Legislative Joint Auditing-Counties and Municipalities
Video
Transcript
1 document
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 7, 2026
Speaker 1
0:00
First item of business is to adopt the minutes from the November 7th meeting. Do I hear a motion to do that? And second? And second. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. Next item is item C, discussion of Arkansas Code 1459117. Ms.
Speaker 4
0:27
Steele. I just wanted to give you guys an update on the three cities or the three towns that are in the withholding turn back process.
Speaker 5
0:38
The first one is the town of Allport. We've been to visit them recently. In fact, we're in the process of completing the 2018 engagement. They remain in substantial noncompliance. Uh, staff would recommend that we continue the
Speaker 6
0:53
process, uh, on all port. Okay. Any objection
Speaker 13
1:14
I have a motion and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion's
Speaker 4
1:21
carried. On the town of Fulton, they have
Speaker 5
1:24
gotten their records back into substantial compliance, and staff would recommend that we take them off of this list.
Speaker 1
1:38
a motion to follow staff recommendation? I have a motion and second. All in favor, say aye.
Speaker 4
1:45
Any opposed? Motion's carried. On the town of Jericho, they, too, remain in substantial noncompliance. We had staff visit them yesterday, and their
Speaker 20
1:54
records are still not where they need to be, so staff would recommend that we continue the process for them as well. Motion and second.
Speaker 1
2:03
Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Motion's carried. Ms. Steele. Okay, are we ready to review reports then?
Speaker 5
2:20
are. Okay, the first one that we'll look at is Perla, and that is on page 11 and 12 of
Speaker 4
2:38
your synopsis. This report has findings that are referred to the prosecuting attorney and repeat findings. On page 11, we have under the mayor a finding that was referred to the prosecuting attorney.
The city loaned an employee $2,500 on August the 10th of 18. The city council agreed on August 13th of 18 that the loan be paid back over a period of one to two years. In September of 18, the city began withholding $138 from the employee's paycheck each month. This arrangement appears to conflict with Arkansas Constitutional Article 12, Section 5, which states, in part, no county, city, town, or other municipal corporations shall loan its credit to any corporation, association, institution, or individual.
Then below that, we have a repeat finding, also under the mayor. An agreed-upon procedures report was not obtained and submitted to Arkansas Legislative Audit for the town's Water Department or Sewer Department for the years 14 through 17, as required by Arkansas Code Annotated 14-234-119. A similar finding was issued in the prior report. Continuing on page 12, we have another repeat finding, also under the mayor. We noted in the August 14th of 17 minutes that the town council approved a $110,000 loan of reuse grant funds to the City Water and Sewer Department.
Speaker 5
3:57
We recommend the city seek legal counsel to determine whether this meets reuse grant guidelines. A similar finding was issued in the prior report, and I believe the mayor is here to address these
Speaker 1
4:10
findings. Okay, would you state your name and position, and you recognize when you're ready. My name is
Raymond Adams
Unverified
4:17
Raymond Adams, and I'm the mayor of the city of Perla.
Speaker 1
4:30
Okay, do you have a response to the findings?
Speaker 26
4:32
The findings that I see is we're working on those, and we got behind on some of those, and the clerk's been sick, and I've been kind of carrying everything, so we're about to get it together, and I think the first of the year, I think we will be in compliance with this
Speaker 1
4:56
audit, hopefully next year. Are you saying all categories of the compliance issues and findings? Right.
Speaker 26
5:02
Right, and this loan that we're talking about, that $110,000 loan, we are in process of selling our water department as I speak. As a matter of fact, I signed a contract this past Tuesday, and with that sale, we will replace that money back because they are the one that we lend the money to. So that would be hopefully paid back within two months. I think the sale would be found by then. And the audit, we got someone to do the audit.
We had someone here in Little Rock to do the audit. And he took the audit and kept it for about a year and charged us one thing and brought it back and didn't give us our money back. So we had it there, you know, then got in financial trouble. We couldn't, you know, get it done again. So now I think we are about out of that. So we intend to get that done. And this is something that we don't want to be behind on.
Speaker 27
6:07
So this is just a slowback for us, but we will, you know, overcome this next year. Okay. Any questions
Speaker 19
6:16
from the committee? Representative Rye? Yes, sir. Thank you,
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
6:20
Mr. Chairman. Sir, this $2,500 that was loaned, how is that going to be paid back? Is he just going to pay that in one lump sum back to the city
Speaker 26
6:31
or how? Well, according to the clerk, I don't know. It's set up, if I'm not mistaken. I'm speaking for myself and also she didn't make it,
but he's paying back now about a month every month. That comes out of his paycheck, if I'm not mistaken. He pays that every month. And I think it looked like he'd been paying it for about a
Speaker 33
6:57
year now. Is that right? I believe it was in 18. Began on September
Speaker 26
7:03
2018, looks like from the report. Yeah, right. So you've got another year, but if it's demand to pay all of it back now,
Speaker 37
7:10
we'd just have to get in behind and make it pay it
Speaker 1
7:28
all back now? Mm-hm. Anyone else? Okay, if there's no other questions, we'll file this without objection. Okay, thank you for your report. Okay, item's filed.
Speaker 4
7:45
Next item is Steele. The next report is Woodruff County, which is on page 14 of your synopsis at the top. We have a repeat finding on the district court clerk. The district court clerk was in non-compliance with 1610209 as detailed below. Bank reconciliations were not properly prepared. Receipts and electronic receipts listings were not reconciled with monthly bank deposits. The electronic check register was not reconciled with monthly bank disbursements. Year-end bank balances of 43,843 were not identified with receipts issued for
cases not yet adjudicated and the payments made on all unpaid accounts. Similar findings were noted all
Speaker 20
8:24
the way back to 2004. And Ms. Fobbs is here to address our findings. Okay,
Speaker 13
8:33
if you will state your name and position and you're recognized when you're ready. I'm Della
Speaker 43
8:39
Fobbs from Woodrow County District Court. And I have with me also Judge Griffin and Ms. Eston Nichols, who's also one of the court clerks.
and i've spoken to jessica brown regarding this and we like we've been here we're here in april and we are still having problems getting all this stuff sorted out as i told jessica this has been since 2004 i wasn't even there so i have no idea where to start on on trying to find all this information but we have checked with the banks and Ms. Essie has
found some information from that so we're just trying to get it done it's kind
Speaker 1
9:30
of a lot Are you in contact with the Municipal League for assistance? Oh okay sorry administrative office of the courts I don't know who to contact with that
Speaker 43
9:42
to even figure out how to get started with this. As I told Jessica that the other day when I talked to her,
the courts, the clerks before me hadn't been down here. One had, and she hadn't started, so I'm lost. Okay. So you haven't really made
Speaker 48
10:02
any progress on any of the findings at this point,
Speaker 44
10:11
Can I interject a few minutes? I'm Esty Nichols. I'm one
Speaker 50
10:20
Esty Nichols, and I was down here with her before.
We have made some progress, and some of the representatives from what we was here before say, okay, you know, contact this judge and try to get it. I won't say Hannah, but I won't swear by that. and try to get, you know, where you get it split up, the money. What is really causing us trouble is money that we have and we don't know where we got it from, if that makes sense. And it has kind of been a long haul on this money.
I finally, in our last audit, which was in August, September, And we gave some feedback to the auditor as to, she had a meeting with our judge and meeting with us, and it came down to, okay, no one has ever told us, hey, you got this much money. We know we had dormant accounts, but when you look at it, at the records, it shows Woodruff County District Court.
But we have quite a few accounts, and now direct the file of that, when I became the chief clerk, I went through and I put what the money was for, small claim, general, whatever the money was for. We had these accounts, but we didn't have no idea what the money was for. So one of these particular counts that's been plaguing us, we were never able to identify where the money came from.
Never could identify. So in our last audit, when the auditor came to do our exit interview, and she had met with Judge Griffin, and we responded back according to what her findings were, and she didn't like our response. meaning we're working on it and she had told our judge one thing as to where the money was coming from and we knew that was not the case because we had never collected money for one of our sub offices which is in mccrory and so when we replied to her to tell her that we need to know where she's
showing this money at? What accounts, whatever. And finally, we got an account number, one. And I want to say, I think it's another one, but I'm looking for that one. And would you believe $25,000, $40,000 figure, give or take a little bit, is from an old account. I guess At some point, someone must have said, okay, you got all this money. Let's open up a new account.
So that seemed to be the standard operating procedure on that. This part of this money, over half of this money, is going back from 2002. None of the clerks I know was there. But I found where it occurred. And it looks like if you look at the report, because I pulled the reports. If you look at the reports, part of the money was distributed from that account, but not all of it. All of it, all that was distributed went to the Woodruff County Treasurer.
Every check that was written went, but because all of it wasn't distributed, it left $25,000 in that account. And so that's, you know, now we need to go, which we got our records because we were told never to destroy anything. and go back and look to see who else. And when you look at this report, the judge hasn't even seen this because I was worried about fining and stuff, and I went looking. The fines that was paid to the treasurer
are from 99, 2000, 2001, just the things that the treasurer should get. Nobody else was distributing the money, which means Department of Finance money is there. We have no problem doing that, take the money and give it out so much for Department of Finance and so much for the city and so much for the county. But if we do that and we don't know who the money belongs to in the first place,
that could be a problem. Because in our court, we do for Patterson, Cotton Plant, Augusta, the Sheriff's Department, the State Highway, we do for like eight different entities and it could be any of their monies and and we disperse out to many people to arkansas state treasury department finance and and so we're i was glad and you don't know how happy i was to find this piece of paper because at least it let me know
what took place now i can i can do what i need to do to get rid of that and work with our bank It hasn't been one of the most pleasant things because I thought they put things on microfiche or computers or whatever, imagery or whatever. But that has not been one of our greatest sources of information either. But we are, we working and we say that and it sounds like it's cliche-ish that we're saying that.
But now I can go and get this report for this and try to distribute that money to get rid of that or talk to AOC, Christie, that group, and see about, okay, if we're at this point, who do we need? They have provided us the forms, who we need to do, what we need to do to get approval to actually disperse
Speaker 13
16:13
the money out. Okay. I think Ms. Steele has got some comments here to help you with
Speaker 20
16:20
that. Ms. Steele. Thank you, Mr. Chair. When you reconcile each month, do you come back to the same amount every month
Speaker 50
16:27
that you don't know who it belongs to? Well, in this case, we
Speaker 6
16:33
weren't the ones reconciling. So that's the first thing you need to do is reconcile so you'll know how much you're off. And then
Speaker 5
16:41
if you come up with the same amount for several months in a row, you know that that money will never be identified, right? And then at that, that's the point where
Speaker 20
16:49
you can get a court order to disperse the money. And the AOC can help you as to how to disperse that money that you'll never find out who it belongs to.
Speaker 50
16:59
But in this case, we did. Well, okay, if you know who it belongs to, then you... We just, Ms. Steele, we just, I just said this. We just, after we found out, when you do an audit, they come in and we're told that they don't post to tell us particulars or ask us particulars or give us information. But if you auditing me and you're saying that I have so much out here, don't I supposed to have the identifiers for us where you show this money is being at, we don't get that information.
Now, we can get our reports. That's a problem, too, and the judge can identify with this, and definitely. We have a system. We own a virtual justice system, which is we once was with the McCrory, and then it was some problems, and they went to stand alone. The monies that was in our account at that time is still plaguing us, and that was like 2007, 2008.
So we have gone back to MSI and said, hey, we need our figures. We never dealt with the Bank of Berkeley that's in there. We never dealt with the Bank of McCrory that's in there. You got all this stuff. And the judge, I think, has talked to them in regards to making our computers accurate. Yes, so you're saying you have identified some of this money? Yes, ma'am. That's what I was
Speaker 5
18:28
just saying. Okay, so then it's not unidentified anymore.
Speaker 20
18:35
So then you could proceed accordingly with that.
Speaker 50
18:38
Well, I hope so, Ms. Steele, because when you get a piece of paper in this, it says $40,400 was in this account, $15,159 was written out, $25,240.96. And then you see the attached checks, and the only ones that got checks of that $15,000 was the Woodworth County Treasury. Yes, ma'am. But I want to get the rest of it so we can disperse it out,
if you know what I'm saying, to the appropriate people. But what I said, and I just found out this account number, after all of this time, after we, the judge was told this was
Speaker 65
19:27
McCrory money. Am I right, Judge? That's correct. But what they thought was when McCrory separated from Augusta, they thought that there were funds that weren't transferred when McCrory did their accounting stand-alone from Bedroff County.
But McCrory is saying, no, no, it's not our money. Our money has been coming in to us. So it's showing up as McCrory money, but McCrory is saying, no, we always had our own money paid in to us, so we don't know where that belongs. So we'll have to find out where that money actually goes, and if we can't, then we need to get a court order to get rid of it because if we don't do something to get this money moved out, we can never be in compliance, and I like being in compliance. So I don't know how much longer we should have to search because this search could actually go on forever.
We may never find out where this money should have went when someone took it in 10, 12 years ago. So if we can't do that in an expeditious manner, then I think we need to proceed to contacting the AOC, see if we can get an order, and get this money out so we can just stay in compliance moving forward.
Speaker 20
20:39
But it sounds like you have a plan if you've identified part of it, and then you have a plan to disperse the part that's not identified. That's what we're asking.
Speaker 50
20:50
Yes, ma'am. That's the plan. The judge had met with us when she started being our permanent judge, and she met with us and told us basically what she said. She said, Dad, if we could identify it, we'll identify it. Otherwise, we'll go and ask for permission to disperse it out so we can get rid of it. So that's our plan. We're working on it. We're doing our monthly, every each month, money going in, disperse where it should go.
But this has been plaguing us, and we're just trying to get it resolved. We like y'all, but we don't like coming to see y'all. Any questions
Speaker 72
21:31
from the committee? Representative Rye, is that you?
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
21:43
Sure it is. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Ma'am, is this the circuit clerk's office? No, it's the clerk's office.
district club district yes sir well you know you have guidelines for everything that's out there and you have different brackets and different line items what i would do is i would go to a school and talk to someone that actually knows how to place these checks into each particular bracket and each particular line item and get that straight and go forward that's that's what i Yeah, we're tired of
Speaker 77
22:17
dealing with that. Yes, sir. We want to get it resolved, believe me.
Speaker 65
22:22
We also want to get those other entities that are no longer a part of our court separated out so that, I mean, we don't even have to deal with it. It's not showing up in our reports. I think we're still getting the bonds pending. McCrory is still listed in with our court, even though they're a standalone now. So we should have nothing regarding McCrory or Brinkley in our system anymore. So we're going to get with them also to show them how to generate the necessary reports so we don't get this problem in the future. So we can run a monthly report, see what's going on, if there's a problem,
identify it, fix it immediately so it doesn't roll over year after year. Okay. Y'all continue
Speaker 24
23:00
to work on that, and there's no other questions
Speaker 13
23:05
from the committee. We'll say without objection, we'll file it. Okay. Thank y'all. Thank you. Thank y'all.
Speaker 20
23:18
Ms. Steele. That is all of the people that I'm aware of that are here to address findings.
Speaker 4
23:24
So we can go back to the first page and just go in order from there.
On page one, this is a report that was certified to the bond board, the city of Alma. According to Arkansas State Police investigation and city personnel, a water department employee whose employment was terminated in October of 17, charged personal purchases totaling $2,500 to the department credit card and took seven equipment items valued at $1,457. The former employee reimbursed the city $3,988 on November 7th of 17.
This case was subsequently closed after the 21st Judicial District prosecuting attorney declined prosecution at the city's request. And then they had a finding that they had an unauthorized withdrawal of $2,449 from the city's bank account. Two additional unauthorized withdrawals totaling $4,892 were made in December of 2018. When entity personnel discovered these withdrawals, they contacted the bank and got their money back.
Speaker 5
24:33
This was one of those cases that we've had several of over the last few months. And we've got several more. At one point,
Speaker 81
24:41
you didn't want me to read every one of them, and you can just let me know if you want me
Speaker 83
24:50
to read them all or not. How many do we have? Several. That's that only.
Senator Bill Sample
Unverified
24:57
Okay. Senator Sample. How are the people that swim off for us getting to that money? It's basically hackers.
Speaker 20
25:05
They've found a way to lift the signatures off of legitimate checks. And, you know, they're just trying to
Speaker 81
25:12
push them through. And every now and then they'll get lucky and want to go through
Speaker 92
25:19
and they'll get paid on it. These are foreign, probably. Probably. And so it's not electronic. They are actually, it's
Speaker 5
25:26
my understanding, it's actual checks that they're trying to process. Is
Speaker 13
25:31
this one of those deals where they change the signature after?
Speaker 5
25:35
They've actually lifted the signature, like a legitimate signature, off of a real check, and they've put it on another check. Okay. And some of them have been, like, processed, like, in New York, I mean, all over the country. Okay. Any other questions?
Speaker 30
25:49
Okay. Okay. Let's. You have several just like that? Well, yeah, and when
Speaker 75
26:01
we go through it, I'll tell you. Okay, all right.
Speaker 5
26:06
Ms. Steele? Okay, the next report is an investigative letter on the Dyer Water and Sewer Department, and Kim Williams will present that one.
Speaker 95
26:20
Thank you, Marty. Kim Williams, Leg Audit. We got a request from the 21st Judicial District to go in and look at the City of Dyer's Water Department. And as you all know, we do not audit water departments. However, his office had received some allegations about overbilling of customer accounts
and other possible misappropriation of funds. So we went in and did a very limited review of the problem areas. And one thing we did check was to see if the department had been receiving its annual audit, and they had for the last four years. so we were happy to see that. We also looked at revenue. We tested revenue to see if it was deposited. We found a small discrepancy where receipts of around less than $200 had not been deposited. We looked at selected disbursements, too, and we found around $1,500 that petty cash
had not been documented. Reimbursements to petty cash had not been properly documented, And there was two or three others involved unauthorized meals, like a retirement party, very small things. And then we did look at the customer accounts that were in question, and we did see some overbillings. There was some misreadings with the scanner that they use. But the city had credited their accounts for over $12,000. So that's what we found.
The end. Any questions? We've sent this to the prosecutor. I don't know if he's going to do anything, you know, with this
Speaker 8
27:59
or not. Senator Rice. I was trying to scan over this. Who
Speaker 100
28:06
audits them? Oh, I don't know. Is it Berry and Associates? Did you recall? Independent audit.
Speaker 94
28:13
I don't know. Okay. If you want me to find that out, please.
Speaker 102
28:16
No, that's fine. You had mentioned they were wrong, and I was just looking on there to see if I could see who that was. We didn't list
Speaker 13
28:25
it. No, sir. Okay, thank you. Senator Rice, they say they can look it up here if you need that
Speaker 4
28:41
information. Anyone else? Next item. The next report is on page four.
It's the City of West Memphis. We've got several findings referred to the
Speaker 5
28:48
prosecuting attorney. During our review of the City's Emergency Medical Services Department, we noted the following deficiencies. Prenumbered receipts were not issued at the time the funds were collected in noncompliance with 1459-109. The City did not have an established listing of EMS fees, and fees charged for services were not consistent. The EMS bookkeeper had sole control of billing and collections without oversight or review process.
Entries could be altered in the accounting software without an audit trail. Of total fees assessed during 2018 for EMS services, 76% or $609,000 were adjusted for heirs, bad debt, deceased patients, or collection agency referrals without supporting documentation. The city did not have a policy or approval process for collecting or writing off bad debts, and the accounts receivable balance for EMS collections as of December of 2018 was $1,700,000.
It should be noted that revenues remitted to the Treasurer's Office for EMS Services decreased in 18, 17, and 16 by $59,000, $84,000, and $121,000, respectively. Uh, down toward the bottom of the page under the mayor, this is still findings refer to the prosecuting attorney. The city paid a total of $18,000 to the following organizations without a contract, $14,000 to the West Memphis Chamber of Commerce, $1,900 to the Main Street, West Memphis, $720 to
the Rotary Club of West Memphis, $500 to the Marion Chamber of Commerce, and $350 to the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau. Additionally, the City made advanced payments totaling $2,700 to a vendor for library website maintenance services. These payments are suspect under the Public Purpose Doctrine and are in violation of Article 12, Section 5 of the Constitution. A similar finding was noted in the prior report. On the next page, page 5, under the Treasurer and
finance director. Without proper authorization, the city paid $7,500 to an individual whose employment was terminated. $3,600 for unused sick leave in conflict with city policy, which states that payments for unused sick leave may be made when employment ends due to retirement or permanent disability. $3,600 for paid administrative leave, which was not authorized by city policy, and $287 an undocumented salary. That would be all
Speaker 105
31:17
of the findings referred to the PA on West Memphis.
Speaker 1
31:23
Staff would recommend we file. Any questions from the committee? Without objection, we'll
Speaker 5
31:36
file it. Next item, Ms. Steele. Mr. Rice, it was the accounting firm was Berry & Associates that
Speaker 4
31:48
did that audit. On page 6, we have Craighead County. This is still under reports referred to the prosecuting attorney.
The circuit clerk, real estate search fees totaling $99,608 collected by a
Speaker 5
31:59
remote access software vendor for the period of May 1, 2010 through May 31, 2019 that were in possession of the vendor but under the control of the circuit clerk were not remitted to the county treasurer as required by 2639-201. On July 8th of 19, the circuit clerk received $99,608 from the vendor and included this amount in her monthly settlement remitted in August of 19 to the county treasurer.
In addition, the circuit clerk did not timely submit credit card charges for payment, resulting in the accrual of interest and late fees of $2,200 over a four-year period. In November of 18, the circuit clerk requested that the vendor provide $4,352, which was remitted as visa refund to the county treasurer. There is no reason for the vendor to pay credit charges, including interest in late fees, on behalf of the circuit clerk. Staff would recommend we file. Any questions from the committee?
Speaker 13
33:02
There's none. Without objection, we'll file
Speaker 4
33:07
it. On page 7, still under reports referred to the prosecuting attorney, we have Jefferson County. Under
Speaker 5
33:15
the county judge, the county made payments totaling $18,000 to the following organizations in violation of the Public Purpose Doctrine and Article 12, Section 5, $10,000 to the Heston Stadium Fairgrounds, $7,100 to Imminent Financial, and $1,600 to Grassroots Consulting.
A similar finding was issued in the prior report. The county paid a full-time county judge's employee $3,400 for additional duties as election commission coordinator without adequately documenting the hours worked for the additional duties. A similar finding was issued in the prior report. The county judge issued Jefferson County Court Order 2019-7, dated January 18th of 19, to refund property taxes paid in 18 to himself in apparent conflict with 16-15-111,
111, which states in part, no judge of the county court shall sit on the determination of any case in which he or she is
Speaker 4
34:16
interested in the outcome. Excuse me. Then down at the bottom of the page, under the county
Speaker 5
34:22
judge and county sheriff, the former sheriff, who is now the county judge and a sheriff's office employee, were paid $14,451 and $36,79 respectively for unused sick leave upon their departure from employment in apparent conflict
Speaker 4
34:34
with the county and sheriff's office personnel policies.
Of these payments, only the $14,451 paid to the former sheriff was approved by quorum court ordinance. On the next page, under the county judge and county clerk, during the process of correcting a payroll deduction error, the county incorrectly refunded $692 to an
Speaker 105
34:54
employee. If there aren't any questions, staff would recommend we file. Any questions
Speaker 13
35:01
from the committee? Seeing none, without objection, we'll file it.
Speaker 4
35:08
Next item, Ms. Steele. On page 8, this is still under reports referred to the prosecuting attorney. Under
Speaker 5
35:17
the White County judge, the county paid $1,200 for apparel items and drinking cups for employees in apparent conflict with Article 12, Section 5 in the Public Purpose Doctrine. If there
Speaker 105
35:28
are any questions, staff would recommend we
Speaker 1
35:31
file. Any questions? Seeing none. Without objection, we'll file it. Next item is Steele.
Speaker 4
35:39
On page 9, the first two, the town of Grandis and the town of Hazen, these are both just those fraudulent checks we
Speaker 20
35:49
talked about earlier. If you have any questions on those, we'll try to answer them. If not, staff would
Speaker 1
35:54
recommend we file. Any questions? Seeing none. Without objection, we'll file it. Next item, Ms.
Speaker 4
36:03
Steele. Still on page 9, there's the town of Houston. Under the mayor and recorder treasurer, this finding was referred to the prosecuting attorney.
Speaker 5
36:10
The town paid $4,800 to a council member's spouse for mowing services in 18 and 17, as well as $280 and $480 to a water employee for cleaning services in 18 and 17. Although the council passed a resolution in March of 18 allowing the town to conduct this business, Code requires that you have an ordinance. If there are
Speaker 105
36:31
any questions, staff would recommend we file.
Speaker 1
36:34
Any questions? Seeing none, without objection, we'll file it. Next item is Steele.
Speaker 4
36:43
On page 10, we have the City of Louisville. This is Steele reports referred to the
Speaker 5
36:49
prosecuting attorney. Under the district court clerk, the 8th South Judicial District prosecuting attorney requested our assistance in conjunction with the state police to review the financial records of the district court. Allegations received by the state police included potential missing funds in the court. Our staff revealed unaccounted for cash totaling $9,285 in the court's city account. In addition, an employee included numerous unreceded checks and bank deposits
and made improper adjustments to defendant accounts maintained in the computer system. A separate report regarding this matter was issued in January of 2019. If you're interested, it's under Louisville District Court on our
Speaker 20
37:27
website. Then at the bottom of the page, we have another fraudulent check. If there are
Speaker 105
37:36
no questions, staff would recommend we file.
Speaker 1
37:40
Any questions? Seeing none. Without objection, we file it. Next item is Steele.
Speaker 4
37:48
On page 11, the first two, Magazine and Ola, these are two more fraudulent checks. That's the only
Speaker 5
37:53
findings we had. We did refer those to the prosecutor. If there are no questions, staff would
Speaker 1
38:00
recommend we file. Any questions? Seeing none. Without objection, we file
Speaker 4
38:11
it. Next item. On page 12, this is still
Speaker 5
38:13
under reports referred to the prosecuting attorney. The town of Twin Groves, the recorded treasurer was invited to be here because she had repeat findings,
but I have not heard from her. Staff would recommend
Speaker 1
38:30
we defer this. Any questions? Without objection, we will say we'll defer it and bring it back up. Next item.
Speaker 4
38:43
On page 14, at the bottom, we have the city of Cave Springs. This is
Speaker 5
38:47
under reports with repeat findings. The recorded treasurer did call and was not able to be here today.
She requested to defer this report until January. Without
Speaker 13
39:00
objection, we'll defer it until January. Next item. On
Speaker 4
39:10
page 16, the town of Jericho, the police chief was supposed to be here. He has repeat findings, but he also called and he requested, he
Speaker 5
39:18
couldn't be here in January either and requested to defer until the February meeting.
Speaker 1
39:29
Any questions? Seeing none, defer it until you said February. Next item. On page 18, at the
Speaker 4
39:39
top of the page is the City of Madison. This is still in the reports with repeat findings. The reporter
Speaker 5
39:45
treasurer was also invited, but they called as well and requested to defer until the January
Speaker 13
39:54
meeting. Without objection, defer to January.
Speaker 5
40:04
18 and 19, those are reports that we have not received responses for. But in the last few days, I have gotten responses on all of them except for Midway. Staff would recommend we file Monticello Enterprise Funds, White River Regional Solid Waste Management District, the Spadra Goose Camp Water Users Association, the Strong Water and Sewer Fund, and Sulphur Springs Water Fund, and defer Midway.
Speaker 30
40:33
Okay. Any questions? Without objection, so moved. That gets us to the
Speaker 5
40:41
end. On pages 19 to 23, there are 11 reports with findings that have responses. I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any about those. If not, staff would recommend we file those.
Speaker 20
40:53
I'll give you a minute to look those over.
Speaker 13
41:09
Any questions? Without objection, we'll file it. Yes. Okay. And then on pages 24 and 25, there are
Speaker 5
41:17
54 reports with no findings. Staff would recommend we file those as well. Without objection, we'll file it. That's it. Any
Speaker 1
41:34
other business? Thank you all for coming today.
Appreciate your presence and participation here
Agenda
A. Call to Order by Chair
B. Adoption of Minutes of the November 7, 2019 meeting
C. Discussion of Ark. Code Ann. § 14-59-117:
1. Town of Allport
2. Town of Fulton
3. Town of Jericho
D. Review of Reports (Refer to the Synopsis)
E. The next meeting will be January 23, 2019
F. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — LEGISLATIVE JOINT AUDITING - COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES, Dec 12, 2019 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 4
Speaker 5
Speaker 6
Speaker 8
Speaker 13
Speaker 17
Speaker 20
Speaker 16
Raymond Adams
Unverified
Speaker 26
Speaker 27
Speaker 19
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 33
Speaker 37
Speaker 43
Speaker 48
Speaker 44
Speaker 50
Speaker 65
Speaker 72
Speaker 77
Speaker 24
Speaker 81
Speaker 83
Senator Bill Sample
Unverified
Speaker 92
Speaker 30
Speaker 75
Speaker 95
Speaker 100
Speaker 94
Speaker 102
Speaker 105