Legislative Joint Auditing - Counties and Municipalities
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- October 2, 2026
Speaker 2
0:13
for this great man we ask for the wisdom all these things our first order of business today will be the look at the the minutes
from the last meeting and appropriate time I'll entertain a motion in a
second. we have a motion 2nd 2 all in favor of approval of the minutes. Say aye all opposed say none the minister are approved Mr. Archer would you please proceed
Speaker 8
0:57
adam excuse me thank you Mr chairir. itemtem number C for an update on our
Speaker 10
1:02
delinquent the 2023 and2024 water and sewer reports for the 2023 year we are down to three that have not complied as we picked up blackrock
since our last meeting and we moved it from the 23 to the24 a list the 24 list is now down to 22. The mailout list had 24 on it but we picked up marvel and Higginson this earlier this week Mr Chair this completes my report without objection we
Speaker 10
1:41
to itemd we have an update on our delinquent city
reports from December31st,2024. the only private city report that we don't have at this point is the city of bauxite Mr Chair
Speaker 13
2:05
that objection we will file this report moving on
Speaker 10
2:09
to item E a discussion on noncompliance with the Arkansas code 277207 misuse of street funds. We had two reports
that were deferred from the June meeting that we're noncompliance with their approved payment repayment of street funds that'd be Jericho and Haines and with the chair's permission'd like to go ahead and present these two reports on pages 13 and 14. please proceed we'll start with the city of Jericho city of Jericho 2024 mayor I Sumpner and recorder treasurer Eileen Elaineduree we're invited here today they could not make it
due to illnesses and a wedding just to recap at the at the June meeting of the finding in question was restricted funds of over57,000 dollars were not transferred to the street fund from the general fund as required by barkansas code The town received approval by the legislative joint auditittee on February 9,2024 to pay $100 and $200 alternating each month for three years and paid300 dollars monthly thereafter.
which would total $1500 in the current year beginning March of 2024. However, the town paid only $1,07 which is67% of the2024 Mount Dew. This is a repeat finding on past 16 reports committee asked that we update this for the June meeting and at the June meeting obviously they were4393 dollars short at the end of our report period for 2024. they caught up
during 2025 and then on May5th when we were preparing for the June meeting there were 11 9 $3 short on on May28 they made a $1200 deposit to get caught up and since then we we reached staff reached out on September 1st and they had made a300 dollars payment in June350 dollars payment in July and another350 dollars payment in August. So as of right now they are current so I don't think that staff doesn't recommend any action
taken on 277207 but staff would recommend that we defer this report until which time they can
come here and answer whatever questions y'all have.
what is the will of the committee on deferring the report so move second all in favor
Speaker 20
4:42
say aye that we will Mr. Archer we will defer
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
4:49
the motion but my question is is this a town that we should
I know we've deferred it until they can come the next time which is inoctober but is this a town that maybe we ought to have like a six month check in on to make sure they're keeping these payments up that they're supposed to be paying and is that something that we can maybe consider or look at come October that we ask audit to report and then know we'll go into general session and we'll be out during that time but just so that we're we keep a thumb on them and make sure that they're paying what they're
supposed to be paying iss is that a possibility that we could look at come October?
Speaker 20
5:31
Well, I understand what you're saying. Let me ask Mr. Arger is what's the gent normal procedure for that you know we go
Speaker 13
5:36
every year so every year and where Jericho is we actually go every year so it wouldn't be a in we hadn't done a single single year audit on I mean a multiyear audit on Jericho in several years so we'll be there every year so you know every 12 months we're going to check on it but we'll do whatever the will of the committee is if we want to make a wellness check at the midpoint we can do that as well. Well, the reason why I'm bringing it
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
6:00
up, Mr. Chair is it seems like they don't
do anything until we show up audit I say we so audit shows up and then they get back on track and then audit's not there until the next time around and they don't do anything to audit shows back up so it's just something I wanted the committee
to kind of think about come October
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
6:21
it's just a thoughtenatorson has a question more more of a support and comment on Representativealby's point. Mr. Chairman, if since we've already asked deferred
them and ask them to come back next month I think that's the proper time to to do to do what you said I think it's a great idea we ask him to come and we'll give them a excused absence this
time but next time we need to get
some answers and and I think it's a great idea rather than letting them go so far down the road that the problem is HC insurmountable but more difficult to solve for bringing that up. thank you that's all I had Monsie. I agree with that let's
have them at the end of the table in October let's lay out our expectations and if they become delinquent again then the committee's immediately notified and we can get it done in one payment instead of letting it be six or eight months behind delinquent again I think that's a great idea so let's get them then table inoctober
Mr. Archer and then we'll lay out our expectations thank you
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
7:22
Mrir that was that was my thought exactly wait until we had him at the end thank
Speaker 13
7:27
you appreciate it pleasure Mrcher proceed with adam E. we had the
Speaker 10
7:33
city of Haines again on page 13 of the town of Haines 2024 under the mayor and recorder treasurer restricted funds of just over $16,000 noted in previous years were not transferred from the general fund to the street fund noncompliance with code. legislative joint audittee on February 9,2024 approved the town to repay $100 per month. However, only $178 was paid in 2024 to reduce the ballots owed to the street fund this is a repeat finding in the previous e
reports. Althoughchedule one of this report shows a balance of over just over $1900. It was brought to our attention that as of December31st,2024, the general fund owed a significant amount for balances owed to the street fund and the IRS. as shown on note4 on schedulele3 when these outstanding amounts were considered the general fund has a deficit fund balance of just over35,000 dollars. This is a repeat finding in the previous six reports same with Jericho we were this was deferred from the June
meeting at the at the end of our reporting period they'd paid $178 towards a $1000 that was due. they in 2025 they deposited all their property tax from general fund into the street fund directly. and up to up through September 1st of 26 they had made 3 $100 payments on the $800 owed and yesterday they made a394 dollars 13 cents payment to become current as of today
I believe Mayor Willie Coleman and recorder treasurer Charlotte Mcadden is here today in the
table please could y'all come to the table
Speaker 10
9:19
please but as of yesterday they are current on what's what they their payment plan if you would state turn
your microphones on and state your name and your position with the city for the record please Mayor Willoughy Coleman recording clerk Charlotte McFadden
do you have an open statement on anything
Speaker 48
9:49
that you would like to make yes appreciate being here and y'all checking and making sure everything get back the way it should be and learning that I'm just you know becoming a mirror in a year and now hopefully we stay current like we're supposed to just I'm having trouble hearing you can
you speak into the mic a little better please?
Speaker 27
10:14
he said he was saying hopefully we'll stay current I say we will
OK well that's good news or you know if
you're here today in your current I don't guess there's any any sense in belaboring the point but I'm also thinking that while we just extended to the city of Jericho we probably need to keep tabs on on the city of Haines just becau just just in case you become delinquent it's easier to put
out a small problem or handle a small problem and then ended up becoming6 or 8 months in arrears again and then we have a problem so I'm gonna ask Mr. Archer to keep us notified if you become delinquent in your payments and if you do then we'll call you back to the end of the table and we'll get a small problem fixed before it becomes a big problem but with that being said, I don't have any other thing to say unless any members of the committee have any comments or questions they would like to ask saying no I thank you for coming
Speaker 56
11:17
today OK? you're you're free to leave just a staff note Mr chairman we're we're there now doing the 25
Speaker 13
11:25
a I think we just completed it as well so we they're they're in an area that we also do a single single audits on every year so we will be there every year but we will check in at midyear as well thank you Mr Archer we get to file this report
Speaker 59
11:41
please yes motion second all in favor say aye
any opposed seeing none the eyes
Speaker 10
11:53
have thank you moving on to item F reports to be presented on page we have 26 reports that were deferred from the August meeting. The first one's on pages 1 through3 get my list back here it is a special report6 regional solid waste management districts a review of selected policies, procedures and transactions.
July122 through December31st to 23 we have staff member Charlie Kemp here to present it and I believe we have Pulaski County Regional Soer wasste District manager disstrict executive director Craig Douglas here to answer questions as well. Staff would note that on the bottom of your stack Mr. Douglas provided a handout that the chair approved so it should be on the bottom of your stack, your packet ar r li e
Speaker 63
12:46
thank you Joe. pulasaski County Regional so
Waste Management District had6 findings that were issued finding number one involved payroll items salary increase contract for services and employee bonuses not properly approved by the board. this finding was referred to the sixth judicial prosecuting attorney and the attorney general the remaining findings involved credit card disbursements without proper supporting documentation at the time payment was made t rac t s not properly approved by the board
issues related to car allowances, personal use of pulaski County District vehicles and cellphones competitive bids not being solicited for the cost of multiple services and lack of an electronic funds payment system with written policies and procedures for internal accounting controls and documentation for audit and accounting purposes Other matters included the pulaski County District expending312,977 dollars in public monies for advertising which appears excessive in
comparison with the amounts expensed by other districts in this report as noted in a prior report the pulaski County district had a contract with a vendor that required the vendor to repair and maintain district owned equipment located at the vendor's facility and used by the vendor. However, the district paid for maintenance of the equipment from the district's maintenance and repair capital fund subsequent to the issuance of the prior report the district closed this fund and sold46 trailers to the vendor for substantially less than the
purchase price. Finally, other items were sold to a second vendor but detailed descriptions and purchase prices were not available for the items in this sale. Mr. Sher this concludes my report.
Speaker 67
14:34
right douglas see you seated at the end of the table would you state your name and your position for the but it's not oh this thing is come completely unscrewed up here
can you hear me now Mr. Douglas I see you're seated at the end
of the table but for the record would you
Speaker 75
15:05
state your name and your position please Craig douglas, director of the Pulaski County Regional solid Waste Management District right
thank you for coming today. Do you have an open statement that you
Speaker 75
15:15
would like to make? Thank you Mr Chairman. at the June4th meeting we covered the items that Mr. Camp just
enumerated and your handout that was included in today's packet has gone a little bit further to explain the items that you had most of the questions on we have covered in that handout the audits methodology which compared Pulasaski County a solid waste management district to five other districts there are 18
solid waste management districts in Arkansas each solid waste management district operates their programs primarily as it relates to recycling and the management of solid waste operates their program differently as do we from other districts the audit was conducted in the 2023 fiscal year comparing pulaski County with
the southwest district and then in the 2023 calendar year it compared the Pulaski County district with 34 other districts so we have expenditures over fiscal years and on cal calendar years that the audit took a look at most of the questions in on June4th had to do with the district our district's
operations and performance as related to our responsibilities primarily on recycling and our residential recycling program while all of the districts do things differently the Pulasaski County district does processing pick up and recycling on the following items all of them plastic bottles, jugs, tubs, clamshell containers and to go cups glass bottles and jars
electronic waste, household hazardous waste aluminum, steel and tin cans cardboard, loose paper, cartons and paper board plastic bags and waste tires the laski County district does all of that most of which is done by biweekly residential pickup not just in littlettleRock not just in North LittleRock or Sherwood but throughout the municipalities as well as the
unincorporated areas of the county in a look at all of the other districts through our association which includes all of them solid waste management districts pulaski County is the only district that picks up picks up and processes all of the recyclable items that I just mentioned and does so at at a curbside recycling pickup program those that are not picked up curbside are picked up at one of our five
green we call green stations which are transfer stations now in the 2023 years fiscal and calendar that were audited we had special programs those special programs were to increase participation reduce waste and also because the state discontinued its electronic waste grant program we dedicated more funds to
educating the public about the toxicity of electronic waste and why they should not be put in the trash but should be deposited at one of our green stations to be recycled in addition we provided research and also customer education on the fact that we began collecting glass in our curbside recycling carts the research that we conducted and the education programs that we
pursued and spent money on to educate and inform the public were designed to ensure that there was a enough volume of glass in order that a glass recycling plant privately built and employing private sector jobs could handle glass in our solid waste management district the research and our education
programs did indicate that a glass recycling plant could be constructed and could recycle glass in Arkansas instead of sending glass to Kansas City where it normally went that recycling plant in North LittleRock, Arkansas currently employs 24 full time equivalent workers working two shifts so that's just an example of some of the things that we committed our dollars to we
also had a program to ensure that plastic bags were not deposited in the curbside recycling cart because they shut down the recycling equipment and lastly in 2023 pulaski County and a number of counties in north central and northeast Arkansas experienced an EF3 tornado what the district did was we dedicated funds working with waste management and other
independent haulers to ensure that toxic waste and construction waste that was caused by that tornado that the the residents of pulaski County and the businesses knew where that that waste needed to go that's a lot of it didn't need to go in the trash but could be recycled so those are some of the programs on which we dedicated our funds which were all in the service of education and information to our residential customers
so that's a longwinded way of saying
that's what we we're doing ok well I just wanted you to state for the record anything that you may have want
to say that you thought would be germane to what we're
going to discuss today are there are there any questions from the
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
21:57
committee members Senator Johnson you recognized thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr Douglas thank you for coming back and I I wanna frankly let you know that I don't intend this to continue to to rehash all this and I appreciate your
willingness to come I'm I'm almost thinking that perhaps we should should have one or more members of your board who happen to be mayors and the county judge that let's just say more so than just your average volunteer board member they have a dog in this fight and and we want to make sure that everybody's moving on the same page and I want to mention two things Mr. Chair and then reserved to have a motion you mentioned this glass recycling program
it's been a long time I can't even remember how many years but I toured a a glass recycling program in Benton County and it was staffed by volunteers and it was a tremendous program what they were doing with glass recycling and they were even selling it to someone that mixed it with asphalt when they paved new runways and when a plane would come in and turn their landing lights on the the the pavement would glow from a refre reflection of the I
thought that was a great idea and then a few maybe less than a year later they closed that facility which I might say was it was the the personnel were almost all volunteers because it was near Bella Vista they had a lot of retired people that wanted to give back so I'm wondering who is running this glass recycling center is it part come out of your budget or is it a third party could you just kind of let me know how that
Speaker 75
23:49
works it's epiclass recycling which is a part of acelas in LittleRock. the the plant is in North LittleRock they manufacture now because we are collecting glass in our curbside recycling carts and they're collecting glass around the state they are manufacturing now what is called a lightweight glass foamed aggregate that is used in construction in fact30 crossing used that aggregate not from
this company because it wasn't built yet but aggregate from Pennsylvania they are now manufacturing this product in addition to what's called culet which is also the small beaded glass that can be used in manufacturing this is a private business employing private sector jobs as I mentioned there they have a they have a payroll now of 24 and that is an example of what my board has instructed over the
last number of years to discover ways where recycling can be a catalyst for economic development and job creation and that's why we supported the glass recycling program and and continue to and
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
25:03
we could so we could say this is a newer technology that and and applaud you and and the organization in North LittleRock for for doing that on this disaster recovery effort I want to give you kudos on that because we can't plan completely around that but I think your response
was appropriate there's a whole lot of stuff that maybe we can keep out of the landfill that comes from the damage of a of a tornado or equivalent natural disaster to thank you on that Mr Chairman, I appreciate Mr Douglas bringing us this and and some further explanation but it it generates more questions than I think I need to be asking at this hearing and I would I would like to to move again apologize to Mr Douglas for
asking him to come back again but but I would like us to once again delay consideration of what we will do with this this audit until theoctober meeting and I can have a chance to digest what Mr. Douglas has provided the committee and perhaps Mr. Douglas you might have some of your other board members come because it we we we we don't want to leave this on the agenda indefinitely we won't do that to you but but we do I think need
to it's it's somewhat more complex than many of the items that we find ourselves dealing with so Mr Chairman I would move that we hold before I think
you're going to make a motion but before you do I want to
hear frompresentative beatty I think he asked some questions and I'll come back to you and you can make that you Mr Cha and would yield
Speaker 86
26:43
topresentative Beattypresentative Bay do you recognized thank you
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
26:47
Mr Chair. I I guess this question's maybe for staff and I I was not at the June4th meeting so I know this is a
callback to clarify some of the findings but just for memory how many of these are repeat findings because I do recall a couple hour meeting that we sat through on on your district in the past so can staff answer that question for us
for this particular report and for this particular oddity there there were no repeat findings in this report so none of these are repeat findings
but I mean it seems like when when this waste district comes up there's always pages of findings so I guess my question for
you Mr. Douglas has this been a learning experience and something that won't be a
Speaker 75
27:40
repeat the next time this audit's performed well I certainly hope so in my commitment to this committee is that there would not be any repeat findings or findings in any of these categories and we have consistently reported to
our board these sessions the obvious these findings and also continue to do our own independent audits which which our board meticulously looks at and so as I have explained on june 4th and would be happy to continue to answer any questions that you may have today every operation every performance that the district does is board approved
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
28:27
well some of these I mean just a quick follow up some of these are pretty I guess basic accounting controls like the credit card disbursements maintaining supporting documentation for those service contracts those type things that would
Speaker 75
28:44
just be I would consider common business sense and practices since this again was 2223 at our chief chief financial officer at the time told did not he did not
require any credit card for instance this is a for instance any credit card receipts since although the credit card bills had all of the descriptions on that we since have started maintaining all credit card receipts the electronic funds transfer that Mr Camp mentioned that has been corrected. Everything that and andarrlie can correct me but everything that we have been that has been mentioned in any findings over the last two or three years we have corrected
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
29:32
good we'll we'll hope for the day when
hope for that day as well thank you right I want to come back to Senator Johnson you're recognized for your
motion. Oh I'm sorry one more I overlookpresentative gene. I
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
29:50
apologize. go ahead Mrpresentative. you Mr Chairman. Mr Camp on the finding one that referred to the and you may have mentioned it and I missed it the to the prosecuting attorney attorney general did we ever get
Speaker 101
30:02
back anything back from them to my knowledge I don't know what what
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
30:08
response they have that should be covered in the in the report that y'all get for the year for everything that gets referred I'm a really sure when that's going to come up so we don't know where they're at on that
Speaker 103
30:19
don't thank you seeing no other questions
I'll recognized Senator Johnson for his motion. Thank you Mr Chairman. I move that the
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
30:36
committee defer this report to until theoctober meeting in the meantime Mr. Douglas I will get us a little bit more organized so we can hopefully wrap this thing up next month and come up with some finality to it and again apologize for dragging you all back up here but we want to make sure that not just you and your staff but also your board is is on pardon the expression on board with the solutions that we will
hopefully agree to so in the in the words of of representative lady that we're we're gonna not see you up here as much and we'll avoid all these and I realize your situation's a little more complex than the others which is why this is standing out more but again it is it's a lot of money it's a lot of it's a lot of recycled material and it's things that we need to get right so we can have some better organization of this for the
public so that's my motion is just to do for this matter tilloctober meeting Mr Chairman right so
on your motion just for clarification for myself do you want just Mr Douglas back by himself because earlier you mentioned about bringing other mayors who are also board members with you are you including them in your motion or do you just want Mr. douglas back would
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
31:59
request that as many members of his board that could come just to clarify and we can hopefully get further along on that and Id I some of them are
my acquaintances and some of them are my longtime friends and I don't mind reaching out to them and encouraging them to join us for that but in the ins in the interest of putting some finality on this particular audit and the
we have a second second all in favor say aye aye all opposed hearing none the motion passes and I would also ask that I
think representativelajean ask a relevant question and let's get the answer to his question inoctober and follow up on where we're where we're on that so we don't have to have to assume anything. thank you Mr. Douglas thank you for your time we'll see you next month. Mr Chair
Speaker 112
32:58
just I know you clarified you're going to invite the members of the board you want us to do it won't
you let the let all the officially invite them and if you want to follow up at your
Speaker 10
33:13
behest that's fine also you get thatjorlie weren't biting the board we are right go ahead continuing with the thank you continuing with reports deferred from the august meeting on pages4 through 10 we have helena west Helena 2024. starting on page four
under the mayor, the treasurer and the city clerk during disbursement testing for74 items we noted the following adequate sporting documentation was not provided for 17 disbursements totaling just over $100,000 in noncompliance for code of this5 disbursements totaling almost73,000 dollars appeared to be for legitimate business expenses. However documentation was not maintained Individual fuel tickets were not maintained for a disbursement tolling just over $25,000.
therefore the validity of these disbursements could not be determined. An employee was paid over $2200 for travel and or reimbursements without proper documentation. therefore the validity of these disbursements could not be determined this is a repeat finding a reimbursement of over $1400 was paid before order was placed in conflict with Article 12 section5 which prohibits cities from loaning credit to individual. This is a repeat finding up port ing documentation was
not provided for t2 of the fi3 credit card transactions totaling just over $2500 for the three statements tested for the physical year 2024 in noncompliance with code due to the lack of documentation, validity of these transactions could not be determined this is a repeat finding on page five after employees payroll check was voided and reissued the voided check with deposited and cleared the bank. The improper deposit and additional clerical
errors resulted in the employee being overpaid just over $1250. Instead of seeking reimbursement for the check cashing, the city treasurer made a journal entry to eliminate the unreconciled difference as the expense as a report date the city is not recouped the overpayment or reverse the journal entry. continuing on page six Arkansas code requires the city council to approve an annual budget which is the appropriation of funds for operations and city management to function within this appropriation.
However the city failed to expend funds with appropriations due to the lack of management oversight resulting in general fund and street fund expenditures exceeding appropriations by over407,000 dollars and over390,000 dollars respectively Also general fund and street fund budgeted revenues exceeded actual revenues by more than 238,000 and more than 257,000 respectively as a result of overspending the
general fund, the street fund and landfill fund had deficit balances in excess of 92,600,811,454,000 respectively at the end of 24 Another factor contributing to this deficit was various payrollacccou accounts payables in general fund totaling over $2.1 million including the following 1.2 million in payroll taxes,242,0 for retirement benefits 140,000 for housing city prisoners
133,000 for truck rentals 88,000 for camera leases 280,000 to other vendors in addition to the general fund deficit fund balance failure to pay retirement system payments resulted in the loss the city's general revenue turnback received from the state Furthermore, the city's inability to pay its its debt its debts timely led to late payment fees, bank overdraft charges utility shutoff notices repossessions some vendors require cash payments on delivery. This is a
repeat finding 10 on page se The city failed to make payments as specified in5 financial purchase agreements for the third consecutive year annual payment of over32,500 dollars was not made for police body cameras On October 23,2024, the city was notified that a caterpillar articulated truck was repossessed.loan balance of just over $251,000 On September 24th of 24, the city was notified that two
caterpillar track type tractors were repossessed and would be sold at public auction on November7,2024.loan balances were just over61,000 and over 158,000. On September 27,2024, the city was notified that cattle pillar excavator was in repossession status loan balance was just over 92,000. a similar finding was noted in the prior two reports.dditionally, if the sales proceeds of the through possession equipment does not compensate the secured parties
for the contracted balances and reasonable expenses for repossession and selling of equipment then the city may be held liable Paid overtime exceeded budget appropriation by over $283,000 consisted primarily of the following departments police department and excess of 168,000 street fund in excess of uh47,000 fire department in excess of46,000. this is a repeat finding 10 on page eight
under the mayor and treasurer Generalon street fund expenditures exceeded appropriations in excess of407,000 or5% in excess of390,31% respectively noncompliance to Arkansas code. This is a repeat find in the previous three reports and you know we're on page 10 on the treasurer and city clerk. we noted the following issues during a review of payroll.mp employee did not prepare timesheets or leave slips as required by city policy.
this is a repeat finding the prior report of the three employees tested for leave payouts wo were paid for leave in excess of the amount allowed by city policy. One employee was overpaid a total of just over $2700 for 176 hours not earned the other employee was paid $915 for 80 hours without having worked for the city for more than one year. this is a result the city's failure to maintain adequate leave records the city incurred penalties and
interest totaling over $161,000 due to the lack of timely payroll tax emissions as discussed below theF andA penalties were in excess of $14,000 at the end of 2024, the ballot's duedFNA was just over $80,000 The city entered into a payment plan with DF andA to pay the balance includings assessed penalties and interest over 25 months as a report date the city had made 16 payments totaling $94,000 this is a repeat finding
withholdings and matching reports reports for the IRS form 941 and 945 were not submitted timely resulting in penalties and interest of over $147,000. The balance due to the IRS at the end of 2024 is just under $1.2 million. because a report date the city has made payments totaling almost $220,000. We noted additional payments totaling301,000 however we could not determine if they were for past due amounts. This is a
repeat finding under the treasure vehicle allowance payments due to the mayor totaling $12,000 were not reported to the IRS on its W-2. This is a repeat finding quarter treasurerrek Turner and city clerk Sander Ramsey are here to answer questions. This report has been
Speaker 125
41:20
filed with the prosecuting attorney and the AG's office. if you would state your
name and your position for the record please
Speaker 128
41:34
Sandra Ramsey city clerk uherrick Turner city treasurer Mr Turner do you have an opening statement? no
sir any committee members have any questions of Mr Turner, Miss Ramsey Senator
Johnson you're recognized. I'll start this off
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
41:59
and I'll keep it brief Mr Chairman ma'amir it's a whole lot of money
I mean we see problems like this in this committee regularly but not these kind of numbers for a town of under 10,000 people to have you know sevenfi problems like this I
don't even know where to begin.
Speaker 135
42:27
can y'all help me wrap my arms around this like the report said overspending but I
Speaker 137
42:34
would like to add that the city clerk or myself we
don't have the authority to spend the mayor has the authority to spend this statutorily and so we can't control his spending all I can do as a treasurer is report to the city coun council what the spending is and as the city clerk all she can do is try to pay for the the purchases assume y'all did that you
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
43:04
reported it to the council so the council was aware of this even before
Speaker 138
43:11
the audit correct that's one of the things
Speaker 137
43:15
that the auditors have commended me on personally is that they said they couldn't find they weren't know
Speaker 140
43:21
about the problems if the books weren't you know
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
43:24
maintained correctly so give you kudos for that at least you've left the trail that they could but but the trail is is frightening actually it
Speaker 137
43:33
is don't know how many of you know but last year we had a mayor that was removed
from office by a circuit court judge and I would like to commend the the first replacement was coman Don Eyelley he was placed as the interim mayor by the circuit court judge he did a great job of stopping the ble bleeding. I like to say that Mr Ethly put a cast we had a fractured leg and he put the cast on the leg he set the fracture he put the cast on the leg
he made payroll cuts he increased benefit payments that the employees contributed to their health insurance and he permitted the clerk and myself to begin making payments on the IRs debt to become current so we started making current payments and we started working on the past debt he was the interim mayor when
we came into the payment arrangements to payment agreements for lopfi and we became current in apers we paid off one of the for truck rentals we paid that off we paid off most of the 280 to other vendors and so we began to take care of the debt but you had to have a person like Mr Etherley that was serious about cutting spending and he that's
what he did subsequent to that governor Sanders appointed Joseph Whitfield to the mayor's position and so what I I would say about him is that when I said Mr Eelly set the cast put the cast on but when Mr Whitfield became mayor he the cast came off and he's tending to the broken leg you know you can't put too much pressure on it and so he knows that he can't put too much pressure
financially on the city he's continued with the spending cuts that were initiated by Don Eelley. he may I think about $800,000 in budgetary cuts most of those were payroll related and some other areas and he's spending tremendously since he's been there he's only been there 10 months but just on an annualized basis I believe we're gonna come on budget
and 2026 I don't know what the results are for 2025 they're still conducting the budget right now but I believe we'll be ok on the 2025 budget and I I would like to attribute a lot of that to Mr Eley and Mr. Whitfield and we started spending cuts payroll cuts and it appears that we're on the right track so I would like to ask that quick follow up if couldenator
Speaker 33
46:55
during all this going on y'all also had a serious
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
47:00
water issue is that somewhat resolved or at least under control so your people still have clean water
Speaker 137
47:06
ok so the governor came down a few days ago had a round table and we kind of updated her on the situation and so what was happening was we were awarded a lot of money by the state I think somewhere in the neighborhood of30 million dollars but
in order to spend the money you have to have a plan you have to have an engineer's plan they don't give you the money and say have at it and so it took a little time for us to for our city engineer to develop the plan and so he came up with a plan which areas he was gonna attack first and that was submitted and so the plan was approved and now we are beginning to initiate the water line replacement so I think they just started doing
that last week so we're starting to see some
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
48:00
dirt move around that it is not a burden on your budget with governor's funding and and the fact of course helped tremendously but still that that problem is not imminent problem you you still got to go back and deal with this past debt issue but thank you for the answers you gave and I'm thrilled that my friend Representative Jean who's a former mayor he's got his hand up and I know he'll have some help us get through that. Thank
you Mr Chairman. right Senator Hambert at also indicated he wanted to ask a question so Senatorhammer you're recognized thank
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
48:37
you just for point of clarification a lot of these findings and maybe staff could weigh in a lot of these findings are the result of the previous mayor's time frame that he was in office is that a
correct observation? yes sir. we I think Mr Etherly was the interim mayor for three months
Speaker 144
49:02
the interim mayor well since for the last
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
49:05
for the past 10 months OK and so it's your opinion or your view that with the new leadership in the town that y'all are turning the ship on this thing and getting it in the right direction. would you have any idea based on how things currently are with you know with the IRS debt and all the other things how long it
might be till y'all you know
get out of the red and get into the black so we
Speaker 137
49:39
have a a payment agreement with Lapfi I think we're about 8 months before we finished it um678 months mayor Whitfield has been working with senator Wommack he's been helping us with our our uhIRs situation and so we're
in the middle of working out a payment agreement with them for the past due amount and we've continue to stay current with the current payrolls and make current payments it's gonna take some time I couldn't put a def finger on it but we're we're certainly heading in the right direction and then the
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
50:21
last question asking if it's appropriate to share y'all I see that y'all are on the delinquent list for the
water and sewer report can you go ahead and just tell us with you know the30 million that the city was granted or is being granted how are you on your because it would seem to me like having the the water audit along with the engineer plan that they all go together in order to to get everything caught up can you speak to that and that'll be it Mr.
Chair. thank you. like I said the the
Speaker 137
50:58
governor was in hell in the west hell in a a
few days ago we had a roundtable discussion and that's when we learned about well I think the water superintendent knew about it but they were going to grant us an extension to get those reports in and they're currently working on that
Speaker 103
51:19
right now all right thank you thank you sir and representing Jane do
you have a question you're recognized yes will be recognized
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
51:35
I'm guessing the city council or they in supportive of the two interim mayors are are or we haven't still
Speaker 158
51:52
for the most part they are they they they are
Speaker 137
51:57
countryentious enough to not want to see anything bad happened to the city so
any disagreements that they may have personally they don't let it affect how they vote I would say for the most part they vote the way they
Speaker 140
52:15
should and that's just my personal opinion well for when
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
52:19
you say for the most part I I'm I'm gay that it's not 100% mean you know how city councils've dealt with them right the other question is how long on these payroll taxes
how many years are we talking about to to bring up this 1.2 million that they weren't paying
Speaker 137
52:41
them that I'm not sure of the mayor Whitfield, the one that was appointed by governor Sanders he is in the middle of trying to he's working on a payment arrangement so it's kind of
Speaker 161
52:52
hard for me to say how long the the terms are OKok so
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
52:57
but it's been a while and when you say we overspending I'm I'm assuming the city council which sets the budget and and so was the mayor just
ignoring the budget and and spending whatever he wanted to spend
Speaker 166
53:14
on it yeah that's what or or was the city council in
Speaker 137
53:18
on this no absolutely not like I tried to explain to people all the time is that the clerk she writes the check she pays for payments I report to the city council but sometimes we don't know that a purchase has been made or contract has been entered into until we receive an invoice
and so that that counts as an expenditure whether we sign a check or not that's that's a that's an expenditure on our books and so like I said we don't have the authority to spend that's the exclusive authority and responsibility of the mayor and and you feel like you're
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
53:57
loy and apers retirement money will be able to pay back in a
Speaker 161
54:02
timely manner. Yes sir we had a I think 18 month payment plan and we're on schedule to do that
Speaker 137
54:11
we've set a reserve aside just in case we have some financial difficulties or an emergency comes up we have a reserve set aside to make sure that we have enough to pay the lot fee payment but we we're on time we haven't missed a payment and I'm not sure exactly when it ends but I don't foresee any problem
Speaker 103
54:32
in april april of next year yes sir appreciate your answers thank you and I
believe Senator Hammer has another question he'd like to
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:43
ask. Thank you. I want to tag onto somethingpresentativeenan asked you about the you you made your statement if I heard you right that the city council was not aware of this spending practices of the previous mayor or did I misunderstand
Speaker 158
55:00
that they they wouldn't know until somebody brought it to their attention the report that
Speaker 137
55:06
I give them I give them a monthly treasury report. it's just gonna show
the expenditures that we've pay for and that we've set aside as a liability but there may be have been some things that they were unaware of just like the clerk and myself may have been unaware of a certain contract or a certain purchase they wouldn't have any idea of it either I mean that I think a lot of it caught them off guard as
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
55:37
well so throughout the throughout the time frame of which these debts were occurring and theirRS payments weren't being made to city council
was not aware they didn't see the trend developing as far as the risk payments they weren't being made or any of it like the equipment that got repossessed or any of all the things
Speaker 137
56:00
that have been shared in the report today the city council was aware that we were behind on IRs payments and they were aware that we were having problems paying for the an equipment head was landfill equipment so they were aware of it and they were aware of the fact
that we were having problems paying it because the spending was more than the revenue but like I said statutorily the mayors have exclusive authority to spend
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
56:37
and I I would think and again go back to listeningpresentative Jean's questions Iu I would hope and think that
the city council members would not be resistant to the current mayor trying to follow conservative practices as far as suspending and that there would be no problem out of the city council members aligning with the mayor so that they can all work on this together's team because the previous mayor's not there right anymore but some of those city council members are there now that were there during that so I would hope that they would all you know yoke up together and have some conservative
approaches to get out of this and get behind the mayor to
Speaker 135
57:25
help make that happen would you agree with that yes sir they they are aware of the seriousness of the problems that we
Speaker 137
57:32
have and they like I said they supported Mr. Eelly and his cuts there there was a a lot of people that weren't happy about the payroll cuts who I think we cut a whole department we could the police dispatch and then we contracted it out so we didn't he didn't make a lot of friends
or a lot of people happy but he did it mayor Whitfield has made significant budget cuts like I said over re800,000 dollars and and the 2026 budget and it seems like we're going to recognize that I think he's gonna I think we're gonna come in on the budget actually and the city council is when you're cutting
Speaker 128
58:15
spending and you're trying to take care of the problem they've been nothing more than supportive thank you Representative Ry do you have a
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
58:23
question? Yes I do Senator Stone, yes sir it's almost on the same order as Representative Lane Shean but this one.2 million for payroll taxes and also 242,000 for retirement. how are we going to get that straightened out because that can cause these folks
trouble with the federal government that's working there yes sir well with
Speaker 137
58:54
the big concern was with with if we had a police officer or a fireman retire was he gonna get his money? and so lay assured us that if we follow this payment plan that anybody who retired during that time period with get everything that they everything that was owed to him and so we're working out the plan withloy right now the plan would be we would have completely paid for it in april
April of twenty7 and like I said earlier the mayor mayor Whitfield is currently working with Senator Wommack and the IRS to come up with a payment plan for the past due withholdings as well so I can't give you a timeline on that but they're working on it now thank you sir
Speaker 179
59:47
thank you Mr Chair. uhpresentative Jean and then representative ladydyman. I just had one
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
59:51
to follow up you said your're contracting your dispatch or y'all doing with the
county now sir and and before that because a lot of counties have done that cities and they come together so you just did away with city dispatch altogether sir thank you uhpresentative
Laderman you're recognized thank thank you Mr Chairman.
Speaker 181
1:00:13
Am I on here? well you know this is a multiheaded snake
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:00:17
here. there's a lot of things. how do you attack that you know you've got a lot of things that you got to do you know and
you've got plans it looks like for lopfi you payroll you've cut that you're you're working on that water and sewer you've got money for that you're working on that IRs so I guess my question is are there things that you don't have a plan for or you don't know how you don't really know how to fix those and I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about how about streets? I mean I'm looking at at this and you had a lot of your equipment that was
taken back how are you able to maintain your streets or are you or do you have a plan to be able to do that and then also you talk about over time down here forli street and fire and you've cut back on your personnel do you have adequate resources to protect the safety of the public I mean are your policemen and your firemen and your street workers able to at least maintain
the streets and the safety where it's it's
Speaker 137
1:01:35
safe for the public OK so I I'll attack the equipment issue first so there wasn't the street equipment that was repossessed it was landfield equipment and so the landfill the management at that time they they just weren't doing a good job of of managing the landfill we have a new landfill director now he was a former fire chief. he knows how to he he's more of a
an administrative leader and so the revenue in the landfill has increased and so they're more able to pay for their equipment I think we we just got new equipment and it costs more than the equipment that was repossessed and we haven't had a problem making the payments so the landfill is good we have new management new leadership in the landfield and they're doing good right now when you mentioned streets so
you're ok on your streets the streets the problem that we have is more of probably an accounting issue what I do when I do the budget is that account for the streets payroll and the street fund and the land fields payroll and the landfill fund so when we process payroll those expenses hit those two funds but the general fund actually pays it and so we set up a a receivable from the
landfill in the street and payable to the general fund from there so most of the problems that the street department has is that they aren't paying their payroll they don't have the capacity to pay the payroll but it's still hitting their books as an expense so that's why you see a negative fund balance in my estimation a negative fund balance in the street I understand the landfill fund as far as overtime we just had a situation recently
you got to have have somebody in leadership that's serious is take that takes it serious and so the mayor just recently tried to cut the schedules try in in order to reduce overtime in the street and police and fire department told him he wanted to schedule different particularly in the police department go from 12 hour shifts to eighthour shifts and so you we had some police officers that that weren't happy about it but that situation was resolved
with that we that 10 once a week they had the blue flu for that right and but I think we had a special call meeting and the officers returned back to work but the problem that we have with the police department is that we need to have more officers so we're we're understaffed and that contributes to the overtime but I think the mayor just wanted to the police chief to try harder to do it you know s you know we we know that we're
understaffed but we want to you know do everything you can to cut out overtime and I think what they're saying it's not justified over time but maybe just some
Speaker 128
1:04:58
frivolous overtime it's what they're it's what they're more concerned about rightpresentative Beck did
you have a question a while ago? I was unsure seeing no more questions but seeing no more questions without objection we will file this
Speaker 10
1:05:14
report Mr Chair with your permission I'd like to skip over to
number 28 on our on our list which is on pages 23 through 26. please do this is Wichita County 2024. under the county judge the county dispersed funds totaling $821,000 to provide financial assistance to the wasshtall County Medical Center without a contract for services this arrangement appears in conflict with Article 12 section5 which prohibits counties from appropriating funds to corporations. This is a repeat finding
Federal guidelines require county management to obtain federal compliance audits when federal expenditures exceed750,000 dollars. The county had federal expenditures in excess of750,000 dollars in202423,22 and21. but due to management oversight did not obtained federal compliance audits as required The county could be responsible for repayment of federal expenditures in instances of noncom if instances of noncompliance are noted during the federal compliance audit. We
recommend the county provide obtained federal compliance audits for each of the respective years. This is a repeat finding continuing on page 24 appropriation ordinances passed by the quorum court were not adequately posted to the appropriation journal in noncompliance with code. failure to process appropriations and amendments accurately does not allow for accurate monthly reporting to the u Court. This is a repeat finding under the tax collector receipts issued by the tax
collector's office exceeded bank deposits for almost3,600 dollars during the period January1st,2024 through June 2nd of 2026. The office manager who was placed on administrative leave on June 2,2026 with custodian the undeposited funds cash receipts and disbursement journals were not properly prepared or reconciled to monthly bank statements for the tax collector's account in noncompliance code. as a result over $15,000 of
unidentified tax funds remain in the tax collector's bank account. at year end and was not paid the kind of treasure on the first of each month or within 10 working days and noncompliance with code. this is a repeat finding then you on page 25 under the county judge and the county clerk the sheriff tax collector was paid over6 almost6400 dollars more than the amount appropriated by ordinance and noncompliance with code. This is a repeat finding under the county clerk invoices
were not always paid timely as a result the county incurred late payment fees and finance charges totaling over $2800 This is a repeat finding The county did not establish by ordinance the number and compensation for all county officers and employees in noncompliance with code. This is a repeat finding under the sheriff expenditures for the sheriff's communication facility and equipment fund were not made by prenumbered check in noncompliance with code. This is a repeat
sheriff collector David Nollwood was invited here today. He was unable to attend due to prior engagement county judgedgeRobert Mccadoo and county clerk Sherry Hunter are here. This report has been filed with the certified to the bonding
Speaker 125
1:08:37
board and referred to the prosecuting attorney and the AG's office. if you would would both of
you say your name and your position for the record pleaseRobert Mccadoo County judged sherry Hunter
the county clerk Judge McAdoo do you have an open
Speaker 188
1:08:56
statement to make do do first of all
Speaker 189
1:09:03
there was mistakes made in my office I had an executive secretary that we have since separated employment with and the problem was that she would not
Speaker 190
1:09:19
communicate with the county clerk the county clerk had to payroll
absolutely right but she did not communicate so we didn't
Speaker 189
1:09:34
start out on the same page as far as the budget ordinance so it appears that the sheriff was overpaid but
Speaker 190
1:09:45
really he was paid what he was supposed to have under the county clerk's payroll but that secretary did not start out with the same
value on our budget ordinance now secretary did it but it's my fault it all comes back to me and what bothered me on it was that I didn't catch it but I knew at the end of the year I was having to balance the budget as
Speaker 193
1:10:20
far as personnel and I couldn't figure out why Until
Speaker 190
1:10:32
the auditor said the sheriff got overpaid well I started digging and come to find out the budget ordinance was not right and it was like in the collector's side of it you know the sheriff and collectors paid ha half by each one well especially on the collector's side it was $2500 less
and so that was the problem now how we have remedied how we have put a remedy in place in the 26 budget first of all we use a software current a company called Financial intelligent and in the financial intelligent the breakdown of individual salaries it doesn't break it all
the way down to the person it
Speaker 189
1:11:39
breaks it down by you got a group of deputies they're going to be paid
Speaker 190
1:11:46
x amount of dollars but what legislative audit couldn't see exactly what each deputy was paid same way with sheriff so the remedy was the the treasure
myself the county clerk and one member of the finance committee of the quorum court we sat down made an excel spreadsheet with every person's name and exactly what they're supposed to be making so legislative audit can have that that was the correcting of that part
Speaker 198
1:12:40
Can I stop there and you ask me any questions at the at at as far as this from before we go to
the next thing well you can take a breath if you need to but I say Miss Hunter she acts like she has something she would like to do you want to add any
Speaker 201
1:12:56
clarification to that would just agreeing with what he
Speaker 190
1:13:00
was saying Miss Hunter she's a dot the I cross the T kind of girl. She comes in to me all the
time and saying hey you can't do this you can't do this and so but I kind of my mistake kind of drug her in here she's very OCd in trying to do the job exactly right and me I need that we appreciate that but she's
also the county clerk and so if any members have questions of Miss Hunter she's quite capable of picking her own on her own too so with that being said does anybody have any questions at this point and if
you have some other comments you'd like to make at a later time Ju will
Speaker 198
1:13:44
be happy to listen no I'd rather answer the questions on this part right here
ok I see uhs representative beatty is as as a question sir thank you
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:13:53
chairir. my question starts with the first item on the on the finding dealing with the hospital and the contract for services do you have a signed contract for services with the hospital at this time no sir we don't because
Speaker 190
1:14:13
this happened in 2024 but each time that we disburse money to the hospital if you'll
Speaker 189
1:14:22
look in these files right here we don't disburse any money until they show us the council check and the invoice the fault was mine Mister beatty. I didn't do
Speaker 190
1:14:34
the actual three line contract saying watchchita County is giving Wachita Countyed Center for maintenance and
operations 821,42ies OKok and it's my fault I didn't do that now in the back of my mind when it was appropriated from the quorum court I thought I was ok but I know now I'm not. I know it's just a threeline document but I
Speaker 194
1:15:02
still got to do that well the reason
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:15:06
I ask is the response said that there would be a signed contract for services signed by the county judge and receiving organizations so that's why I was just seeing if we had that
contract follow up question I mean I know we're all concerned about our hospitals especially in rural Arkansas and and even though I'm not in your community I still have dire concerns about the hospital and and folks in South Arkansas so so my question are there other monies and funds that are that are there that are available for the hospital. I know they're they're struggling now and and they're trying to keep things together and
can you give us an accounting of what's there and
Speaker 213
1:15:49
what's available for the hospital. yes sir
Speaker 189
1:15:54
back last year they passed another half cent sales tax. let me let me back it on up
Speaker 190
1:16:02
to 2014. In2014 before I became judge we passed the county pass to half cent sales tax one was for construction projects and one was for maintenance and
operation of the hospital and it had a five year sunset OK? well on the construction part the bonds paid off early and that's county money OK that's county money the bonds paid off early so we put that in a Cd and started drawing the interest on it so when the hospital came back to the corm court and says hey we're in dire need so the corn court
approved using some of that money to do this. The only thing on here and it wouldn't have been written for it if I'd have done the three
Speaker 189
1:17:00
line contract and had the hospital administrators name on it and my name on it and the exact dollar amount I wouldn't have got this right up
Speaker 217
1:17:12
but it had happened once before on something I missed on a smaller thing but it's you know you look at
Speaker 190
1:17:19
$821,000 and you're thinking wow well that money was
appropriated properly but I just didn't do the contract and that's that's on me
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:17:28
so so are there other monies that are that are that are available for the hospital and if
so what's what's the plan and process for getting that money from the
Speaker 190
1:17:40
county to the hospital OK they went back to the voters and approved another half cent sales tax this time with a 10 year sunset and each month that tax money
comes in they present the they present the canceled checks and invoices and the treasured rights them that
Speaker 189
1:18:03
check directly so that that's what happened. Now our hospital we have it
Speaker 190
1:18:08
outstanding hospital administrator right now and she's come in and she's had to make massive cuts and you know any time you make massive cuts you lose services but if you're
going to meet the payroll you're gonna have to do that we were losing about750,000 dollars a month on in re in the hospital well with the cuts because of excellent job the administrator's doing now we
Speaker 189
1:18:44
only last month we only lost314,000 dollars which you might say well that's314,000 dollars but it's not like
the million21 we were losing so our hospital is in communications with three other big hospital organizations and possibly by the end of this year they would have sold out our hospitals in bankruptcy y'all they're in chapter 11 bankruptcy and they're having a hard time at that but it's not because
our administrator's not doing a wing ding job of trying. She's she's awesome we I I told someone I wish we'd have had her 10 years
Speaker 211
1:19:38
ago but anyway I I guess that's the kind
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:19:42
of the the line of my questioning with the hospital and the condition it's in if the county's holding funds and money that could help operations at the hospital and alleviate some of some of the problems they're
having it's the county holding some money there that that would help with those
Speaker 221
1:20:02
operations no we don't have enough money
Speaker 189
1:20:06
left to help with those operations and you know it's the I don't have a quorum court now that would prove it to be honest with you and so no we don't have any extra extra money laying around to for
the hospitalpresentative beatty I'd like to I want to ask a question for clarification on the judge just for disclosure
you know I'm state senator for district two in Washingtonall County is squarely right in the middle of the district and also just further disclosure I mean I know Judge McAoo and I know Miss Hunter personally Ju McAdoo was the principal to for all three of my children in junior high and high school and I've gone to church with Mr. McAdoo the last 20 years so I just want to make put that out there forwaawt used to have a
disclosure there but also I'm sitting here thinking about money and I was listening to what representative Beatty was saying and I was thinking back to some conversation that that we've had about the hospital I know that at one time I think there was some money that was collected past the sunset and I think you had told me that that money was set aside in a an account or a Cd and that money was not going to be necessarily paid to the
hospital but was in in a reserve that way at the hospital ever had a ever had a catastrophic failure like the boiler went out
or a major roof repair or major air conditioner repair that you would have that money available to make that repair what is the
amount of money that was in that Monday you had set aside to make catastrophic repairs
Speaker 193
1:22:02
for the hospital. There was1.1.2 million
Speaker 189
1:22:11
and we wrote them $821,149 of that money but
Speaker 190
1:22:16
let me clarify something that was not money collected past the sunset that was money on the county construction bond project that paid off early. that's where that money came from it wasn't from past collecting and that's counting money that the court can approve
it for so my question is that money was collected on a hospital bond but since it pay it all30 early there was an excess amount I'm just merely asking was that the money that was that you set aside or wanted to hold for a catastrophic failure of the hospital is that the
funds that you were talking about on our previous conversation well
Speaker 189
1:23:12
the money was there from the early county construction bond
Speaker 190
1:23:20
payoff and so when the hospital came to the corm court back then and say hey we gotta have help and so that's when they approved the $821,000 149 dollars but I'm telling you
there's677 left of that money and my quorum court won't
approve it now so let me ask the question again is that the money that was set aside in your opinion for a catastrophic repair for the hospital I mean that's a yes or no question it's not so what money did were you thinking of that you had set aside for the hospital because I know that I was in a meeting with one of the three hospitals
that was looking at coming in and maybe taking over Washingtontaedical and you were there along with thepresentative shepherd and represent ative andrews and you brought up about some money that was also left over because they when the emergency room at the hospital was remodeled it came in under budget which is a good thing but that was hospital money and it would be available what where is that money and and and what's the amount of that money
don't know anything about that money what money were you talking about earlier
Speaker 206
1:24:55
this spring and in the money the only money I've talked about is the money where the county bond issue paid
Speaker 193
1:25:08
that's ever been there yes sir and and that's
Speaker 189
1:25:11
what that's the that's where the money came from when they come and ask for the $821,149.
that's where that money came from so when we had the conversation you said you had a block of money set aside in case the hospital had a catastrophic failure where did that money come from and where is it now? I mean it's it's it's still let me hang on just a second Miss Hunter you're the clerk I'm assuming that you see everything that comes across your desk and you shed any additional lighter information on the money that I'm talking about for the hospital
no sir so you keep up with the books but have no knowledge of what I'm talking about
Speaker 231
1:26:02
she keeps up with all of this she's quite capable of answering for herself this is this is what I have on the bills that come into the hospital but as far as that the
excess money I don't know about that are you aware of a money that was in an account that was set aside
for catastrophic maintenance on the hospital no sir you're not ok
Speaker 245
1:26:29
still there but they got we wake up with it Well I had
an occasion to talk to Mr. Archer earlier today there did is there a6 + 0 $0 Cd
that the county has it is not a
Speaker 217
1:26:49
Cd anymore it is it matured and it is in the general fund to use
Speaker 206
1:27:00
as the quorum court sees appropriate to
use it so was that the money that you had set aside so you never had any money set aside not set aside for well I mean that you were just sad because I'm just trying to ask because I mean the hospital is down on his knees struggling and also know that I've talked to the current board chairman and I think he was under the impression also that there was money set aside they have a major roof that's leaking about a repair that they can't
pay for and they reached out to see about getting money to get the roof repaired and there's been no response so I'm just mean while we're talking and I think uhpresentative Beatty is all the target that we have to protect our rural hospitals and I just want to make sure that everything is being done to protect that hospital to make sure it succeeds because you know the backbone of any community and job growth and job attraction and job retention is that hospital we're having a
major economic boom in highland Industrial Park in the defense industry right now incamden and it and mouth at that hospital stays viable and open so it doesn't have to file chapter7 and they lock the door if they do that's going to be a death knell in the county in that industrial park and we need to make sure that it's open and in viable until one of the three people that are looking at coming in and taking over to the hospital so I guess I'm just wanted to ferret out
even to the last nickel any money that could be available to make sure that hospital stays open Representative debate do you have another
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:28:50
question Yes thank you Mr Chair. My I guess my questions for staff to clear this audit finding without a contract for service what how how did they clear this? I mean if they're not going to have a contract for service or is this just gonna be an
Speaker 29
1:29:07
outstanding issue with the new sales tax that was passed we did a little looking and they haven't paid any more money to the hospital other than what the sales tax was sales tax is due to the hospital it's restricted for the hospitals by by voters and they're as long as they're they can either document it that way or document it with the with the clays that they have so there's there's documentation for those expenditures but we haven't audited those so I'm speaking of hypotheticals here that if that's what's going on and I'm you know I'm taking everybody at
face value that's how that would that would
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:29:40
take place yeah so don't make this don't make the same mistake here again and you're good if it's sales tax money they're they're they're clear and this has been detected and reported and good and again my my my main point of asking was just because the response that you provided that there would be a contract provided and and that was the issue but I want I want to clarify something you said and something that that Senator Stone, Chairman Stone mentioned is this
excess money that you're both talking about that was from an early
Speaker 96
1:30:14
payout on the bond for the hospital for the construction project on the on our building of the hospital we own the building I understand so that's that that excess money was generated
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:30:27
from the for the collections and from the bond issue to construct the hospital so it was tied too tied to construction project construct the hospital so it in in one way
that's kind of still considered hospital money since it was tied to understand the accounting side of where it's going but I I think that that cleared some of that up for me is the fact it was the early payout of the bond and collections for construction
Speaker 190
1:31:04
told by that that's county money that's not hospital money and so that's why the quorum court
Speaker 239
1:31:13
approved it to help the hospital but I'm telling you to come back again and ask for it
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:31:19
it's not gonna be approved but that that was again that my question was more geared toward the contract that there was a comment that it was going to be there and it's apparent that there won't be a contract but there's not
Speaker 190
1:31:33
one required so if for some reason we gave any more money to the hospital I can guarantee you Mr. beatty it's going to have a contract with it protect everybody thank you judgege.
thank you Mr Chair thank you and Senator Wallace you're recognized for
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
1:31:53
a question thank you Mr.ir Judge I'm I'm I have two small I have one hospital has two different facilities so I I can understand what you're going through
or or the the building or the structures are they in good shape your buildings they're old they
Speaker 190
1:32:10
were built in the50s now we have had
Speaker 189
1:32:17
we have completely rebuilt on this bond issue we're talking about a new surgery ward and in a new ER but the ER was not part of the original construction the surgery was at at your current site those buildings at your
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
1:32:33
current site or the the the the bill that you just talked about the
the emergency room that's going to be at the current s side they're
Speaker 262
1:32:43
connected to the old building. yes sir
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
1:32:48
are you are you looking to move to the hospital? No sir. OK I know you say that they're talking with three different bigger hospitals and in my county Mississippi County we did that as well if you don't is there a plan B if if those don't come through I mean are you are you are you looking at losing
Speaker 189
1:33:15
your hospital? well we're down now to what you the hospital has
the rule emergency hospital declaration OK? and with that we we can't keep inhouse patients we can keep them for observation and it's really a hy really really good emergency room so and I've been told that the real emergency hospital is going to bring in a
revenue of about300,000 dollars more a month for the hospital I haven't
Speaker 217
1:33:58
seen that yet it's supposed to beoctober when we see that first first payment
Speaker 189
1:34:08
you know the hospital has been under contract since 1994 with the county and when they put that contract in place the county had absolutely no
they were to do every bit of the maintenance cover the cost on the maintenance and everything but that's in the contract and if the contract says that if the if the hospital fails then all the equipment in the hospital reverts back to the county I don't know what we're going to do with it but it reverts back to the county so but yes sir it's
Speaker 206
1:34:56
I don't have a planning plan B I'm the only thing I have is the same conversations with those three big
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
1:35:11
entities for the hospital Representative dalby thank you Mrir. thank you judge for being here how long have you been the county judge 12 years and you're finishing
Speaker 189
1:35:20
up and not he didn't run for reelection did you not midnight of December31st I will turn it over to the next
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
1:35:27
county judge judge moving on interested I read all the rest of the report all the findings your responses the different responses are you sat is fi ed and are you coming to this committee saying that you believe you now have this all these issues taken care of ready to go resolved for the new person that will come in 1201 a.m. January1st. yes ma'am that
Speaker 189
1:36:01
goal of mine is she we noted on there that about the federal single audit I'm gonna tell y'all something it's been like pulling teeth to try to get the auditor to finish this up six months ago I sent the last set of documents that they asked for and I told him at that time I said I need to have a copy of
that when I go before the legislators. I got to have a copy of it. Well yesterdayday morning he called me back and says
Speaker 217
1:36:34
I hadn't heard from him in six months. called me back and said well I need this do this docket this docket you
Speaker 221
1:36:46
know and in our legislative auditor is very much aware of what I've been going through with them
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
1:36:52
and so when you're talking about'm sorry and when you're talking about them you're talking about the federal
Speaker 221
1:36:59
auditors no no I'm talking about the private firm that we had to
Speaker 189
1:37:04
do an RfP score and so to get all of that I understand but in regard
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
1:37:11
to the rest of the findings and and some of them being repeat findings and all of that you've now got that in order so when the in essence the books are turned over come January the firstt do you believe they're in
good shape and these issues have been addressed so that your successor can now go forward or at least you're working on that between now and
Speaker 230
1:37:38
the end of december'm give it my 100% to have that fixed when the new guy comes in or new gal comes
Chair
Unverified
1:37:44
in. OK thank you thank you Mr Chair. Senator Johnson you recognize for a question thank
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:37:51
you Mr Chairman. Ju, who is the private audit firm that's you're you're speaking of Parks and associates and E Dorada
OK I I feel your pain and I've seen this I think we went through a lot of this Mr chairman on our our water audits is that we've had some small localities that have said that they can't even get somebody to bid on when they put out an Rfp because I guess it's just not enough work in some of the cases and I'm not excusing some of them because as we know there have been other problems there too but Ju I understand you you you've placed all this responsibility in a thirdparty firm and you've got to have it and I know you're trying to have
a clean desk when the new judge comes in. I appreciate you doing that but I just I wanted to get that in the record of who who
the firm was thank you Mr Chairman. one other question I'm sitting there thinking just for clarification and I don't want to belabor the point and I know that you had the right and authority under law to take that money that was collected for the hospital after the bond was serviced and move it
to the county general fund but if that money had never been collected on behalf of the hospital you wouldn't even have a had it to move into the into your general account I think you recognize the importance of the hospital. I'm sitting here thinking if that money was collected for the hospital and you can move it legally and I'm not accusing you of anything but I was also I was taken aback by your firm stance of what the quorum court would
or wouldn't do that there's in excess of600,000 dollars that was collected on behalf of the hospital and the bond retired it kind of became money that could be moved to any account you mean the quorum court would in quoting you said they will never give them a penny don't think so. I don't think you were a while ago
go down before they let them have access to that money. The hospital can come and ask for that money
Speaker 190
1:40:06
they come and ask for it because I can't give it to the hospital without the quorum court of
appropriation of it I know that but you said they would never approve it and I'm pretty sure they won't, sir so why would they even come and ask if the foregone conclusion I've just kind of taken aback that your your position is to quorum court is done with the hospital but you also acknowledge that the new hospital administrator inherited a bad situation in is riding the ship
absolutely but we're not giving her the benefit of the doubt and tying her hands to try to right the ship I'm just a little bit confused as to what's going on but I don't want to
belabor the point does anybody else have any questions uhpresentative
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:40:52
Ryan you're recognized for a question sir thank you Mr. Chairman and I'll try to keep
this brief but I'm trying to figure out what's going going on here Ju when was
Speaker 190
1:41:03
the bond actually paid off? it was it was passed in 2014. We
Speaker 189
1:41:09
started collecting in 2015 the the sunset on it was5 years and about six months before the
Speaker 190
1:41:19
bond issue was paid off and so there was an excess and so OK sir now this is
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:41:32
another thing I need to ask you. sir the amount that has accrued since
basically 2019 has that been held in some type of a special account
Speaker 193
1:41:45
or something it was in a Cd that had a short
Speaker 189
1:41:51
term highter Cd for interest and so a matter of fact when the hospital came and asked for the 82 114 $9 we had to pay a penalty on a Cd
because it wasn't maturity date but the hospital really
Speaker 173
1:42:15
needed it so the quorum court went ahead and proved it ok
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:42:20
now that's happened since 2019 ok well let's just say 2019 I don't know how much it was monthly but it would be a good thing to know how much is accrued there since 20019. since that was paid off and then once it's paid off
Speaker 188
1:42:41
what what what where is the money being held it's now in the general fund
Speaker 189
1:42:49
which hadn't been appropriated it's being held in the general fund but it hasn't been appropriated and it's677,000 dollars is what it is it matured last month and that's when the treasure asked me to move it by court order
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:43:07
to the general fund so basically everything even
after that was paid off it was in some type of acd
Speaker 189
1:43:19
and that Cd it was cashed in about was that cashed in well we've had two drawdowns on it one was to cover this dire need of $821,000 OK that was one drawdown that's that's the only drawdowns we've had on that money and none of it's been used
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:43:43
for anything else. OK. thank you sir. Thank you Mr Chairman
hope I answered your question thank you are there any other questions With that objection we'll file the report saying none theport will be filed Ju, thank you for your time Miss Soer.
thank you for your timey'all free too exit leave you can stay you're welcome to stay or you I think the judge you have another engagement to get back to this
Speaker 189
1:44:14
evening don't you tonight once a year we have a we recognize our countywide veterans we'll have450 to500 veterans and their families at a big banquet that we it's completely funded through donations and support of the industrialar and we run it through the VFW so we don't configure any county money being disbursed or
anything but it's a big thing and this is it it's tonight we always try
Speaker 188
1:44:51
to have it to have it the hursday right around
911 so'll make one comment on that that program started off by a local barbershop
that was giving veterans free haircuts on one day a year and it morphed into what it is now. I know that Joshteed started that but he was his barbershop and then he ended up working with the judge
they have done an outstanding job it is always a top program for500 people there good food is good fellowship so if anybody has free night I've been several times since they started that and it's always a great event Ju you need exit so you can get down there and lead that like and do the job that all that you always do but as late as it is I know what I have going I won't be able to make it down there's in my regards we're going to miss you
Speaker 211
1:45:41
Senator Stone. we appreciate you appreciate all of
Speaker 190
1:45:46
y'all thank you and again all I can do is apologize on my part well it's rare
we have someone step up the end of the table and say let me take ownership of it so
Speaker 10
1:46:04
right y'all thank you see you Mr Archer continue continuing with the 26 deferred reports on page 11 we have Marion County 2024 under the county judge
who were unable to reconcile the county's W3 to the appropriation journal due to the inaccurate documentation. This is a repeat finding in the previous two reports this asset records were not properly maintained as required Arkansas code. This is a repeat finding the previous seven reports under the sheriff the any balance in the bond and find circuit court commissary paper service and drug conversation accounts were had undentified balances of just over 1900, just over
9300, just over 173,000 excuse me that was 93,000 just over 113,000 65 $0 and589 dollars respectively. the repeat find in the previous six reports The previous in the august meeting the county treasurer was here to answer for her questions so we won't
Speaker 284
1:47:06
repeat those but county judgedge Jason Sthop and sheriff greg Alexander we're here today to answer questions
would you please state your name and your position
Speaker 286
1:47:27
please for the record Jason Stump countunty Ju Marion County. g
Speaker 288
1:47:32
re g Alexander Marion County sheriff judged do
you have an opening statement? I do when I first came
Speaker 289
1:47:40
in in 23 Marion County I hate to use this analogy right now because of all the burnn bands but was under fire. A lot of fires were put out in 23 the first audit that we had was 21 followed by
22 and there was over 20 reportable findings since then now that we're in into 24 you see that there's full reportable findings that's a leap forward for Marion County as to the reconciliation of the reserion County has also taken on financial intelligence as their main support for this and it was late 23 into early 24 before I had a chance to actually get into the daily activities of the administration employees that kept from the prior administration the HR payroll employee that was doing the W3s and was
supposed to do the journal entries has been given a chance to in 24 to find successful to be successful somewhere else no longer with Marion County. I have since hired new there as well and with a fixed accent records the deputy OEM that we hired found money for that that's not part of their job and procedures and reports have been set and implemented in place to make sure we never have an issue with asset records going forward sheriff
Speaker 291
1:48:55
do you have anything you'd like to add? I do have would like to add that the sheriff's department has5 findings that you that he read off to you shortly ago. I have a handout that I would like to hand out to each one of you so that you could look at it if that would be appropriate I've I've made all cops yeah that's fine
Speaker 117
1:49:34
good on my evaluation he found a stop I don't know why they're gonna send me next to you so I don't know why they got to sit me next to you don't
Speaker 116
1:49:43
know either just makes me look ugly think you need one more over here
Speaker 291
1:50:10
a an audit sheet if you will and it shows the five findings that you had listed or that the auditors had listed and this is going back6 audits this goes back to 182018 but after we've started diving in and trying to figure out where all the money was at and who it's owed to we've gone back to 1996 owing people money.
so the findings we have been working on the five findings that y'all have identified and if you will look at the first page of the report the bond andin money the audit finding was $1,959 we have reduced that down to only 27 dollars50 cents that is not resolved as of yet in the circuit court finds there was $93,021 that was
that was in the account that we've got credited for now then we have reduced that the active review and the paying it out we've got it reduced down to31,443 dollars. the commissary account that we inherited I mean we inherited all of this in the commissary camp was the biggest problem the commissary we had actC commissary was the people that were taking care of the inmates and they they
reporting system was so poor that we could hardly get through it but we did we managed to get through it and the the commissary is totally resolved now it's zero there's nothing else to look at their current the paper service is650 dollars I believe we're we're we're done with that the drug conc compliccation money there was589 dollars in that account. we've gone back
and found the deposit where it was made in 2011. but to this day we can't find out who it belongs to or what casesey came from. now as we we're we're working toward getting all this resolved and we we will be going to the clerk's office next to try to find the case that was that it came from so all the findings that the five findings we are aware of them we inherited them and we are trying to address the problem
and we will have it fixed going forward right are there any questions
of the gentleman at the end of the table saying none make a move that we file the report gentlemen thank
Speaker 295
1:53:03
you for your time. thank you thank you for your time and thank you
Speaker 10
1:53:07
for each one here in the job you do thank you. continuing on page 11 we have the lakeside Water association incorporated. This is a private report from 2025.
we were deferred this one from the previous meeting with a lack of proper response.taff recommends that we defer this one again if we have
Speaker 298
1:53:30
not received a response letter do what now
asked for a movie to first do we have a 2nd 2nd all in favor any opposed motion carries page
Speaker 300
1:53:39
tel we have the town of Alpena for 2423 and22. under the recorder treasure
Speaker 10
1:53:48
county procedures for municipalities are set forth in Arkansas code. The town was a noncompliance with these code sections and other proper accounting procedures as noted below. re n ber receipts were not issued for all all income in 24 and22 a detailed fixed asset listing was not established to repeat finding for the previous five years cash receipts and disbursement journals were not properly maintained. This is a repeat finding. The recorder treasure was invited to the June meeting. she resigned her
Speaker 284
1:54:19
post shortly there after the June meeting and the current mayor David Meyer has volunteered to come
answer questions on her behalf please state your name and position for the record please David Meyer mayor of Valpena. do you
Speaker 302
1:54:35
have an open stay statement mayor have a question is there a doctor in the house? I need my head examined for being here for for volunteering for this position anyway
would you can help you do one other thing for me please
would you remove your hat while you're sitting it
in that table if you don't mind
Speaker 302
1:54:59
thank you proceed please. How's my hair? Well I love the way you parted so proceed right no I I don't
Speaker 305
1:55:05
have anything more you stated that my my recorder treasure did quit. she was a little stressed about coming here she didn't want to she actually was a little confused about her position over the last couple of years because we had a bookkeeper that was taking on the treasurer
responsibilities and she didn't think she needed to because the council decided in in a resolution that she didn't have to and gave it to a bookkeeper but the bookkeeper quit about two years ago officially although she's hanging around trying to help us out fortunately just recently in august the council meeting appointed a new recorder treasurer who has 10 years' experience to bring to the table so we're pretty happy about that and she's going to help us go
forward correctly with some of these things but as far as the findings that you guys that their auditors had I think I addressed those already we have an asset listing that is now more current with and we passed a resolution for $1000 or more which we didn't have before we do now I have the resolution with me and my asset listing if you guys wanted to see it but we were putting
that together we did basically assessment of all our our assets and they're on the list now and I pulled down the list from the legislative audit site with the proper columns to that we didn't have before even though we hadn an asset book I understand that it was lacking some of the detailed information but that's why I pulled it down from your site and we have we are now
recording it I believe properly you know with the all the information that's necessary in terms of the receipts the cash and the other receipts we were not keeping we haveuooks I don't know if anybody else uses that but we have we have begun putting the sequential receipts in the memo section of the entries for all our transactions so that I believe when I met with the auditor that that would
be sufficient and necessary so we have been doing that from essentially day one that the auditor came and you know and we actually hired somebody to to fill that position and and and and track that so along with the the the bank statements and so forth reconciling those so that's all I've evidence of that here if you guys wanted to
see it that we are actually doing that now so but anyway that's that's my statement ask
your questions does anybody have any
questions of the mayor seeing none we filed the report.
Speaker 300
1:58:18
thank you look familiar jump down to number 8un town of Mount Vernon on page 15 mayor Jonathan Hawkins was
Speaker 10
1:58:25
invited here today he called and could not make it staff recommends that we
defer this this report have a motion to to further report to have a 2nd 2nd all in favor
Speaker 112
1:58:44
say aye all opposed motion carries 0 page16 where the city of Parkdale 2024 is
Speaker 10
1:58:50
the mayor here for Parkdale OK there's no one here for Sarkdale mayor Latrice
Speaker 308
1:59:01
uhtaylor was invited staff recommends we
Speaker 301
1:59:06
defer this report we got a motion second all in favor say aye and od motion carries
Speaker 8
1:59:12
pages 16 and 17 we have Phillips County 2024 County judgedge Clarkhall was invited here today. He had
Speaker 10
1:59:18
a dentist appointment staff recommends that we defer this report
Speaker 315
1:59:22
but that objection we will refer this defer this report
Speaker 10
1:59:31
on pages 19 through 22 we have 16 private reports that were deferred from the previous meeting because the lack of proper responses we have received responses for highway4 and24 for 25 for Mcrey Water for 24 for Van Bbuen County 24 westlean Water for 24 western Ggrove for 24 and23 and Wilmmo Water for 2324 and22.
that's that's 9 reports staff recommends that we
Speaker 318
2:00:06
file these reports with that objection we'll file
Speaker 10
2:00:09
these reports that leaves the7 that we have not received proper responses for staff recommends that we defer these reports that objection we will defer these reports give
Speaker 114
2:00:57
one quick note on these six of these 6 of these were referred
Speaker 10
2:01:06
to the prosecuting attorney in the AG's office. those would be the carthage 2423 and22 the 24 had a finding referred to some reimbursements that were not documented the 23 and22 had some daily deposits that didn't agree with the cash check payments
the norman had a city of Norman water and sewer 2023 had a a cash check composition that didn't agree Vvan Bbuen24 had cash receipts that were not prepared for six customer payments but the cash was included in 10 deposits tested there were about620 dollars that weren't accounted for and then the west Saline water had 14 debit card transactions initiated by employee but were not adequately documented so
that concludes our deferred reports we have two reports that were certified to the bond board referred to the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general's office. The first one is on page 23 that's the city of Benton 2025 under the mayor in June June of 2026 city personnel notified audit when they became aware of a bank account in the name of a nonprofit organization established by the city's animal control director and the animal
control service manager. The account was not authorized by the city and the city officials were not previously aware that donations were being collected and records maintained on city property. Our review of expenditures totaling just under $19,000 from January1 of2025 through June 82026 revealed the following withdrawals just over $14,500 in bank withdrawals and debit transactions of which645 will not supported by adequate documentation.
just over 1900 in Paypal withdrawals for which adequate supporting documentation was not retained the litia withdrawals without adequate supporting documentation could not be determined. it should be noted that the animal controlervice manager self-reported personal expenditures of $866 that were reimbursed on June 9th of 2026. that controlled director retired effective July20th to 26th and the animaltrolervice manager resigned effective July twenty8
of26. This report's been filed with the bond board and referred to the prosecuting attorney in the AG's office. there are no questions staff recommends we
file this report no objection we filed a
Speaker 123
2:03:51
report we've already filed Wichita County which
Speaker 10
2:03:54
was the other referred to the certified as the bond board on page 27 we start with the seven reports that were referred to the prosecuting attorney and the
AG's office we've got the Duomas water and sewer department 2024. This is a private report the department made3 advanced loans to three different employees for the city for amount tolling just over $2600 Article 12 section5 mandates no count no city shall loan money to any individual. This report's been filed with the referred to the prosecuting attorney in the AG's officetaff recommends we file this report if there are no questions.
With that objection we will file this report pages 28 excuse me and 29 we had the city of Dumas the 2023 report that we prepared on the mayor and finance director the payroll preparer received additional pay of just over5300 dollars without adequate supporting documentation noncompliance with code therefore we were unable to determine the validity of these payments under the mayor the city made disbursements of
just over $12,000 of which $9500 was for gifts just over $2700 for meal expense for employee appreciation event and apparent conflict with Article 1elsection5 as interpreted by AG's opinion 91,410. in addition, these gifts were not reported on the employees W-24. This report has been filed with the referred to the prostituting attorney in the AG's office there are no questions staff recommends we file this report saying none without objection
Speaker 8
2:05:40
we'll file the report page30 we have the town of emmerson 2025 and24 under the mayor and treasurer The mayor was overpaid a
Speaker 10
2:05:51
total of3,000 dollars for 25 and24 due to calculation errors that occurred when the town changed from monthly to weekly payroll process as a result the mayor was paid more than the appropriated salaries. none of the overpayment or or have been recouped as of the report date.
under the mayor in 2025 street fund disbursement succeeded appropriations by just over $15,000 or35% in noncompliance with code. This is a repeat find in the previous six reports Mayorlinnda Mullins is here today to answer questions Mayor if you would state your
Speaker 199
2:06:26
name and your position for the record please Yes
Speaker 323
2:06:30
I'mlinnda Mullins mayor for town Fererson. good afternoon chairman and ladies and gentlemen of the committee do you have an opening statement, ma'am and
we had a city council meeting this past Tuesday on which they made a motion for me to pay back the amount of money that was given to me in salary that the bookkeeper and treasurer and I did not realize honestly what had happened we went to
weekekly and there was5 weeks sometimes in a month so we just she we also'll say we the checks were made out in the same amount and that's what caused the overpayment of $1500 per year so last Tuesday the city council did agree with the audit founding and allowed me to pay
in motion allowed me to pay back the money and for it to be reportedly on the books that I had paid back. I do have that city council meeting and I would have handed that out earlier but I wasn'taware that I could do that so but I do have that meeting of the minutes from last Tuesday and the agenda as far as the misappropriation we haveentero as
our software and we acquired that four years ago our new treasure bookkeeper started two years ago she only works anywhere from 8 to10 hours a week and they had a training for treasures from the Arkansas municipallake which she
participated in and they were talking about budgets and it brought her to the attention that in that software she could with my appropriations to begin with that she could take that and we could keep up with it much better with the budget so she was trained two weeks ago in that part of the software so we're really trying in the future for
that misappropriation not to happen again because of this software that we can better calculate our figures with ammop to any questions if there's all right does anybody
have any questions sayy none will and without objection we'll file the report. Mayor
Speaker 323
2:09:41
thank you did you need the minutes from the provide them to your next auditor
Speaker 125
2:09:46
when they when they arrive for your next engagement
Speaker 10
2:09:50
will be fine thank you ma'am continuing on page 30 with the town ofexa 2024 under the mayor city made payments tolling just over $8700 to the mayor's son and father for various services without ordinances to authorizing this related party transaction. apparent conflict with Arkansas code. This report's been filed with the PA and the AGs if there are no questions staff recommends we file this report without objection we'll file this report
on page 31 we have the town of Aagon on the for 2025 under the mayor restricted street funds revenues of over excuse me strictest street fund revenues of $11,000 was used to replace septic tanks on two private properties in an apparent conflict with Arkansas code and apparent conflict with Article 12 Section5. Stafford note that we checked with the city this week they have repaid all the street fund with these monies except330 dollars and as soon as the money's available they will
continue to do that this report has been filed with the prosecuting attorney and the AG's office staff recommends we file this report there are no questions. that objection we'll file this report en you on page 31 of the town of Pottsville water and sewer department 2024. this is a private report due to the lack of documentation maintained by former water department personnel out of the 10 selections we were unable to agree4 payments by credit card to credit card
deposits on the bank statements we were unable to agree for customer payments by cash or check back to the bank deposit slips and cash check composition
Speaker 13
2:11:32
composition due to the multiple days deposits being included on the deposits and not maintain supporting documentation. This report's
Speaker 10
2:11:40
been filed with the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general's office. there are no questions staff recommends we file this
Speaker 13
2:11:50
report is a special report used tire programmes 1 and3
Speaker 10
2:11:55
review of selected policies, procedures and transactions of the period July1 through 2024 through June30th to 2025. we have staff member Charlie Kemp here to
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
2:12:05
provide this report. Thank you Mr. Archer. This report is issued persuant to Arkansas code 89,410 which requires Arkansas legislative audit to review selected policies, procedures and transactions of Arkansas's used tire programs for this report AA selected used tire programs one and three for review locations of the four
programs in the state are shown in exhibit one
Speaker 63
2:12:29
on page two of this report the code does not require the programs to obtain an audit by CPA consequently programs one in three did not do so ALA issued no findings forgra one AA issued two findings forgra3 first prenumbered receipts were not issued for all items of income and noncompliance with code. Second, check images provided for used tire program through bank accounts did not include both sides of canceled checks in noncompliance with Arrkansas
code Management responses to the findings are contained in the body of the report
Mr. Cha this concludes my report.
Speaker 10
2:13:11
if there are no questions about seeing no questions we'll file the report we have6 reports with with with repeat findings started on page 32 with the city of Grady 2025. Mayor Charles Knight and Lindley Power the recorded treasure we're invited here today. They
called and said they could not attend Staff recommends we defer this report. out of rejection we'll defer this report let me back up when I skipped one there accidentally that's city of Garland 2025 under the mayor we have street fund disbursements exceeded budget appropriation by $2300 or31% noncompliance with code wherever
Speaker 8
2:13:58
this is a repeat finding we have mayor Tashika Anwine who let me back up when I skipped one there
Speaker 242
2:14:01
accidentally that's city of Garland 2025 under the mayor we have street fund disbursements exceeded budget appropriation by $2300 or31%
Speaker 330
2:14:05
noncompliance with code wherever this is a repeat finding we have mayor Tashika Anwine yous
got it just right on that's that's rare for me so thank you all right if you would would you state your name and position for the record please Tashika Antoine, mayor ofaul OK
Mayor do you have an opening statement? sir does anybody have questions
of the mayor saying nounne to objection we'll file the report Mayor, thank you
Speaker 10
2:14:28
thank you continuing with our repeat findings on page 33 of the city of marvel 2024 under the district court clerk ballots remaining in the bank account were not properly identified with the receipt numbers for cases not yet adjudicated and the payments were all unpaid individual time accounts as required by Arkansas code. This is a repeat find in the previous two reports we have
Speaker 13
2:14:53
district court clerk Jennifer Williams here today to answer questions.
Speaker 334
2:15:00
would you state your name and position for the record please Jennifer Williams Marvel District court clerk Phillips County branch. do you have an opening statement sir on that finding I was previously cited for that but I don't think that the auditor researched it properly. The report that shows criminal bonds pending does include names citation number as well as dates that payments are received and I have proof of that are
Speaker 335
2:15:30
there any questions would you please you have a copy of that for us didn't make
Speaker 334
2:15:39
a copy for everyone I didn't I wasn't aware that just for this one copy would be plenty but I can I have it in my monthly report it's we use the virtual justice system and each month a report I print out a form because I don't do the I don't do the accounting we have an accountant so I print out a report that I give her for disbursement of checks and what
has been accumulated in my system and that criminal bonds pending report does include all of that information he requested
Speaker 125
2:16:10
including receipt numbers yes sir ok just provide that to your auditor on the next trip and explain how a good conversation with them to explain exactly what you know what
Speaker 334
2:16:19
you think you have and what's required and it's a continuous finding because they keep finding me for the same thing so I think they're asking about consecutive receipt numbers and we do take payments
through a credit card system and we do not rece those payments manually as per the previous auditor she stated I did not have to receipt them in the manual book because it is kept at the police station so that's how the receipt numbers are not consecutive the receipt numbers are there but they're consecutive in the order in which they come out of the the credit card program now as far as the manual receipts they are listed there concurrently as they are in the manual receipt book just to just provide that
Speaker 335
2:17:02
information to you all for who we recommend we
Chair
Unverified
2:17:04
file this report with that objection will I'm sorry Senator Hammer you're recognized thank
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
2:17:08
you which one are we on again? I've been listening but which one are we on? City ofmarvel page33. OK so just the thing is if we go ahead and file this report and it turns out that she's right this is going to be part of a permanent record and should it be part of a permanent record if it turns out that she's right
and there's corrective action that needs to be taken on the part of audit because we file this how do you un file it? and we can
Speaker 13
2:17:43
defer it and we can we'll go back and we'll look at what she has I mean normally we we our report dates are set in date now did she have it and we didn't ask for it I mean I don't know I wasn't there so I don't know what what transpired but we can go back and find out and we can defer it and we'll report back in in October that's what the committee wishes. Senator Johnson you're
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
2:18:04
recognized thank you Mr Chairman. I appreciate my colleague Senatorhammer these are some of the things I'm going to miss when he moves upstairs but the thing is we're I think he's absolutely right if you've got adequate documentation and and staff can accept that then deferring it tilloctober will give us an opportunity to kind of clean that up and whatever the permanent record ends up being I think it'll be more favorable to you and appreciate
Speaker 148
2:18:34
you coming all the way down here to bring thatenator
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
2:18:37
hammer are you are you a full time with city are you part time you had to take off work to come
Speaker 334
2:18:44
down here today or what the city but they allowed me to come because I had this previous finding last year and I wasn't aware that I needed to come so this year the auditor that came in he specifically called me back and said Jennifer can you be here so how
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
2:18:59
would you feel about if we hold this report over so you and the auditors because I mean it
moving forward if you know not we're kind of in the middle of who's right who's wrong I'd rather give you a m to work with them and if it turns out that they're right and you know no harm no foul if you're right no harm no foul. we just want to make sure it's right before we move forward. will you be ok coming back if we ask you to come back in a Yes, sir ok
Speaker 337
2:19:25
then I got a motion Mr Chairman you're you're making most
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
2:19:27
at the proper time. I'd like to make a motion that we hold this report over and let the young lady and audit have a conversation let's see how it shakes out and come back next
month and report to the committee. Do we have a second all in favor say aye and the opposed the motion passes Mr
Speaker 283
2:19:45
Chairman for clarification. Miss Williams do you have you said you have a copy for us or do you have something
Speaker 29
2:19:51
we can make copies of? sir should have something you can make copies Brianna can you help me with that staff member's going to help you with that
Speaker 10
2:20:03
please. thank you right Mrarcher continuing on page 34 down of strawberry
2025 Mayor Stanley Malin was invited here today. He could not he called and could not be
Speaker 316
2:20:18
here today we recommend we defer this report without objection we'll refer this report defer
Speaker 10
2:20:23
defer this report continuing on page 34 the town of Weldon 2025u of treasurer Beverly Tooley was invited here today. She called and could not cometaff
Speaker 315
2:20:34
recommends we defer without objection
Speaker 10
2:20:36
we'll defer the report then you on page 34 we have Arkansas County 2024 County
judgedge Thomas Eddie Best had a previous commitment staff recommends we
Speaker 315
2:20:47
defer but that objection we'll refer this defer this report on
Speaker 10
2:20:52
page 35 we have three private reports west Stone County Water Association 25 city of Smackover 25 and Norman water and sewer 24. we have not yet received responses from these three reports staff recommends we defer all three without objection we will refer these three reports
on pages36 through40 we have 18 reports with resolved findings staff would request it would take a few minutes to take a look at that if there are no questions staff recommends we file these report any questions
Unknown speaker
2:21:48
I'll give you just a minute to continue to look
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
2:22:49
have a question sir I do and may may have already been answered but down close to the bottom on Hunville water and wastewater department what are those fixed assets they're supposed to if there's anything I think up at above500 dollars it may have changed that's supposed to be kept on a fixed asset list. I just wonder if they'd been upgraded on
Speaker 350
2:23:08
Mr. Archer the amount is actually not
Speaker 10
2:23:17
amount they want to by by policy this is a private report so we'll get their 2025 report and and
do that report. any other questions Shana well'm like a move that we filed this report on pages41 through42 we
Speaker 122
2:23:38
have70 reports with no findingstaff recommends we file these reports without objections we will file these reports I'm done sir
Unknown speaker
2:23:51
any other questions or comments saying none were adjourned thank you
Agenda
A. Call to Order by Chair
B. Adoption of Minutes of August 13, 2026, meeting
C. Update on Private Reports – Delinquent December 31, 2023 and 2024, Water and Sewer Reports
D. Update on Private Reports – Delinquent December 31, 2024, City Reports – Bauxite
E. Discussion of Noncompliance will A.C.A. § 27-70-207 Misuse of Street Funds – Jericho andHaynes
F. Review of Reports (Refer to the Synopsis)
G. The next meeting of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee will be held on October 8, 2026.
H. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — LEGISLATIVE JOINT AUDITING - COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES, Sep 10, 2026 | Agenda | 3 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 2
Senator Matt Stone Chair
Unverified
Speaker 8
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Representative Carol Dalby
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Senator Mark Johnson
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Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
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Representative Lane Jean
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Senator Kim Hammer
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Representative Johnny Rye
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Representative Jack Ladyman
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Senator Dave Wallace
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Chair
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