of the state as well. Um, would you repeat that, sir? I just wondered if you, if your focus has changed away from being county judge since you've taken your place of residence, from what I hear, outside of the state of Arkansas. That's wrong. is wrong. I own 3 houses in Marville, Arkansas who own a house in Helen, Arkansas and a house in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I'll have a bedroom in each one of those houses have a kitchen in each one of those houses, a bathroom in each one of those houses I pay taxes on each one of those houses. I'm an official residences of 311 Ham Street in Morville, Arkansas 72366. So you don't have a house in Oxford. I do. OK. I got a condo in Gulf Shores. I got a condom in Gulf Shores. I just and I had a house in hot springs and a boat and motor. I mean, I'm on the lake. Last year I had a house on the country club at Hot Springs in a house on the lake. OK, I mean, you said 2 years ago I had that at a in a condo here in Little Rock on Lee Street. I own two houses in Little Rock at one time. And I had a bedroom in each one of them. I'm like John McCain. I got too many. Would you like to buy some? So I'm in the process of trying to unload most of them were open and transparent. I just wanted to ask a question. I don't mind telling. I'll tell anybody, but I've just, I know, uh, I, I've heard that some Phillips County residents are concerned that you're not spending all your time in Phillips County. So I spend more time in Phillips County than I should. I'm there 4 days a week. OK. One Thank you, Mr. Chair. OK, uh, next question, uh. Senator Stone. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Judge, can you elaborate a while ago or you talked about Helen, uh, not paying their fair share of the, the money due for these cleaning services. Can you elaborate on that just a little bit more, please, on the 2.4 million, well you said you was um there was other entities that were helping to pay for cleaning services, and I think you said the city of Helena had not paid their facility, uh, a, a in county. Detention center. That the uh city has not paid us for holding their inmates. Have you, what have you done to collect that money? I have a lawsuit. You filed a lawsuit. We filed a lawsuit, OK, and then my second question, Mr. Chair, I'm sorry, go ahead. And then the other money is from the city of Hellnos. Uh police department has moved into a facility that belongs to the county that is supposed to be paying us a stiling, monthly stipend to keep to help off fray the cost of operations and then rent and utility and they have not paid either. Have you filed a lawsuit against them? It's part of the existing lawsuit. OK. All right, Mr. Chair, I have one more follow-up question. Um, you go right here and I believe I understood you to say a while ago. When you slap your mic down that you're tired of this. Can you elaborate on what you're tired of here today. Sir, repeat, I said a while ago you slapped your mic down and said you're tired of this. Can you elaborate on what you're tired of here today. John, John, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chairman, can you repeat that? I'm sorry. I, I'm, did you say, uh, Senator Sean that you heard him say something about he's tired of well, he, I heard him. I got it. Go ahead, Senator. His question was a couple of minutes ago, you slapped your mic down and said, I'm tired of this, and he wants to know if you could elaborate on that. Not really. No sir, uh, well I can promise you we're tired of it too. It's just it's just tired, I sat down here in many of these meetings just like you have, yes, sir. Thanks, Senator Sean. Appreciate you, uh, Representative Brown, you'll recognized, ma'am. Thank you, um, Mr. Rye, um, I'm just really confused if all of these contracts were properly approved and all the least expenditures were approved by the Quorum Court why they're even appearing on an audit report, so something is out of order for this stuff to be showing up on this audit report because it couldn't all have been approved or I don't think it'd show up on an audit report, would it, Mr. Archer? These are based on the documentation. That we were provided. OK, so I don't think that Pardon me, Judge, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I don't think that you've adequately answered the questions here today because there's not documentation and I don't think that, that just what you're telling us is adequate. I think we need to see the paper trail. Wouldn't you agree everything, everything that we have done was bid out. It was a contrast was filed in the county clerk's office as required by law. I can't you the documentation to that. Well, we needed that today. I don't feel that you've responded to this. Without documentation. The county will be happy to provide any documentation that's requested, um, when the responses were drafted. It was in connection with the, uh, we're in consultation with the county judge, his administrative assistant who's been there for more than 40 years and who helps, uh, coordinate making sure the contracts are properly recorded, um, and that vendors are paid properly and then also, um, we, we did have some questions, um, with. The Auditor that made the findings and, uh, part of that, I mean, I'll, I'll take responsibility for that. This is my first time having to appear here. Judge usually comes, um, without counsel, and so, um, I'm happy to provide whatever documentation you may request. Well, the With an audit, you need your paper trail and apparently you all have not provided the paper trail, and that's why we're here today. And so it's I feel like you Kind of wasted our time but not providing the paper trail. Ma'am, My uh Certainly Um. 2 years ago In my courtroom upstairs. I had a major water bust that flooded. The county clerk's office Costa County thousands of dollars over and above the insurance. Fix that. The next month I had a major water leak on the other end of the building in which the circuit judge. And assessor lost. Untold bouts of paperwork. I had a leak in the County. Judge's office. That flooded the assessor's office again. Last Friday. I had a blow out of a water air air conditioner system on a Friday afternoon. And we didn't know about. And it is ruined the election commissioner's paperwork. It is run the coroner's paperwork. It is destroyed Veterans Affairs work point of order. I don't understand why they pipe bursting and flooding the courthouse has to do with the questions that representative Brown. I'm getting there, sir. You're going around Belores how to get to it because I'm trying to, I'm trying to establish services because of COVID, not something that happened over because she was asking about documentation, sir. That this representative of That this representative uh why we may have finding some of this information in order to. Last Friday it ruined the assessor's office, I mean the election commissioners to collector's office, the veteran's office, the juvenile affairs office. Uh, and we're in the process we're we're having disposed of thousands of paperwork out of the Veterans Affairs office and cause he's ruined. I'm not going to say we should have the documentation. I cannot promise that every documentation, the auditors may name or won't is there. All I can say is we had these issues. They were there originally my county attorney makes sure that we document everything and that we put it in. like we're supposed to. I'm not saying it's not there. I'm just saying it was there originally. My county attorney make sure I'd never do anything without a county attorney to review it. The county attorney checks everything before I make any decisions. And all I can say is it should be there. We will any information the auditors want. We try to find and provide to them. Um, I'm I'm not trying to I understand you may have lost some papers that would document this, but I think that should have been brought to light earlier than right now. Furthermore, uh, I assume that Phillips County has a computerized payment system, accounting system. There should be some documentation within the accounting system and then the court records where they approve expenditures, that's, that's electronic also and so I just feel like what's missing because this is an audit is the lack of a paper trail and you know who your vendors are. You could contact your vendors and ask for duplicate invoices to back up all of these charges. I mean, you may not remember every vendor, but you could certainly have made an attempt to document these expenditures and to justify them if we had been asked by the auditors to provide those things, I assume they had been provided. I would assume that you would have wanted them because the auditor was looking for them and when they weren't present, y'all should have scrambled around and gotten them. you are correct, but I also would like to not necessarily know that auditors do not ask me for every individual question they go to different departments and ask, uh, I'm not aware of being not given any paperwork that they've asked for. Uh, if they ask for it, we try to find it and provide it. When they asked me, we try to provide it. I'm, I'm finished, but I think that this report means we're asking for it. I wanted to follow up, you know, you just said something a couple of minutes ago and I noticed something you said earlier you said that these were all bid out, but yet you told, uh, Representative Ray that they were not bid out. So were they bid out or were they not bid out, which, which, which contract you you just said in a blank term that everything was bid out that that was supposed to be bid out was bid out the janitorial services were bid out because you told us 10 minutes ago they were not. The top ones were not be at the ones at the corn court gave us permission to hire or use the existing employees after hours on weekends was not bid out. No, sir. OK. And then I would like to have, since we know we don't have the paperwork, I would like to have the salaries of these janitors. Uh, so we know and we can look at what their salaries are because By looking at these numbers I'm almost, I'm interested to see how a 40 hour work week compared to the after hours money comes in. So I would like to have that documentation of their salaries. Uh, so we can kind of compare those. With that, I'll turn it to you, Chairman. Yes, sir. Thank you, Senator Cole. You know, Clark, I, I'm just like him about this. It looks like that you have a couple of janitors, which is usually the, the tail end of, of salaries and you'd have maybe at the most 2000 to 25 dollars,000 dollars a year and then on the same time you got we we got your weekend working that's into the hundreds of th I have over $400,000. I mean, is there something out there other than labor that is used in this that would cure that kind of money, Mr. Chairman, if I can answer that question, I would. I was just shocked when I saw this report as you are. And I'm at a loss, but I do know that the Crown Court had approved it to do these projects and they gave us permission to use existing people, uh if I had to do over again, I'd bid it out and let somebody else do it and then it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't be here dealing with this. But I, I, I, I cannot answer that. I was shocked at the total numbers too. It was a shocker to me. We have addressed the issues. It's not going to happen going forward. We cut it back, uh, the only we do have contracts that we do renew and that's on cleaning these other buildings, but I, I was shocked at it. My county attorney was shocked at it. We did not realize the extent in which we were paying. We were trying to keep the public safety and we just, I just, it was an oversight on our part. We did not stay on it. I agree. I, I concur. It's it's too much money. It threw us, can I take a little break from your end, sir, and let Representative Carol Dalby asked you some questions, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me, Judge? I'm just curious this janitorial. Company You said there was a Janet, there were janitors and then there was a janitor that had a janitorial company. Is that, is that my understanding that warrant should come in. The warrant that came in that I signed had Well, well, uh, Newell. And company. OK, that's what I saw when the warrant came in was LL and I and I presume that was his company. Newell an employee of the janitor, yes, ma'am. And do you know if there are any other principles in that company? Do you know anybody else who has a financial interest in that company. I have no idea. Do you have a financial interest in any of these companies. No thank you at the proper time. Senator Hamer. Could you go right here, sir? Thank you. Thank you cheers, and I'm sorry, ma'am, your, your name again and title for the record. Amy Greene County attorney. OK. And how long have you been the county attorney 9 years or so, OK, so I'd like to ask you some questions as the attorney, please, um. The janitor owning a janitor company and then turning around and getting payment. For services which I understand if I'm understanding this right, that janitor is also an employee of the county, is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Do you know It seems to me, and I think that maybe there would have needed to be a form filed, uh, declaring that he is or she is the owner of a company, uh, doing business as but then receive as a county employee and then turning around and receiving money to a service. Do, do you know that to be the case and was that form filed if it is, I don't know, but I was asked to draft an ordinance so that the Corum Court could approve that. And I was actually trying to find that. on my phone, uh, a moment ago, but we should be able to provide that. And, and I believe the name of the company was Amos Lstrophe Amos, uh, cleaning or something to that effect. I don't think it was LL Li, but it, it was, uh, It was owned by a county employee, a janitor, a full-time janitor. OK, all right, which Credit for being an entrepreneur or credit for that. Uh, but my, then my question is this, when the county, when the corn court Prove this. Did they approve it on the basis that they think they were awarding it to an individual or to the company. Um, it was my understanding that that it was disclosed that the company was owned by the, uh, the janitor and it was actually, when it was disclosed, it was already common knowledge to everyone in the courthouse and uh I, I don't know, uh, uh, as I sit here today, I can't say, uh, what the corporate structure of that was. I don't know if it was a, um, if he was a sole proprietor, if it was a corporation. But my understanding, it was, it was just, uh, Mr. Newell and then whoever he had helping him. OK, and maybe you could see it from our perspective we're struggling with a check being issued to an individual, but yet at the corn court authorized it to be to accompany that I'm taking it that there was a bid process and he won the bid, is that correct, or was he just arbitrarily selected for that particular thing, I think he was already doing the work and, and was having to do it at night and on the weekends and our corn Court historically, has not been, um, quick to approve any overtime and certainly as the judge said, they wouldn't approve an additional employee because of the financial bind the county was in, so, uh, He had asked if he could do the work after hours and that was the way the court suggested we get it done. So they were fully aware of who was doing the work, who owned the company, um, and, and that should be reflected, uh, in the, in the ordinance attorney should that have been made out to the company then versus to the individual because I'm thinking 1099 and all those such tax implications, and I, I don't, um, I don't know how the, usually if. Any vendor for the county, the county clerk requires a W-9 and there's a 1099 issued, uh, anytime I'm drafting a contract for a new vendor, first thing, the county clerk says is, you know, where's S W-9 and so I don't know if that took place here. I can certainly get that information for you. I think in, in retrospect, it should have been, uh, either, either bid out separately or, uh, the county, uh, Core court should have just approved some overtime for him that would have made things a lot cleaner. OK, then the last question, and you may want to punt this to the to the judge. The, the fact that the amount caught you off guard when you asked the Cum court to approve the contract. I'm just wondering how did it get out of hand so quick that the money got so high so fast that you're surprised by it. Senator, I, I, uh, I have lots of warrants come in. I try to look at each one of them. Uh, because auditors have questions sometimes some line items that file to different. categories. I don't catch them all. This one just came in. I knew he had been approved by the Court to do it. I just signed it, you know, the money was there, as I understand it, if the money is there and it's in the budget and it's been approved by the corn Court. I can't really deny a claim without due cause. So, I, I, I guess it just got to be, I've just in front of me. I signed it and didn't really pay it, didn't open it and look at it close like I have. Of our warrants when I have questions. All right. Thank you. Well, I just. I did find the employees salary. The salary was 32,108. And 22 and he was paid 100,000466. Um, Just making a comment, but. That doesn't bowed him to want to work real hard during the regular day if he's going to get that much money after hours. Um, That's a little concerning since it wasn't bid out. So, um, I think we've, we've come to the realization that we just have to get better with your paperwork and your bookwork. But um, Just looking at these numbers, it's very disturbing that that must be one heck of a clean courthouse. That's all I can say, Mr. Beatty. I think you're up. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Judge, my, my question is, a lot of these numbers we're looking at it from, uh, 22, 23, have you made a change in your janitorial staff or cleaning contracts that we have county we have and have they resulted in substantially lower and, and the courthouse a lot nastier than it used to be. Well, I was, I was gonna, you know, the, the chairman kind of s. You're right, are you a senator or what? I'm just, I'm just a member of the lowly House. OK, well, hey, we're part of the people. There you go, the people's chamber. Yes, we have made it just when it was brought to our attention from auditors and, and let me, I don't consider auditors as an enemy. I see auditors is trying to help me have a better operation and so I don't, I don't, this is not a controversial confrontation. I, I, I respect the auditors. If they'd have told me early, if they'd have brought it to me earlier, it would have been taken care of earlier. When they broached us about it after the fact, which is natural to be after the fact. We have adjusted our program we're more Cautious about Doing things with janitorial services than we were. A substantially less now. But this is a a unique. I'll admit it. I was shocked at the numbers. I was shocked when auditors told me about it. But it was after the fact. We've adjusted what we can. There's, I'm still using the, the, uh, service of them, but his primary to just when they have to wax, strip and wax the 8 buildings and that's a pretty intensive job. And I have certain elected officials that are not in the courthouse, but they won't. This group to clean theirs after hours. And I'm not, I don't want I I can't get tacked what some of their stuff, but we haven't made adjustments. It's not near expensive. This is a one time. Cluster. That we, we acknowledge it. It was an error. If we, if we'd been on top of it it's my fault for not being on top of it. I give everybody, I, I agree with that. But it's passed. It's not going forward. We resolve the issue. We're moving forward and That's all I can say about it. I, I can't answer anymore. It's, it happened. It's an error. I'm moving forward. Well, that's, that's, that's what I wanted to ask because it, it, you know, what's in the past, it's, it's hard to go back and correct that, but to continue with the same service at the same level would have probably been. Um, a major issue with a lot of folks in the room, but I will say I'll echo the comments of the chair. You must have had one hell of a clean courthouse. Well, let me, if I had the time, I could explain how nasty that courthouse was when I walked in there 8 years ago. Well, we'll hope that for this amount of money it's a very clean places 89 buildings you're talking about and we've acquired since I took office, we've acquired 1234 buildings. 5 buildings sorry 5 buildings. I have 7 times 8 times or 10 times more square footage to have to maintain and I only had 2 full-time employees, employees. Well, like I said, the main thing is that, that we know going forward that this is not going to be a repeat issue. So I, I appreciate you answering the question's gonna be a issue. It may be something else I'm down here for, but it won't be for that. Thank you. OK, thank you. Thank you, Judge Clark. Representative Galy, he made a motion about an hour ago. No, I have a motion. I moved it, uh, we filed this report, send it to the Attorney General, the prosecuting attorney and to the federal prosecutors to look at this as there is federal money involved in the payment of this, to have them take a look at this and all other expenditures that they may see that involves these types of funds and Phillips County. Nice, ma'am. You all have heard the motion. Will someone second that got a second. All those in favor say a wait, wait, wait, I forgot. I think yeah, Nice, ma'am. You all have heard the motion. Will someone second that got a second. All those in favor say a wait, wait, wait, I forgot. I think, to amend it I'll accept your amendment if you'd like to make it. I'm sorry, I would only ask that we accept her motion with the amendment that we ask the judge to provide all documentation requested and then to present himself back here in October with said documentation. I accept that amendment. Yes, ma'am. I would request I request, Mr. Chairman, if that's the case that y'all provide me with a list of what documents y'all want. We, we'll take care of this. I can, I can amend that motion to include that we send a list of documents. There you go. Thank you, Senator Gilmore. Thank you for that. Uh. Is there anything else we would like to do on this except maybe file the motion? Yes, ma'am. Oh, OK, need to vote. All those in favor say aye, all those in. Say no. OK. Continuing with the reports filed at the prosecuting attorney and the AGs on pages 40 through 42. Uh, we have 4 reports from the city of Bauxite to a town of bauxite, 2 or for the city, uh, engagements for 23 and 22, which brings bauxite to current on their city report. We have two engagements for the water department covering 19 and 20 and 21 and 22. And permission of the chair we're going to just kind of batch those together. Again, these were both all four were filed with the prosecuting attorney in AG's opinion. They've all got basically the same findings in them. They're all reconciliation items to where the receipts couldn't be, uh, reconciled to the journal or to the bank for on the city side. We had the general fund, the street fund, the police fund bought and fine and the court funds on the water and sewer side we had about 4 utility funds that could not be reconciled. Staff recommends we file this report. Without objection we fire for. OK, we finally finished the PA reports. Uh, on page 43 and 42 we have two reports that have repeat findings. The first one on page 43 and 44 is the city of Eick Springs, 2022 under the mayor, the audit was not obtained for the city's water and wastewater departments for 21, 20, and 19 as required by code, and this is a repeat finding. Shortly after exit conference, we received all three of these reports and the, uh, Cedrick Springs is current, so we recommend that we file these report, this report without objection we'll file. Continuing for repeat findings on page 44 with the town of, um, Mount Vernon under the recorder treasure, um, Court of treasure was invited for this meeting. She's in poor health. We have reached out to her to see if we could find documentation to correct this, um. Staff recommends that we defer this report to receive that documentation. Without objection, we'll file a reporter for it. I'm sorry. On pages 45 to 54, we have 34 reports with resolved findings. Uh, I'll take a few minutes to take a look at those, and if not, staff recommends that we file these if you don't have any questions. With that objection we filed a report. On pages 55 through 59, we have 121 reports without findings. Staff recommends that we file these reports. Without objection, we'll file a report.