Legislative Joint Auditing
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of 911 so what I'm gonna do is recognize someone to say prayer and and then if we could stand for a moment of silence or stand and pray butpresentative Richmond if you would lead us in a prayer remembering that day Let
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
0:42
us pray Father in heaven again we're so very thankful that we have the state that we have the privilege of representing here that we live in such a wonderful place
and we have such great freedom in this country we're thankful every day for that father we're very thankful for all the blessings that you give us each and every day and on this day this day that 25 years ago that that evil come to this country and its shadow cast over the people and for those that whole day we watched painfully watched other people lose their lives so father we ask that
that you take into your arms and comfort the families and everyone that lost loved ones on that day the first responders who were doing their job without any consideration of their own safety they put their lives at risk we pray for the families that sadly some of them even watched their loved ones choose death by flinging themselves out of that terrible tower from that fire and waited 10 seconds for death
and too many of them are recognized and that image will never go away from those families we ask that you extend your healing hand over all of them and if it is your will restore them back to a measure where they can continue to serve you continue to live in this world and deal with those terrible things on that day the father we ask that you be with our leaders give them wisdom so they may govern in a way that
brings peace brings unity to this country so that our enemies overseas will know that if they strike that we as a nation will respond and punish them for these terrible things that sometimes they do Father, we ask that our leadership look at the people and make wise choices and and seek your guidance each and every time
that they make this choice of something that this nation should do now we ask for your forgiveness of our sins all this we ask to Jesus' name amen
thank you all right. first up on the agenda we have the minutes have a motion to adopt the minutes motion is second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries item number C C1 co chairmanundstrom you're recognized for the executive committee report. Thank you. the executive committee met Thursday
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
4:16
September 10,2026 and adopted the minutes from the meeting of August 13,2026. staff reported to the committee the audits and special reports scheduled to be presented to the standing committees and the full legislative joint auditing committee this month in new business the committee approved requests for staff to perform the city of gosnell annualinancial audit and a special report concerning the bathroom remo d el project at the Pocahontas school district and other business legislative auditor Kevin White informed the committee that paper warrants
were temporarily be issued from members expense reimbursement co-chairpresentative Luundstrom reminded the committee that some of the standing committees would meet an alternative locations this month the next committee meeting will be scheduled for Thursday, October 8,2026 or at the call of the chairs I moved to adopt this report
a motion do have a second second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion
carries senator Stone you are recognized
for the standing committee report on county and
Senator Matt Stone
Unverified
5:23
municipalities. the committee adopted the minutes of the meeting held on August 13,2026. The committee was informed that three entities have not filed their delinquent private water and sewer all for December31,2023 and2022. Entities have not filed their delinquent private water and sewer audits for December31,2024. The committee was also updated to the city of Bauside is not filed as December31,2024
delinquent private city audit the officials from the town of Haines were present to address questions regarding failure to meet requirements of their approval approved plan for repaying misused street funds for the year ended December31,2024. The report was filed after staff reported the town's currently currently compliant with the approved repayment plan. the committee reviewed 26 deferred reports,106 current reports officials from 10 entities were present to address repeated
findings The13 previously deferred reports were filed and 13 were deferred. of the 106 current reports reviewed 9 were referred to prosecuting attorneys and the attorney general and two were certified to the government bonding board the committee filed 98 current reports and deferred eight reports to allow officials to answer questions and provide additional information at a future meeting. move for adoption of this report a motion got a second any discussion all
in favor and he opposed motion
carries en ul ll iv an you are recognized to present the standing Committee onducationalstitutions thank
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
7:03
you Mrir question for the chair so I see later on we're having an investigative report on the Prescott school district so in our review here of of our committee meeting we
referred the Prescott school district to the prosecuting attorney so the question would be if we if a motion is made today to refer the P prescott issue to professional licensure then once we review the report we're making a different motion my understanding is that that is we're still in compliance with with rules of the of the com this committee
I want to make sure we don't review something and then try
to bring it back up you're gonna recognize Kevin White thank you Senatorulvan, the investigative report that
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
8:05
we're going to talk about today in this committee has already been referred to the prosecuting attorney and the attorney general by myself under my capacity under the law and my statutory requirement, is
Speaker 22
8:15
that what your question is in regard to Well
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
8:17
yeah so once we refer it to the prosecutor can
we then make a separate referral to licenger or once it's referred once it's reviewed today is that prevent us from making a referral tolicenger. by this committee so Senatorulllivan, the investigative report on the
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
8:39
agenda today can be referred by this committee today to the professional licensing standarddard board if that's the desire of the committee. OK great thank you but I
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
8:49
want to wait until we hear the report
before I would make a such a motion ok thank you and with that Mr chairir I'll read our report and you're recognized to read the report the committee met on September 10,2026 and adopted the minutes from the august meeting 10 education audit reports were included on the committee's agenda for review. there were two audit reports with no findings and 8 reports with findings under Arkansas
Code6-17-426, the committee moved to refer the fiscal 2425 audit reports of the blible school district which contained repeat findings to the division of elementary and secondary education for investigation by the professional licensedandard board the audit reports for the rescott school district in Texarkana, Arkansas school district were referred to the applicable prosecuting attorney and the attorney general. The audit report forexarkana
Arkansas school district was deferred to theoctober meeting so that school officials can be present to answer committee questions related to the findings in this report and other business a motion was made to invite the prosecuting prosecutor coordinator from the Arkans as prosecutor coordinator's office to theoctober Standing Committee meeting to discuss the audit referral process the committee filed 9 audit reports and deferred one audit report that was brought before it Mr Chair, I move to adopt this report
I have a motion we've got a second. any discussion on the motion all in favor? any opposed motion carries uhpresentative
meeks you're recognized to present the standing committee on state agencies's
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
10:45
report. Thank you Mr. Chairman 13 reports were on the committee's agenda yesterday the following four special reports were presented. The Department of Health sexual Ris avoidanceducation law enforcement agencies compliant
with asset seizure and forfeiture requirements law enforcement agencies compliance with tech tobacco seizure and forfeiture requirements and finally law enforcement agencies' compliance with human trafficking seizure and forfeiture requirements in addition to the special reports the following findings were presented. The Department of Education had three immaterial exceptions with educational freedom account expenses identified students with educational freedomccos who were also enrolled in a public school
had an underpayment of academic facilities and partnership program funds due to a formula era and had missing equipment The Department of Parks Heritage and tourism had an unauthorized payroll disbursement and insufficient collateral on a bank account the public employees retirement system had an unauthorized benefit payment benefit overpayments and ineffective internal controls over benefit payments Finally the military department had an unauthorized payroll disbursement and overstated its fiscal year-end accounts
receivable related to federal funds various agency staff members were present to report on how the agcies intend to address the audit findings and to answer committee questions during the meeting the committee filed the 13 reports. I moved to adopt this report have a motion.
I have a second. any discussion on the motion all in favor any opposed motion carries I'll take us to our first of four reports under item D
the first report will be the item D1 I recognize Justin Mett to give us that report Thank you Mr Chair.
Speaker 29
12:47
The annual review of the employee benefits division and the performance of the health and benefit plans for the fiscal year ended June30,2025 was presented to this committee at its meeting held last month. The committee voted to defer the report for discussion today. The report contained no findings and
summary financial information will be presented today. Exhibitive on page 5 of the report and on this slide provides information for the AE plan for the past five years. changes in claims and administrative costs are represented by the blue line and changes in premiums and other revenues are represented by the red line since 2022 revenues have exceeded costs contributing to the growth in the fund balance
exhibit 9 on this slide and on page se of the report provides the same information for the PSE plan for the past5 years since 2024 costs have exceeded revenues causing the decline in fund balance. Asc fundal increased to 151.3 million at the end of fiscal year 25 is shown in exhibit six and on page 5 of the report
the fund had a growth rate in fiscal year 202444.3% compared to the 26.6 growth rate in fiscal year 25. The PSE fund balance decreased to 173.8 million at the end of the fiscal year as shown on this slide and an exhibit 10 of the report and fiscal year 2024, the fund balance grew at a rate of0.9% over fiscal year 23 for fiscal
year 25 the fund balance experience they decline of 15.8%. at the meeting held last month, a 10 year comparison of claims and administrative costs as well as premiums and other revenues was requested. That information is provided in your packet today. that concludes this presentation and we have agency representatives present to answer any committee
questions. right we have that report seeing no questions
uhpresentative Lundstrom you are recognized for a question. could the
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
15:20
agency person come up? I'd like to ask a question.
we have a member from the agency here Please
remain standing I have to sweary in here if you would State your name, employer and
position and then raise your right hand if you hit your button on
the on the mic there so that you're on the record
Speaker 38
15:59
Franjansen deputy director of employee benefits division Jamescaldwell CFO for sharered administrative Services.
Speaker 39
16:04
and Ben Davis counsel for employee benefits division officefice of properperty Risk. right
Speaker 41
16:11
if you'd raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear or
affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth
Chair
Unverified
16:23
the whole truth and nothing but the truth. you are recognized
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
16:28
Representativelendstrom for your question. Thank you. this report is is is good and it's enlightening but there's some gaps that I'm not understanding on page ive there is exhibitive and exhibit6 that has a diagram if everybody could take a look at that we we go in physical year 2023
from320 million and then the next year320 and then all of a sudden we have a big jump to363 million in costs I'm trying to understand what happened in between 23 and25 that our costs would go up so substantially I'm not saying it's right or wrong or there's a problem. I just want to know the why
Speaker 45
17:23
we'd have to go we can go dig into that and get back to you. I just I
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
17:30
don't have it off the top of my head. OK the same in the graph below. if if we could just get some answers we're trying to review a contract right
now and I'd like to know what we're doing right what we're doing wrong and why that big increase I think I'll hold the rest until we get some
more answers. I'll come up with a list of questions
Right? uhs representative ladyman you are recognized for a question.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
18:03
Thank you Mr Chairman. along that same line of that last question when you look at ASC although the claims went up they remained below the income but on the teacher the public school employee it went up a lot more and then when I look at the participation rate the public
school is a lot less than the state employees is that the reason for
Speaker 53
18:36
that or is there another reason? well and I want to preface my answer by saying it's unfortunate
Speaker 40
18:43
that Director Wallace couldn't be here today he's at a conference out of state so I will attempt to answer that but of course we will follow up if my information needs more clarification um, I believe if the question that you're asking is about the numbers with psE
Speaker 40
19:04
a significant difference my assumption is that it is based on multiple factors including the utilization the the drugs that you know they are being prescribed and are taking as well as just the overall health we've seen an interesting trend with the public school
employees having different issues physically like and if you look at the exhibit Appendix B of the disorders that they have tend to be more expensive to treat than typically the AC members but I can't find it right now but the participation rate is quite a
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
19:53
bit different do we have a reason for that? I'm not aware I don't, I can't
Speaker 53
20:03
answer what the participation decreases a
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
20:09
look into and try to figure out why that is because that would affect the cost to income ratio I would think. Yes,
Speaker 61
20:22
sir. all right thank you Right? any other questions?presentlander one of the
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
20:27
things that came out in this report was the vendor we paid them pro approximately37
million to the vendors for ASc and then another47 million what does that compare to the contract? I thought the contract was a little bit different so was there a comparison done by what the actual contract cost and the actual cost what their bid was and the actual cost and that was there a discrepancy did y'all happen to look at that mean'm not aware of any
Speaker 45
21:00
discrepancies between what was contracted I know we had
on one of them we did a program to help maximize the coupons the plan could take it advantage of and part of that program we had to run through the administrative costs the cost share there's like a 20% cost share on that program. but outside of that there's nothing that was different than the original contracts that I'm aware of. OK. all right. thank Representative Mayberrry you're recognized
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
21:38
Thank you. I'm sorry I haven't had time to completely digest all of this so
please forgive me but Fran you made reference to Appendix B and the questions that uhpresentativeladyman was just asking cause I I was looking at that chart going wow I mean there's such a difference between the public school employee if you look at the 10 year chart versus the 10 years of the Arkansas state employee chart this other graph that we have right here. I mean there's it's a huge jump and so you you made reference to going to
Appendix B and I I just, I just want to make note it says the public school employee healthal claims and pregnancyre related disorders78% and I just felt like I needed to point that out because we've been talking about the importance of good prenatal care and you know after having our babies the need the help that we need and I just wanted to point that out and that's not on
the state employee list so I I I don't have you all analyzed that is it is it you know we have more younger women in the school employee workforce and there we don't have good maternal care in rural areas. I mean it's you know we've we've been talking a lot about this so here's your opportunity to share well to be honest I'm not aware
Speaker 53
23:11
of any formal analysis that we have done
Speaker 40
23:14
to look into this but I do again feel that the assumptions or the the possibilities that you and you entertained as far as that it isn't teaching and education does tend to draw more women and so I think that plays a very large role and then once you get into like you said some of the rule schools so it's just compounded probably by some
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
23:43
healthcare deserts that are out there. So when we work on this issue as a whole we potentially could help lower the cost for our public school employee insurance program as well that could be a byproduct so I mean not only helping moms and new babies but also saving some costs there as well as I'm sure if it's hitting our insurance it's hitting private insurance as well. So anyway just wanted to make note of that. thank you right thank youpresentative seeing no further questions
without objection that we'll file this report thank you moving on itemd2 financial financial and compliance report recognize JJ el lar io
Speaker 78
24:45
Thank you Mr Chair. This presentation covers the audit for the city of Minral spprings for
Speaker 79
24:50
the year ended December31st,2025. located in Howard County in southwest Arkansas Mineral spprings operates using a mayor council form of government and six council members the city's population is approximately 1100. noncompliance with state law and accepted accounting practices was noted in the offices of mayor and recorder treasurer
first we noted questionable transactions totaling nearly $264,000 for the period ended for the period of January1st2023 through December31st2025 related to the recorder treasurer as discussed on the next five slides these included improper credit card transactions as well as improper payroll and nonpayroll disbursements. Our review of credit card transactions by the recorder treasurer revealed improper
transactions totaling $174,000. These included $92,000 for online gambling.37,000 dollars for personal purchases which included groceries, home items, clothing, streaming services fuel online shopping and buy now pay later charges. Additionally we noted7,500 dollars for expenses that appear to be for a legitimate business purpose but lacks supporting documentation a similar finding was noted in the prior report
680 $0 for undocumented travel $2700 for fuel and personal vehicles and over $2300 in unallowable expenses it should also be noted that5 credit card statements were altered to reflect differing transactions amounts purchased and statement
Speaker 84
26:41
recaps. Our review of nonpayroll disbursements to the recorder
Speaker 79
26:46
treasurer revealed improper payments totaling almost56,000 dollars. these included $19,000
in undocumented travel reimbursements, a similar finding was included in the prior report Additionally we noted $10,000 in duplicate reimbursements7,500 dollars in labor payments that were not processed through payroll or authorized by resolution and6,800 dollars in undocumented reimbursements for items that included a computer, fall festival expenses Christmas sculptures flowers and mowing including included in this amount is a300 dollars check issued to the recorder treasurer
that was endorsed deposited and subsequently altered to reflect a voided check for audit records. the recorder treasurer was also reimbursed5,300 dollars without a documented business purpose. Further improper nonpayroll disbursements included $2800 for reimbursements for fall festival expenses paid from park funds $2600 paid directly to the recorder treasurer for services provided by a company she owns and nearly5,800 dollars paid to
a company for which the recorder treasure earned commission as a salesperson. $850 in reimbursements for personal items which includedr items, food, clothing and gift cards.520 dollars in travel reimbursements and excess of supporting documentation and $156 paid for meals drinks and tips at a hotel by the recorder treasurer who was also reimbursed the per diem rate for this day
Speaker 84
28:26
Our review of payroll revealed improper disbursements to the recorder treasurer
Speaker 79
28:31
totaling over33,000 dollars. these included $9300 in loans to the recorder treasurer who was allowed to repay the city through subsequent payroll deductions in conflict with Arkansas code 730 $0 remained outstanding at December31st,2025 we also noted almost7,400 dollars for additional pay related to the park that was not authorized through city ordinance 500 $0 in undocumented payments
330 $0 for vacation pay in addition to salary paid on days off and $2700 in additional compensation for conferences and meetings attended attended on normal workday. the city also paid $2300 for the park director position which the recorder treasurer filled on a contract basis although the city council approved an arrangement the city did not enter into a written contract with the recorder treasurer who was who was paid $1100 more than the
approved pay over a six month period Other payroll disbursements to the recorder treasurer included $2000 for attendance at special meetings in excess of authorized amounts $1300 for community gatherings festivals and an employee Christmas party in conflict with the public purpose doctrine and the state constitution and $170 in garnishments paid on behalf of the recorder treasurer in excess of amounts garnished from her pay
the remaining slides discuss additional findings during the calendar year 2025 the city loaned employees over $11,000 and allowed employees to repay the city through subsequent payroll deductions in conflict with the state constitution outstanding loans to employees totaled3,100 dollars at the end of 2025. a similar finding was noted in the prior report. est ing of nonpayroll disbursements revealed that none of the 25 disbursements tested were approved
Additionally5,700 dollars including a $250 bonus was paid to the spouse of the mayor protem for contract labor without an authorizing ordinance or resolution and $998 was expended for seven pairs of men's boots without a documented business purpose. Our review also revealed
Speaker 84
30:55
that the mayor was paid almost $2200 in excess in excess of his
Speaker 79
31:00
authorized salary and apparent conflict with Arkansas code the mayor was also paid300
dollars for patrolling the city without an authorizing resolution and outside of the payroll process a similar finding was noted in the prior report. from these findings we noted that special revenue funds were used for unallowable and undocumented purchases this included nearly35,000 dollars from the parkks and recreation activity Fund over $26,000 from the volunteer fire department fund and almost6,000 dollars from the street fund.
Also from these findings we know that unallowable and undocumented purchases totaling63,000 from water and sewer funds. These included over43,000 dollars in credit card disbursements $13,000 in payments to the recorder treasurer6,000 dollars in payroll advances to employees and $1300 in payroll advances to the recorder treasurer it should be noted that procedures for the water department were outside the scope of our engagement and the city obtains an agreed upon procedures report of the water
department as required by Arkansas code Other issues noted in our report included the following areas of noncompliance with Arkansas code bank reconciliations were not approved by someone other than the preparer and electronic disbursements were made without proper approval of the council and without establishing written policies and procedures to ensure that the electronic funds payment system provides for internal accounting controls and
documentation for audit and accounting purposes a similar finding was noted in the prior report Recorder treasurer Denni June, who resigned on November5,2025 was charged with felony theft of property and tampering with the public record this case is pending as noted on the slidec according to Arkansas fiddelity bondgrame coverage was canceled for Denise Yunne due to a prior finding a mineral spring school district.
this concludes my presentation. City officials are present to respond to committee
right p re s ent ative ri is your question for somebody from the audience or for the
Speaker 90
33:29
staff you're recognized for your question about two flips backwards on
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
33:38
the the credit card charges
yeah do we have any idea what that was spent on that43,000 dollars was all
Speaker 96
33:56
that yes sir if if this was for the water and sewer credit card expenditures all of that
Speaker 83
34:03
was actually included in the previous slides we were just recapping it by
Speaker 51
34:08
fund here right cochairmanundstrom just a point of
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
34:13
clarification in this report it talked about this treasure or recorder whatever
has was also working at a school district and did the similar thing and it wasn't
Speaker 101
34:29
caught or just clarify Mr. White thank you umpresentative
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
34:33
Linstrom back in 20 let me check and make sure it's the proper report yet so it is the twenty1el 201elot report performed by legislative audit one of the findings in that were in regard to some time sheets
submitted to the district in regard to this individual hendrix Juniel she was later prosecuted on that issue and removed from the Fideltibon program and not covered for surety bond coverage. at that time. so the summation is the zebra didn't change their stripes. They
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
35:07
went on to commit an additional raud at the city and that caused them to
lose their bond or they d they couldn't have it because she had already been convicted
correct part of the state process is
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
35:24
is that you know when we refer these findings that we mentioned at times we're referring findings to the prosecuting attorneys and the attorney general at times we also say and we're referring those to the bond board as well the bond board's processes they typically wait until resolution of those referrals by the prosecuting attorney or attorney general to make a decision of whether to provide a reimbursement to the participating governmental entity as well as they have a
list of individuals who are not insurables and she was added to
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
36:03
the list at that time. thank you right Representative meeks you're recognized thank you Mr Chairman. So my question also for staff I've got to so would the city council have known that they were no longer eligible for this coverage because of her past theft.
right representative makes that's not a question I think staff have the answer to but
we do have some people here from
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
36:41
the city of Mineral Springs I I'd be interested to hear from them just if you know if they if they if she was being
hired with this known history and that could have the folks here from Mineral Springs come to the table and think we've got and and then a
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
37:02
question for staff was it just the recorder treasurer that was responsible for all these inappropriate expenses or was it the mayor or or other members of the city council as well. you're recognized
Speaker 83
37:17
yes sir as as far as we can tell it is just the recorder treasure
that was involved in these all right if you would keep remain standing and hit your hit your button there and state your name
employer and position and then raise your right hand and we'll swear you
Speaker 113
37:38
in mayor ofidow Springs Vanessa hendricks city council member springs all right if you would raise your right hand. do
you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. thank you all
rightpresentative meeks you're recognized to ask your question of the the city all right thank you ladies for
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
38:04
for for being here. I know it's a long drive to to come up here. sounds like y'all have a mess down there so give us the latest about you know where we're at with this was there prior knowledge and and that may have been previous administration so you may not know but was there prior knowledge before she was hired that she had this history and you know what are we doing to reassure the citizens of Arkansas that this is in the rearview mirror and then it's not gonna happen again.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
38:35
so I was married I was finishing out to term 2123 to22 and have very little knowledge that she had committed something somewhere else and at the time the mayor stepped down to record his re just stepped down and we put the advertisement out there for somebody to come forward nobody came forward but her
and I know we had a time frame to get the bills and everything lined out
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
39:17
with very little knowledge about you knew something you just didn't know the details. OK. and then what what safeguards have we put in place to make sure
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
39:26
that this doesn't happen again no that won't repeat them I'll watch it again we're doing some double checking whatever Stephhanie does
then I'm checking behind her she's checking behind me as well so every everything has to be on the same level
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
39:46
at all times all right thank
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
39:52
you thank you rightpresentative gonzalez you're recognized thank you Mr
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
39:56
chairir. I guess my question is probably for staff on page three where it talks about the unallowable and undocumented
purchases from Parks and rec volunteer fire with those being undocumented we have no idea if those were spent for personal use and was that authorized by the mayor or who authorized those funds to
Speaker 134
40:22
be spent that would have been authorized by the mayor it was not if I remember correctly there was a certain amount that could be purchased for the parks and recreation but anything beyond that amount went directly to the mayor
who was at that Yeah but this
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
40:46
specifically says unallowable and undocumented. I just was curious to know if we knew if that was spent for city purposes at all or if it was personal use like all the other and maybe more people ought to be turned
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
41:00
over to the prosecuting attorney JJ if you know the answer to
Speaker 83
41:04
that yes sir again these slides at the end are just recapping
Speaker 79
41:09
what funds the unallowable and undocumented expenses were paid from from the first slides so we they are included in the descriptions in these first few slides of everything that was spent inappropriately and as far as approval we did not note approval other than maybe the mayor or council member that was signing the check. Right representative Matt Brown.
Speaker 143
41:42
thank you Mr chairir. and I apologize I don't think this has been answered yet. Is the recorder treasure is that an elected position or is that hired by the city it's I'm sorry hit your button there and now Mineral spprings I think the population's about 1000, is that right? So I mean $175,000 that's I'm assuming that's a pretty big lick to y'all is that right?
who who was asleep at thew I guess for lack of a better word like
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
42:22
like why did this go on for so long ob el li s appointed me to be the mayor of protemp in april of last year he had this baby all by himself until then. I only followed his lead. My name was not on any signed checks and now he's stepped down so assigned the same thing I did in
21 to22. he beat me in the election by a few points in 23. but they asked me to come on board again at 25 so now I'm finishing up this term but no opposition so when next year start I will be the elected mayor and one last follow Mr
Speaker 143
43:07
Chair obviously you know any city can have a bad apple
it does take time to find that sometimes and that's why we have audit. but
Speaker 152
43:17
probably what gives me the most heartburn on this report is the fact that there were several times where it said that there had been previous findings by legislative audit regarding travel expenses employee loans, payments to the mayor, electronic transfers and it appears that nothing was done to fix that what are y'all doing to make sure because you know when legislative audit sends a report it's not suggestions you know they they're very good at their jobs and when they tell you something's wrong it's wrong so
what is the city doing to make sure that a year from now we're not back here again and it says here's some more stuff that was
Speaker 134
43:54
on a prior report that's still not been fixed. chickcks and balances we're gonna put in. I will say that there are some there are things that were not presented to the city council at that time even the financial paperwork that we had maybe didn't have all the information and of course we were not aware of it we were just seeing what
we had in front of us and there were times that we did not have a full discussion according to what the mayor said was that we need to discuss on finances so we'll we've learned that from this it we need enough for every penny every session we need to go through everything I will say I did ask that at one time and I was told that
the mayor had the the power to say what we would present in the meeting and not.
right thank you so so I'm assuming in the last year since you've kind of taken over you're having more regular city council meetings and and reviewing all of these things in a a timely fashion yes sir
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
45:17
co chairirman Lindstrom you're recognized just a question for the councilwoman. or suggestion in the future you might want to ask for actual bank statements to compare them to your financials it sounds like this is these folks have been picking your pockets for a long time. I don't know how your city's going to make up this difference and my question is for the mayor. do y'all do criminal and credit background checks on your employees?
Chair
Unverified
45:47
OK thank you right ener Mark Johnson. Senator Mark Johnson you're recognized thank you
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
46:02
Mr Chairman I just I'm trying to follow the timeline of of who's on first and that type of thing ok Ms Juneal who was the recorder treasurer has resigned and she's been charged with theft in on the one of
the pages it describes the
Speaker 163
46:24
officials at the time and and now Miss Harris is
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
46:31
11 of you you you were appointed
Speaker 165
46:36
recorder treasurer last December you're the financial secret not in regards to the gentleman you're M Harrisonririana Harris is
they took the pos when when this happened they took the position and split it and I am actually a city employee I am not a elected official and so I will not I will be keeping the office until I decide to leave or until they decide to remove me and so it it's no
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
47:12
longer it's no longer an elected position yes ma'am I understand now mayor is
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
47:24
ok and who's the mayor now OKok and ma'am you you were elected so you will be you will remain in January you will still be mayor is that correct? OK I just wanna like I said it's it's it's kind of like that Abbott and Costello thing of who's on first and who's on second I wanted to make sure mayyorellis was not charged by for any kind of a criminality although there's some sites in in the audit and that's a totally different matter I just want wanted to understand all
this OK thank you for helping me kind of sort all this out and I I wish you the best of getting it and and as I say to many local officials thank you for your willingness to serve thank
you Mr Chairman all right members here's where we're at we've got half a dozen in the queue at the moment and people continued to buzz in so just keep that in mind as you're re making your commentsps representative rye you're recognized thank you Mr Chairman ma'am,
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
48:27
let's just say that in the month of October, November, December of the year you're setting the budget for the next year for the town and this is not a very big town something like 1100 people and the budget is probably not that big considering that that you don't you know you you don't have a a a lot of folks and you know and what I can't understand is let's just say that you set the budget and then you start January through December with spending from each category
when you got the bank statements in each month could you not see something going on
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
49:07
there there were no bank statement it was all on what do you call it electronic
Speaker 130
49:14
so Denise was the only one that saw those the amounts that was
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
49:20
in there yes ma'am follow up please but did did you check behind that each month to
see what was balancing out and how how big of expenditure especially those
Speaker 130
49:33
credit card expenditures did not and don't apparently Bobby didn't either but now we
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
49:38
are able to go in and have printed out bank statements thank you ma'am. Thank you Mr Chairman
Chair
Unverified
49:46
Representative thank you senator Scott, you are recognized thank you Mr chairir. can you explain
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
49:54
to me what checks and balances look like moving forward. I know she said y'all are gonna go behind each other but what does what does that mean
Speaker 165
50:05
when you're asking like when I receive a bill how do I handle
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
50:09
that? like what are y'all putting in place to ensure that there's checks and balances and that everybody that y'all
Speaker 165
50:17
are in compliance and not in this situation in the future when a bill comes in each department head is now required to tell me to they need to tell me what fund and and what
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
50:28
category it comes out of do they do do
Speaker 165
50:30
they do that via email for documentation purpose they come and tell you if they come by my office on
a regular basis it's put in their box and they come by and and there's a stamp that's put on it and they write and put their initials on it which would it's to be paid out of our fire chief does not work he's volunteer so all of his comes through email and I print off that email saying where he wants it to come from the check is cut two people signed the check to separate people signed the check and then it's sent out and then
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
51:08
and each director knows what budget they have what's in the line item so they can't just come and tell you to pay it from here right or how do you verify that when they come and tell you how do verify the fund that the funds are available in a specific line item
Speaker 165
51:24
or de category. that's this it's all a work and process to teach them to to know where it needs to come out of they were just basically letting her have the control and she was just taking it out of whatever line item she wished.
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
51:39
yeah that's my concern that's why that's
Speaker 165
51:42
why I'm asking these questions if y'all want to think a little further about what processes look like a process and we are taking steps to correct that. I just want to offer that yes
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
51:56
ma'am thank you senator Senatorhammer you're recognized thank you Mr Chair. and maybe one of y'all can answer this or staff can answer it the did the did the bonding company or is bonding company standing good
for your losses as a city or because of previous experience they're not on this one we'll go
staff first Mr White so again we're going to refer it to the bond board anyways and it will be their decision on what occurs. However, her name is listed on a you know the individual
Speaker 101
52:33
who's been charged here is listed as a particular excluded party, and coverage is not available. so back to the city then
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
52:43
have y'all determined that all the current employees that you have have not been excluded by the bonding company so history would not repeat itself. I'm not trying to cast anything on anybody but have y'all gone to that and then and then I wonder first of all let me ask that question to to the ladies at the table. Have y'all checked out all your other employees to see if they've been excluded from the bonding company. no sir to the staff or to the chair
do we know if that's in legislation that that's a requirement that municipalities check with the bonding boards to make sure that no company or that that no one somebody is already for research on that and get back with you yeah that'd be great right and then the last question and this is going to be this is gonna be to the audit staff the in all your investigation did audit staff determine if the mayor through his or her I'm
sorry was it a him or her? hip through did the mayor through his action do anything that would have hid this or shielded other elected officials or office personnel from knowing what the problem was was that ever determined or is that within your scope to make that assessment? go ahead sirenner how that's that's really falling out beside the scope. We
refer the report as in its entirety the prosecuting attorney and attorney general and they're the ones who can make determinations
of that potential matter which would be looking at the mayor to see if there was something inappropriate done as far as shielding us from other people or prohibiting because I heard the ladies say something about we weren't allowed to look at so that would all
be left up to the PA to do that correct? thank you right representative Matt Brown. thank you Mr
Speaker 152
54:43
chairir. has the city sued this recorder civilly or does it have any plans to do
so? sir we have not well may I suggest that y'all do that because you're about to have a statute of limitations problem on some of this and I think you're gonna have a lot better chance of trying to get something back you go ahead and sue her in civil court instead of trying to rely on
criminal restitution just in my opinion. thank thank you and for the last questionpresentative Mayberry
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
55:20
thank you. I'm kind of going back to the fact that this person came up and audit findings I guess in 2013 maybe with our education working for a school district that that is all correct, right? Mr. White, yes. so what was that person found guilty or justch charged? so the individual pled guilty in
Speaker 204
55:50
Howard County District court on July9th to misdemeanor theft of property charge. so it
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
55:55
should have come up in a in a background check then OK. so
I guess I was trying to figure out if so many times as we have seen and have recently been talking about in that education committee that we have findings from our auditors they do a great job. they send it we send it on to prosecuting attorneys and the prosecuting attorneys don't do anything with it.
for various reasons and we have recently discovered that we can send it to ADE for maybe a look at the professional standards to see if there's were some ethics and I guess I'm just trying to point out that that's just another reason why we need to do that as much as possible. but anyway, I guess if if she did plead guilty that should have shown up as well but just another way to maybe raise some wet red flags earlier to you know,
bring attention to people who continue to do the same things over and
over again. Thank you. sorry. all right thank you and ladies that's all the questions we have for you you're dismissed.
Members without objection will file this report. moving on to item D3 we have michelee Atchley to give this report on a review of selected transactions for the conway school district
Speaker 206
57:27
Thank you Mister Chair. this report is issued in a response to a request from the 20thjudicial District prosecute and attorney out of Faultner County for legislative audit to assist Arkansas Statelice and review selected transactions of the conway school District central Maintenance department. Objectives
Speaker 208
57:46
of our review were to determine if district funds within the maintenance department were
Speaker 206
57:52
misappropriated determine if applicable state laws and district policies were followed and assessed internal
control issues within the maintenance department that came to our attention. located in Faulkner County, the conway school district is governed by a seven member board and operates 16 schools making it the eighth largest public school district in Arkansas. During our review period the district had two superintendents Jeff Coumm, who served from July1 of2021 through June 29th of 2025, at which time the board
entered into a separation agreement totalling461,000 dollars. Then assistant superintendent Jasonla was named interim superintendent on June twenty9th of 2025 and named superintendent on December 21st of the same year. According to the district website, the maintenance department is responsible for the safety, efficiency and aesthetics of the district and employees skilled laborers including carpenters, electricians, painters and
plumbers. Additionally, the district contracts annually with a private CPA firm for their financial audit. In January of last year, district officials and board members became aware of allegations of misappropriation of district resources in the maintenance department. subsequently the district contracted with a law firm and a CPA firm to perform an independent investigation on February 21st, the district notified the employees who were included in the investigation
that they would be placed on leave pending the outcome of that investigation. The final report of the independent investigation was provided to the superintendent on May9th of 2025. Employee A and employee B remained on leave pending the board accepting their retirement and resignation respectively remaining employees that were placed on administrative leave were allowed to return to active employment status. It should be
noted that the cost of this independent investigation totaled almost $21,000. The remainder of this presentation will discuss the results of legislative audits review. Arkansas code
Speaker 208
1:00:15
requires a public employee with super supervisory fiduciary responsibility to report to legislative audit
Speaker 206
1:00:22
a loss of public funds of $1000 or more in one calendar year within5 business days of learning of the loss of funds.
The loss identified in the independent investigation was not reported to legislative audit until more than3 months after the independent investigation report was received. our review of board meeting minutes revealed that during a meeting held on June 10th of last year the board unanimously approved the retirement of employee A and the resignation of employee B both effective on June30th,2025, allowing each of
these employees to complete their contracts with the district. in addition, employee A received a payment of over $18,000 for unused sick leave and a retirement bonus of $900. Employee B received a payment of $836 for unused leave. During a board meeting held on September 9th of 2025, a motion to request that the prosecuting attorney conduct an investigation regarding the district's maintenance
department, including any financial transactions related to the department or any current or former employees. This motion failed to pass with board members with5 board members voting against it. as noted in the report, failure to notify law enforcement of suspected improprieties appears to conflict with Arkansas code6-13-620, which indicates the powers and duties of the board are to ensure that all properties belonging to the district are managed and
maintained for the benefit of the school district. as previously noted the district utilizes an independent CPA firm to conduct its annual audit The most current audit completed was for the fiscal year ending June30,2025, and the board approved the report during a meeting held in March of this year The audit contained a material weakness finding which stated former employees in the maintenance department of the district misused district funds and resources for personal use.
The misuse of district funds was discovered through an independent investigation. Our review of selected disbursements in the maintenance department for the period July1 of2023 through February 28 of2025 revealed questionable purchases that appeared to conflict with Arkansas constitution. The questionable purchases totaling nearly31,000 were approved by employee A and made from selected vendors by employee B who worked primarily
as a painter. these included over $16,000 for automotive parts not compatible with districtowned vehicles over 10,000 for other automotive parts, paint supplies and tools for which a business purpose cannot be substantiated and3,400 dollars for automotive parts that were specific to racing cars. In addition,3,600 in questionable purchases approved
by employee A and made by various maintenance department employees included another 2100 for other automotive parts, paints supplies and tools for which a business purpose cannot be substantiated and over 1400 for automotive parts not compatible with district owned vehicles. A disbursement of almost 1900 to an automotive repair vendor was undocumented. Therefore, we could not determine what the disbursement was for or who approved the transaction. it should be noted that the
documentation available for these questionable transactions did not identify a work location or reference a work order to indicate the purchase's were for legitimate district use. Communications provided to legislative audit between maintenance department employees were compared to payroll documentation and other accounting records revealed that time sheets for maintenance departments employees did not reflect leave taken for time that they indicated to employee
A that they would be away from work. Employee B and other maintenance department employees performed nonschool related work on employee A's personal residence and assisted relatives of employee A during normal working hours without recording leave. Additionally, employee A authorized employee B to use district equipment for personal purposes. It should be noted
that employee A was responsible for approving time sheets for maintenance department In addition, employee A allowed an employee to take and utilize an extra sink from a district classroom for personal purposes in violation of district policy Furthermore, district facilities and equipment were used on multiple occasions by maintenance department employees for personal purposes such as cabinet painting and automotive repairs which appears to violate
district policy. Our review also revealed internal control deficiencies within the maintenance department specifically purchases were approved that appear to have no business purpose invoices or other supporting documentation were not maintained for some disbursements and invoices were not adequately documented to support a business purpose. Throughout our review certain events came to our attention that comprised the district's internal control environment and
commitment to transparency as previously mentioned and shown on the slide, Man approved non district related work that was performed by district employees during working hours using district supplies and equipment the superintendent did not report the loss of funds to legislative audit within5 business days and the board failed to notify law enforcement of suspected impro Legislative audit recommends that the district insured disbursements are in compliance
with the state constitution and serve a district purpose develop purchasing policies that ensure all purchases are legitimate and for district purposesns ensure that district facilities are used for district purposes and report to legislative audit any potential loss of public funds that totals $1000 or more in one calendar year. This report was forwarded to the 20th judicial district prosecute and attorney and the attorney general. Bruce Harrell, who is referred
to as employee A and Justin Turney who's referred to as employee B were both charged with felony theft of property last month. This concludes my presentation Man response is provided in its entirety in appendix A of the report and district officials are present to respond to committee questions. right thank
Speaker 61
1:07:38
you for that report members co-chairman Fundstrom you're recognized for a question. Thank you. I'd like
Speaker 62
1:07:46
to go to that timeline on a one and I have a
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:07:51
question about June twentyinth so a one the timeline and line that begins with June twentyinth. it says the board approved separation agreement for461,000 for Superintendent Jeff Cohele and the board appointed Jack Black interim superintendent. I would like to understand what that means so was he paid461,000
I see nods from an audience member do we need to ask the
folks present or I'm just asking the audit folks for that or do we need to bring somebody up from the district we have Jasonla and Miss Walton school board president and the superintendent here if you would come to the table and when you get there remain standing push the button and
need you to state your name employer and position for
Speaker 212
1:09:00
the record. Leonawalton Conway School's district currently board president of the board. Jasonla conway
Speaker 213
1:09:05
Public School superintendent right if you would
raise your right hand and do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give
will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I do. right you would have a seat there and present
to you are recognized to ask your questions
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:09:27
Mine's just a point of clarification so Mrulllum was relieved of duty
and we paid him461,000 that is correct
Speaker 217
1:09:38
he we bought his contract out his contract out
Speaker 104
1:09:43
shocked by that but I I will leave and
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:09:47
let the other folks get in line and we'll have some more questions ma'am right there
are a few uhpresentative hawk you're
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:10:00
recognized thank you Mr Chair. I'm over here in the back ok,
so look this this has been something that's been very public and Mike I guess my confusion is the board knew that there were some issues going on but you guys let the superintendent the maintenance guy just retire willy nilly and say we're going to pay you to retire there there's things going on because this was brought to executive
from members of the school board and that's how it got brought to our attention and you guys just let
Speaker 221
1:10:33
him retire and paid him to retire and now there's there's charges
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:10:37
pending. is that correct? That is correct I'll do a little expounding first off I knew nothing about maintenance on June the 29th. I mean whatever day we did the let him resign. I didn't have history. I was new to the board that was my first board meeting I was new to the board so give me some grace today so I'm doing
the best I can. N nevertheless does that we seem to be the board we seem to be more interested in getting rid of the superintendent then taking a look at the personnel records that were given to us that we had to approve that night. I saw his name on there but I don't have the ba did not have the background and I did not know the other employee's name period so when we went out to approve when it was time to approve the
personnel documents we all approved it then those that did know about it realize what they had done not testifying for them but it was too late to go through the termination process because we'd already done what we had done that makes senses makes perfect sense. I'm just trying
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:11:49
to figure out the timeline on why
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:11:51
that focus is our focus the board's focus our focus up because I was present was to relieve the superintendent of his duties
based on information things that had been going on prior to my getting on the board so that's what we negotiated makes
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:12:09
sense follow up now that these two individuals have been charged and and are facing prosecution or is the school district planning on trying to get some of this money back through lawsuits or anything like that to to get I mean because this is a a substantial amount of money especially when you're talking about race cars and and personal vehicles and personal homes like
is there a pathway for you guys as a board to say you know what we now need to take some some legal action
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:12:40
to try to get some of this money back. OK as a board member that has not been discussed as of yet this is kind of re relatively new y'all know we in the news so our focus has been moved to something else right now however that does not mean that we will not try to pursue recouping of the money but this that has not been discussed with the board
thank you Mr Black were were you part of the
district prior to all this happening yes sir was so you
were under the previous superintendent was ok uhpresentative meeks you're
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:13:20
recognized now you was chairman so right up right up close here well as a citizen of Faulkner County, I guess I am relieved to learn that conway school District doesn't have race cars zipping up and down through the streets of
Conway. my my question kind of going back to the the superintendent and for kind of a follow up onpresentative Luundstrom it is standard practice that superintendents get a get contract buyouts that happens all the time. uh'm not a big fan of it but that's that's generally the the reality. My my question related to that was his resignation because of these issues coming to light and other issues or is it just coincidence that the board asked
for his resignation at the same time was was so in other words was he complicit in this to the degree that he felt like he needed to resign or the board felt he needed to resign or is it just coincidence and timing
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:14:19
believe it's more coincidence but I can't speak for Doctor Culumm. Id like again that was me first getting there but in the news public perception was that he was not doing a good job and I believe maybe pressure
to resign or we were gonna need to fire you or whatever so a negotiation was done that
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:14:44
night and he submitted his resignation. and then the other question I have kind of follow up. so employee A was the supervisor was he Using these funds for his personal benefit or was it
employee B was the one who was using the personal funds and employee A just wasn't being a good manager and keeping an eye on things like he should. He would just sign
it off he was rubber stamping stuff without giving it the the appropriate scrutiny. Yeah I
Speaker 213
1:15:23
believe both have been insinuated I know through the Arkansas legislative audit process that was the findings I think a little bit of both
Speaker 229
1:15:29
could have transpired personal knowledge about that I couldn't tell you but based on what I've read and what I've
Speaker 230
1:15:39
seen, I believe both most likely transpired is my understanding
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:15:42
and then my my final question is the school board once you learned of these allegations you went
and hired an outside firm to substantiate them at what point did you go to legislative audit because legislative audit because it looks like you spent like $20,000 in order to learn that there was what4,000 dollars worth of theft5,000 dollars worth of theft. you can kind of see where the concern is there
right whereas if you'd gone to legislative audit originally obviously we know they've got a full slate but they could have done the investigation and and ultimately they did do the investigation right and would have saved the school district $20,000 here. so it just kind of makes sense to talk and again understand you're new and it may just be that that's what the case was but talk us through that decision to do that versus contacting legislative audit because one of the concerns was is once these things were found out they weren't reported to legislative
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:16:41
audit in a timely manner. OK, I agree with I hear what you're saying again I was not trying to dismiss my participation. I need y'all to know that but I don't know what happened that why the investigation was privately done but when I got there the night that it was Donaylor David Naylor said he's sending it to legislative audit. I took him for his word and that's one of the reasons I did not vote for it to go to the
prosecutor dummb learning didn't know that's where it needed to go as well but I felt like doing it to the legislative audit and doing it to them at the same time was a waste of resources why you got them both doing the same thing so if leg Do Naylor said that legislative all was gonna handle it I believe that so that's what I voted for is to go ahead and do which I think maybe be legislative audit went ahead and sent it to Carl cruz which was wonderful. We got the end of it found out what's going on and
we have an opportunity to learn on what to not to do we have a lot of turnover on the school board in conway anyway we I've learned rather I'm going to speak for me on what not to do and what to try to do better in this situation. I would
Speaker 213
1:18:02
agree with that the the five dayy timeline that we didn't follow that we learned from I think now moving
Speaker 229
1:18:07
forward absolutely we know about that and typically you would reach out to your your auditor in this situation we
know now that you need to do both and we're
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:18:18
we're on track for that awesome ride thank you and I I
know being a school board member is sometimes a thankless job so thank you. right,
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
1:18:29
Senator Scott you're recognized thank you Mr chair can you talk me through the September 9th where the board failed to adopt a motion to request the 2ieth judicial district prosecuting attorney to conduct an investigation regarding this district manner did they have all the information we just got
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:18:47
and still be too at that particular time in the board meeting in executive session that I was in I never saw a report from the investigator I heard what the report was I was told what the report said and then when doctor Naylor said he was already going to legislative audit that was good enough for me and I think I'm understanding your question because
that's when it went to legis well that's not when it went to legislative audit I found out about it but doctor Naylor said that he had talked to someone here and they were gonna
Speaker 232
1:19:31
handle it so y'all had limited well I'm gonna say I had limited it the the previous board members may have had more information on that thank you
Speaker 229
1:19:41
would say that the third party investigation that was referred to by ALA was provided to the school board
that was probably discussed during executive session to Miss Walton's point, I don't know if all of the board members that were current were in there I believe most would have been and then you know based on what she said as far as referring it to ALA or the prosecuting attorney there was discussion about that during an open board meeting there was discussion agreed but I
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:20:10
said this this this is what I found but I didn't have to have that but I trust him to do the
investigation I ought to be able to trust him to give me a
Speaker 146
1:20:27
report you know verbally thank you Representative Matt Brown. thank you Mr Chair. I'd like to follow up thank Representativehawks maybe Representativelumstrom on the the
Speaker 143
1:20:34
timeline of course you know I live in Conway I pay taxes in Conway to the school district. My kids go to Conway public schools my understanding of the way this
Speaker 236
1:20:46
thing went down and and correct me if I'm wrong
was there was this was discovered that there was an issue and I guess Juneish of 25. Is that right? it was reported to the board and my understanding was is that the board was led to believe by the previous superintendent that the employees were being fired but I think that the statement was something to the effect of it is being addressed or it has been addressed or essentially it was implied that
Speaker 153
1:21:21
they were being terminated but they weren't in fact terminated iss
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:21:26
that what happened they were not in fact terminated the they the employee A submitted his retirement stuff and employee B just resigned I I guess I can tell you what other board members said was they wanted him fired but that never that procedure never took place. Now ma'am I understand that my question though
Speaker 239
1:21:48
is is my understanding was is that when
Speaker 236
1:21:53
this discussion was going on statements were made by the previous superintendent that would lead the board and I think a reasonable person to believe that they were in the process of being terminated when in fact the previous superintendent allowed them to continue to serve as employees for six weeks or 2 months, my understanding was so that they got some retirement benefits they wouldn't have gotten had they been terminated immediately is that the way it went down? I don't
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:22:15
know if the one that retired would have been able to get his benefits had he retired had he been terminated or not because I
don't know the law on that part but that is certainly poss a possibility to my coming into the board I was elected in May of 2025 and when I came in in June of 2025 for that board meeting he was on both employees were on the list to resign or retire so that tells me that nothing was done toward termination by the superintendent at that particular time ma' but but again I don't think you're
Speaker 236
1:22:57
getting to my question is and you were on the board at this time was the board led to believe by the previous superintendent that he was going to fire the employees or otherwise take care of it when in fact he allowed them to continue to serve for a couple months so they get their retirement because my understanding was the board was hoodwinked and this hold on and this timeline that's been produced you know it clearly shows board was notified dot dot dot later board accepts resignation so it so it implies from the timeline that the board knew this was
going on and allowed them to resign so they could get their benefits my understanding as a citizen of Conway was that the board was essentially lied to by the previous superintendent. I'm just trying to get it is that what
Speaker 232
1:23:42
happened or did the board know this was going on and let it happen know that some board members wanted him fired and told the
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:23:50
de fired and told that communicated that to the superintendent to only find out that they were listed on the resignation and retirement. So I believe the
answer would be yes to which part the part that they they told the superintendent that they wanted him fired and I'm just going by what they told me they said because I was not on the board at that particular time so my first meeting they were on the list so I would say you are correct in saying they may have been misled by the superintendent but because I was not invv was not present
the it appears that they may have been misled but I think it's our fault the board because we could have pulled their names off had we been paying attention and went ahead and adopted the personnel resignations and retirement by taking off those two people but that did not happen so we somebody thought that it was done but it was not in the works rather but it was not in the works and because these employees were
Speaker 201
1:25:01
allowed to resign a month and a half or so later
were they in fact able to get some retirement benefits or other benefits they wouldn't have otherwise gotten. I am not
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:25:10
aware of anything on whether they actually got retirement or not because I don't know the policies' rules whatever on that part else in the school district here today that might know the answer to that? Yeah, I was gonna attempt I'll
Speaker 229
1:25:22
tell you I'm not familiar that's a question that we've we've discussed is if there is a termination
does that suspend anyone's retirement. I'm not aware, I don't know if anybody in the room is or I know we have our legal counsel with us here today are you aware M Wagner of that ruling? OK. I don't I don't have an answer for you but we can definitely get one and then I'll speak to I know you're asking me as well you know I wouldn't want to speculate anything that was discussed during an executive session because I was not in those executive sessions for those discussions. so I would not
Speaker 214
1:25:58
have that information to be able to give to you in regards to their discussions
with the previous superintendent representative thank you if we can get back in the queue if you need some more questions. I've got several stacking up here uhpresentative gonzalez you're recognized
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
1:26:15
thank you Mr chairir. my question is going back to this461,000 dollars payout was is that an annual salary or is that multiple year salary how how is that determined to be multiple years think it was
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:26:34
I think it was two years I didn't research that before I came here but I believe it
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
1:26:42
was two years left a question to audit there there's nothing questionable about that right that's perfectly legal payout
Speaker 254
1:26:53
to them. it's representative ganz that was not really in the scope of us reviewing the legality but
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:26:59
no we didn't. I I think that's pretty somewhat we see that on occasion from other school
districts as well of similar type agreements.
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
1:27:07
I thought so I just saw it in the report and wanted to make sure I didn't know why that was even mentioned there but I think that's something that we need to look at and and probably his next legislative session as he school school boards school districts being able to obligate taxpayer dollars for multiple years for superintendent salaries that should probably be limited to a single year's salary for payout to me it's a waste of taxpayer dollars
wouldn't you agree I woulduu I would senator Mark Johnson you are recognized thank
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:27:46
you Mr Chairman and there are so many issues here I will try to restrain myself and limit it to the things that are actually in the audit I would like to say for the benefit of the committee and the entire legislature that for every session I have been in the senate with the exception of the last
one I sponsored legislation that would say if you committed a felony in the line of duty this was both for for any public employee in Arkansas not just people in school districts that you would forfeit your pension I was fought vehemently by some other members of the legislature and the actuary for the retirement committee saying that it was unconstitutional I couldn't do it although something like 15 or 20 other states do it so I
think I'll try one more time in 2027 and maybe we can get it done I had some people say well that'll hurt
their families I said you hurt the family of every single person you send
to the department of corrections so let's just not pick on one over the other but getting back directly on this audit first I'm not currently a resident of the conway school district conway school district is in my senatorial district I'm 1/5
generation son of Conway I'm a proud wampas cat and graduate of Conway High School. and so this is very personal to me and I've heard from a whole lot of constituents about this and as far as rep representative gonzalez had a beautiful comment but I think that we have to fix this long term payout thing it's just this is something that can be fixed by legislation I believe and I'd be happy to work
with you on that but I want a couple things first of all I wanna thank M Walton and and and Mrla for coming to the table but I would respectfully request Mr Chairman that I wanna how many current or former members of the board are here gosh I can't get you all up here I I would like like Miss Hargis to come if she could and if anybody else would need to we would certainly want to hear your testimony but I I I
personally have heard some things in the past from Miss Hargis so I'd like to ask for Misslinnda Hargis who's a member of the board to to come and be sworn
Speaker 167
1:30:29
in thank you sir we'll we'll yes sir
Speaker 110
1:30:32
we'll we'll have to swear you in but y'all just if you would stand and
Speaker 258
1:30:37
state your name individually barrett etty conway school boardard zone ive elected May13,2025.
Speaker 260
1:30:47
y n Hargis school board member5 years I was selected I think in22 and I
go off in November. All right. and if you'll raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear to affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I do
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:31:06
I do right thank yousenator Johnson thank you Mr chairirman I I simply wanted to first of all this is no disrespect to to Mr black or Miss Walson but your predecessors it's kind of
happened on their watch so we needed to clarify the fact that you know we don't hold people accountable for things happened before they were in charge although you were assistant superintendent at the time what were you not Mrla sir ok so you not blaming you I'm just saying that you may have had eyeballs on some of this situation too the first thing Mr Collum was my understanding directed by the
board to fire the the employees I won't get into the the whole situation and then there's this thing just seemed to snowball after that amm I reading that correctly and that's a question for anyone that
Speaker 260
1:32:02
that would know that yes sir it was brought to us the the gentleman that did the independent audit gave us the facts and then his recommendation was to either fire them or prosecute them. and the board chose to fire them
and we directed Doctor Collum to do that and I think what happened here is I check resignations most of the time I checked them for two months after this happened I think it was too Names weren't on there so I'm assuming that he has fired them. I had no idea they were allowed to continue to work so they were not only
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:32:48
on it paid administrative leave they were working sir ok
and then all and and let me let me interject something and I'm I'm you you brought this up Malson having again having followed this I was contacted by more than one board member asking me about should they refer this to the prosecutor and I I'm not saying I was right or wrong but I pointed out that this committee under the law requires is required to refer certain things to both the
prosecuting attorney and the attorney general and I understand why M Walton ands other board members might have been confused about what that is that's a separate statute though that requires the superintendent or the board to to share this information with Arkansasegis slave audit so I'm I could understand how there would be some confusion but I think we'll clar try to clean up the language in the laws so everybody
will understand but I think both should have been done and misspoke I think they were
unpaid leave not working that's correct those are facts that we can ascertain thank you yes ma'am the final thing that that I want to come up with is that these people were they were actually weren't terminated they were allowed to resign and they were given a severance and it was like here's some money go away goodbye and that once again this is one of those
things this is our fault these are things that the general assembly has to put in the law to fix and so I'm not blaming anybody that has to administer the law as it was at this time but I mentioned it to all my colleagues we've got to seriously do some things about this rewarding people you know life is a series of incentives and disincentives and you know if you get out here and drive 100 miles an hour
on6:30 state police are gonna give you a ticket that's a disincentive and if if you're not gonna be fined for doing that then you might be more apt to to speed down630 it's the same way with wanting some parts for your race car or whatever you'll steal them if there's no accountability on it so obviously that's our our work that we need to come in and fix but Mr Chairman I'll yield back because again I promised to
stay strictly on the audit and not the broader issues thank you
Mr Chamanpresentative Matt Brown you're recognized.
Speaker 152
1:35:39
Thank you Mr Chair. as hard as Mr. Petty, you heard my question earlier about essentially was the board hoodwinked were y'all hoodwinked and that was by
Speaker 258
1:35:52
Doctor Mc or Doctorulum yes can I give some dates and perspective so on on May132025 myself Miss Leonawalton and Leo Cos were elected to the board
we had our first meeting which was a special session meeting on May twenty7th of 2025 and I think the next two I'm sorry then in June the 2nd Tuesday we had that board meeting in which those individuals were listed I can speak for myself being elected a month earlier I had no idea about them being listed. Now
Speaker 269
1:36:25
I did hear things and rumors and things been say in the community from constituents but officially I did not know was made aware of it
Speaker 152
1:36:39
And I mean obviously you know I started out in the quorum court and I learned a long time ago that when you're dealing with you may be the governing body but you got a bureaucracy you're dealing with and one way that they control what you do is they hide information and it sounds like that's something that happened here was Doctor MCulllumm hid this from y'all and led y'all down the primrose path that y'all thought had been addressed and then as a result these employees are allowed to stay on the payroll and accrue more benefits even though they had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the school district. one last question Mr Chair, does the board or the district have any plans about trying to go after these guys
civilly to try to get this money back. I can't
Speaker 260
1:37:14
answer that we have not to my knowledge no well I would encourage y'all to sue
Speaker 152
1:37:17
them at least try to get the money back because certainly that's certainly something that
Speaker 212
1:37:20
the board can discuss yes because the school district needs to do all it can to get this
Speaker 152
1:37:24
money back and the school district has lawyers and it's not gonna cost any money and it needs to sue them at least because you can't rely on criminal restitution. Thank you Mr Chair. right uhpresentative Hall thank
you all for coming here today this is just for
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
1:37:41
education purposes for us that that don't know about the buyout purposes of on superintendents the new superintendent do you have a buyout clause in your contract and if so how much? thank you I have a 18
Speaker 229
1:37:54
month yes sir it's part of the part of the contract negotiation on the front end. I don't intend on using it. I hope I'll be around for a long time. right uhpresentative beatty
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:38:15
thank you Mr chairir. I'm over here just a quick question y'all probably know a lot about foia these days. I I I see some of those posts. Did did y'all provide proper notice today before this meeting that you would be here the twohour notice that you're required to provide to the press don't don't believe sosu school board members do not know if
Speaker 273
1:38:36
a notice was sent out to the press I do know I was notified by mail
I really don't know. I I did not
sorry right members seeing no further questions well spoke too soon Representative Long
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:39:07
thank you Mr Chairman just one quick question I was wondering before this come up were y'all aware of the statutory requirement of reporting this within5 days?
Speaker 229
1:39:19
no sir not before it came up that was one of the mistakes and errors that we did make we realized that after the fact and as soon as we found out we did turn it over to ALA unfortunately we did not do that within the five days, and that's now part of our corrective action plan and our process to ensure that we do better with that moving forward and same thing applied the school board membersall weren't aware of it
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:39:41
either no sir I was not this happened before the investigation was
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:39:50
done before I ever got there so I was not aware of that but I am certainly aware of it now
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:39:55
that's probably something that we probably need to do is make sure that score association is you know is notifying the members superintendents across the state should know this because obviously y'all didn't that you know you you're really not going to comply with the law you don't know exists and so that that's a little bit on us but we'll probably need to work on make sure that the the people that need to know this do know it thank you it's a little bit on us as well we need to
right all right now see no and further you guys are good to go. thank you for being here and without
objection we'll file this report. Itemd4 is on the Prescott school district presentation by Miss Cassie Newton. S Newton you are recognized to present the report.
Speaker 280
1:40:59
Thank you Mr Chair This report is issued in response to a request from the 8th North Judicial District prosecuting attorney for legislative audit to review selected transactions of the Prescott school district The PA requested the review after the district discovered questionable purchases and undeposited revenues collected for admission to athletic events. the objectives of this review were to analyze selected
disbursements for propriety and determine if revenues collected for athletic events and activity funds were properly deposited Located in Nevada County in southwest Arkansas. the district serves approximately 867 students and is subject to an annual audit by legislative audit. The audit for the fiscal year ended June30,2025 disclosed that certain financial transactions of the district were still under review.
This report addresses those transactions. it should be noted that the superintendent resigned effective June30,2025 and was placed on non duty status on april 17,2025. Our review revealed unallowable purchases totaltalling34,000 dollars that were made initiated or approved by the superintendent as shown in exhibit one on page three and on the slide.
These purchases included but were not limited to a MacBook purchased by the district and later advertised for sale on social media and sold online by the superintendent. Both the advertisement on social media and the online listing indicated the MacBook was purchased for a relative of the superintendent. a cellphone purchased by or for a relative of the superintendent on the district's credit card and assigned to the superintendent's personal cellphone plan.
and lapel pins that were customized with a neighboring school's name and logo the invoice appears to have been altered to conceal the customization. Further unallowable purchases included golf clubs purchased by or for a relative of the superintendent that could not be located at the district or in the golf shed at the Prescott Country Club where district golf equipment is stored. the superintendent later notified us that the clubs were
located at the country club in a golf shed belonging to a member of his family. Other purchases included a custom baseball bat engraved with the name of a tournament baseball team not associated with the district and with the superintendent's initials. a golf tournament entry fee for the superintendent and three others and apparel without an apparent business purpose. Additional unallowable purchases
included numerous items purchased at PGA Golf Tour superstore locations out of state. umpirelated apparel and equipment that appeared to be for nondistrict use a full ppage advertisement in a sports program for a personal tribute to a relative of the superintendent. an out of state travel expenses including a firstclass flight for an American baseball coaches association conference registration was made under the
name of a tournament team not associated with the district. It should also be noted that the superintendent did not serve as a baseball coach for the district. Based on our examination of supporting documentation, interviews conducted and inability to physically inspect items during inventory observations. these atoms do not appear to have a school purpose and are therefore constitutionally suspect under Article 14 section two of the Arkansas constitution.
it should be noted that the superintendent acknowledged some items were unallowable and reimbursed the district just over $1200 between March 17th of last year and February 26th of this year. In addition, the cellphone and golf clubs mentioned are now in the possession of the district. After the superintendent was placed on non duty status the district discovered that he possessed a golf cart owned by the district that was not
recorded on the district's fixed asset listing. the district determined the golf cart was purchased on its behalf by a vendor in January2021 for over $11,600 This purchase was included with the cost of a $12.3 million elementary building constructed in fiscal years 2020 through 2024. our review of the golf cart invoice rebuiled the cart included numerous upgrades as listed on the slide.
the superintendent indicated that the golf cart was purchased through the construction project so that he could transport building materials shipped to the administration office as well as transport board members or other individuals to the construction site. In addition, purchases totalling over5,600 dollars did not have a documented business purpose and could not be located on district property. These purchases included
almost3,000 dollars for lawn care equipment $1300 for four yeti coolers,700 dollars for pickleball equipment and700 dollars for five Arctic coolers. In fiscal year 2024, the district received a grant of just over4,500 dollars from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for a trap shooting project, a fishing project and the animal scienceence programme.
in fiscal year 2025, the district expended $1900 in remaining grant funds and $91 in operating funds to purchase items for the animal science programme including30 bags of deer feed non Sd cards,8 trail cameras,6 batteries,3 deer feeders and3 mineral blocks. According to the animal science teacher, the superintendent provided him a game camera, deer
feed and a feeder to be used on district property. we conducted interviews and inventory observations and determine that a deer feeder, a battery, a trail camera and Sd card and approximately 10 bags of deer feed appear to have been used for the animal science program. However, the use or location of the other items could not be identified. Additionally, Grant closed out documents were not properly submitted as a result the
district was ineligible for the program for fiscal year 2026. The district discovered and we verified by reviewing the district athletic schedule that athletic admission revenues for two softball games and3 baseball games held in March and April2025 were not remitted or deposited into a district bank account. According to district officials, multiple employees had access to the location where collected funds would have been kept.
therefore, the custodian of these funds could not be identified. a comparison of football and basketball gate revenues revealed a higher average amount of gate revenues collected in 2026 compared to 2025 as shown in exhibit two on page 5. This difference could indicate all athletic gate revenues were not properly remitted or deposited in fiscal year 2025. Finally we identified banquet
ticket sales not properly handled and issues related to the athletic booster club account operating under the district's federal identification number. Legislative audit recommends that the districts ensure disbursements are in compliance with the Arkansas constitution and serve a district purpose disbursements have a documented business purpose. Equipment is placed on the fixed asset listing and any equipment not located on district property is
properly accounted for and cited annually. Grant proceeds are used in accordance with grant guidelines and grant requirements are adhered to in order to be eligible for future funding. and proper procedures are implemented so that athletic and activity fund revenues are properly accounted for and deposited in a district bank account. This concludes my presentation. This report has been forwarded to the 8th North Judicial District prosecuting attorney and the attorney general.
Management response is provided in appendix A of the report and district officials are present to answer committee questions.
right I think we're gonna have some questions so if the district officials will that are here come to the table and as is
the practice when you get to the table please hit the button and remain standing. feature of you will state your name
employer and position for the record and then raise your right hand and I'll swear you
Speaker 284
1:51:00
in. Michael Williams school board president Doctor Larrysmith superintendent of schools right if you
would raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth. I do thank you all right co chairman ones from you're recognized
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:51:23
thank you gentlemen for being here. I have a question. What were these school pins what school was this bought for? why would he hide the
Speaker 289
1:51:35
information I believe it's the district that he is currently working at. which would be Ashdown but I'm not 100%
Speaker 290
1:51:41
sure of that I wasn't there when the purchase was made. and we had similar ones at Prescott with a p
Speaker 289
1:51:48
that go on your lapel I think that was probably
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:51:51
what it was so what so it was bought for
another school district with this school district with Prescott's money, correct that's what
Speaker 289
1:51:59
legislative auditor found yes what about the
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:52:01
collegiate school items what who was that Prescott's not a college no it's not and that part do we know who it was let let me
Speaker 290
1:52:08
start by prefacing this. I started in January of 26
Speaker 293
1:52:13
so all of this occurred not just the semester before I got there but the year before I got there so I don't know a lot of those answers to that part of it but I know of no purpose
that you would have purchased that for as far as the school
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:52:29
district is concerned so given this gentleman's propensity
to spend money on the district's money what district is he now spending the money of? where is he believe he's
Speaker 293
1:52:38
currently employed as superintendent in the Ashdown school district this is so blatant it's
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:52:42
it's amazing to me that I'm I'm thankful that audit caught this I I hope you've what
have you done to to stop this in the future
Speaker 293
1:52:57
now that you're in the saddle well we have put in recommendations from legislative audit into place. money is now for athletic events is accounted for by the gatekeepers themselves with the athletic director it is then brought to my office and placed in a gun safety is located there. The business office officials get it the following morning and bring it out with the athletic director recount it to make sure it's deposited and then it's deposited in the bank with all the proper proceeding done as they go through that we go through a requisition process
that ultimately ends up on my desk or efinance which is the district's ability to send purchase orders through. so those were all reviewed and signed off on by me before purchases are made and it goes through the proper supervisor before it gets to me from
Speaker 295
1:53:42
the building or from the the program how long was he employed
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:53:46
at Prescott want to say a
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
1:53:50
little over 18+ years I believe. plus years yes ma'am and don't don't quote me exactly on that
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:53:58
y'all and look at more than just this would like to but the investigation
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
1:54:03
only went back to 2022. think'd find me an accountant and go through and
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:54:09
do some audit work that or pull your previous audits every school year's audited every year with legislative audit and get a forensic accountant there
might be some money on the table and y'all need to sue and go after yes ma'am that's that's
pretty scary. I'll get out of the queue
and let some other folks get in. thank you p re s ent ative Matt
Speaker 303
1:54:35
Brown thank you Mr Chair and I may have missed this. what's this
Speaker 152
1:54:40
guy's name? Superintendent? robertpoole and and you said that he's now employed by ashdown School District? sir well I guess we know where to go next so my understanding
Speaker 143
1:54:47
from this report though is that he essentially used Prescott as his own personal piggy bank. Is that fair to say? can't answer
Speaker 306
1:54:55
that question but I would say that legislative audit
seems to feel that that's what the case was mean
Speaker 305
1:55:04
it's there do y'all agree with legislative art that's what the case was well and understand sir, I got this last week the investigation was already underway when I got there so I was not privileged to see any of the information that they reviewed or anything that was with that my conversation with the attorney general's office was the investigation is underway so we really can't say anything to you. So I'm saying this is as you're seeing it has the school district done any
Speaker 152
1:55:29
any kind of its own internal investigation any time in the
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
1:55:35
past and this gentleman no sir not in
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:55:42
the past this is the first all right thank you Mr Chair uhpresentativesteimel thank you Mr Chair. This is in relation to the golf cart that was purchased by the construction manager of the contractor at the time. do we have a name of that construction manager or contractor that purchased that that golf cart by chance
Speaker 286
1:56:01
I'm not aware that the person's name but Cr crawford was the contractor that built our school. you
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:56:06
know could staff get that information to us it'd be great at some point in time Yeah we'll we'll have we'll have staff get that to you yeah I generally just have a concern with that if they already had two golf carts at their disposal how they could justify that and then why construction manager would justify that purchasing that potentially especially an upgraded model definitely
customized so just just some unanswered questions
Speaker 310
1:56:35
I really want to want to try to get wrap my head arounds so primarily just information related to
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
1:56:43
the golf cart purchase. yes and the construction manager or the general contractor that was in charge of that project OK thank you
Speaker 280
1:56:54
the construction manager was Cr crawford. right
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:57:03
Represented Luundstrom just a question moving forward has have you broadened this to make sure that there are no other folks that have been
involved and make sure this doesn't happen in the future and this is for the school board president. I'm concerned one person this is a lot of money and a lot of moving parts if they had help. yes ma'am the
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
1:57:25
scope needs to be broadened I mean in my opinion it does it needs to be a thorough a more thorough look at
the spending habits of thus said individuals that contributed to this our financial demise so it needs to be broadened in my opinion but I don't speak for
Speaker 315
1:57:41
the total board. I speak for Michael Wiggins but it does need to be broadened. I would hope the board would would
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:57:47
do that so that the current superintendent doesn't have to be constantly wondering what else is going on ma'am thank you Representative Matt Brown thank you Mr Chair. I have a
Speaker 200
1:57:59
question I guess for staff my understanding is now that
Speaker 236
1:58:02
the report's been presented in committee and it's been filed it's now a public record. is
that is that correct? that's correct the report is now a public record. would it be possible to request audit to send a copy of this report to the Ashdown school district because you know the thing that shocks me in this whole deal is that the superintendent it appears has has stolen. I mean just outright stolen money from Prescott has was resigned was allowed to resign has now been hired by another school district and who knows what he's
doing there and I think they need to know what what's going on. would it be possible to send a copy of this report to them or is that something I need
to do myself? that's that's something this committee if we want to take it up you could make a motion to direct the staff to do that or you could just send it to him
yourself it's public record Well I just don't know if it would be have more oomph if it comes from audit versus just
Speaker 236
1:59:07
coming from me but if I could make the motion I would make the motion to could we ask staff toward a copy of this Ashtown school district just to make sure their eyes wide open because that certainly wouldn't want a situation like Mineral Springs to happen where they've got a bad actor and then they they're left holding the bag
because they didn't know about previous incidents. let's let's come back to that in just a second to see if there's there's a another one in the
queue here and then we'll come back around to you. uhpresentative Mayberry thank you. I
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:59:35
just wanted to say that the bright spot in all this
is that Doctor Smith, I I know that you're going to take care of this. I know that you've had a lot of experience and I think that you're seeing this report and I just know that you're gonna, you're going to make things right
and I wanted to say thank you. we're going to do the best we can do. Thank you
right Representative Matt Brown if you'd like to state your motion and just clarify who the recipients are that you're wanting to report sent to. hold on there you go
Speaker 236
2:00:23
I'm sorry famous chair I would make the motion that staff forward a copy of the report to the Ashdown school district. I would think it would need to be the the school board perhaps the board president just so maybe with the cover letter saying you know this is the results of an investigation you know for your information just so that they're in the loop
OK do I have a second on that motion? I've got a second any discussion on that motion all right Senator Mark
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
2:00:54
Johnson you're recognized for discussion on that'll be brief Mr Chairman thank you Representative Brown for that idea we need
to probably do this more often I would respectfully request that the letter be signed by the co-chairs that be prepared by staff and signed by the cochairers to emphasize that this is not just the administration this is the general assembly
if you would if that's if Mr White agrees with that or has a problem
has to be added to the motion. I think that's
the typical great thank you chairman all right senator Sullivan are you discussion on this motion
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:01:41
you folks we're making a big precedent here. We refer issues
of prosecuting attorneys all the time and we those people often have another job somewhere else or seek employment somewhere else and is it now going to become the responsibility of the legislature to notify potential cause this guy or others could move from ashow to wherever and our how deep does our responsibility go to notify school boards or others that
public information is out there it's public information and if other school districts are not following what we're doing you know that's not our responsibility to go this far and notifying everyone who may be impacted by this I understand the the thought behind this and I agree that others should be aware but that's on them and school boards and others need to be as we've seen earlier in this
deliberation folks need to take that into consideration and do their job and it's not our job to do
their job for them thank you Mr chair. thank you senator ign o there folks in the queue for discussion motion is before
you all in favor I any opposed motion
carries all right and senatorulllivan did you have
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:03:19
you're up like to move that we refer this report to the professional licensing standarddards Board for investigation into the contents of this report
Speaker 328
2:03:32
right that's a proper motion to have
a second have a second any discussion on this motion? seeing none all in favor say aye any opposed motion carries
so with that seeing no other questions for you guys are dismissed and without objection we'll file this report. Members that takes us to other business the next meeting of the legislative joint audit committeetee will be held on october 8th and 92026 seeing other business we are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order by Chair
B. Adoption of Minutes
C. Reports of Executive and Standing Committees:
D. Review of Reports:
E. Other Business:
F. New Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — LEGISLATIVE JOINT AUDITING, Sep 11, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jim Dotson Chair
Unverified
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
Senator Matt Stone
Unverified
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 22
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 29
Speaker 38
Speaker 39
Speaker 41
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 45
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 53
Speaker 40
Speaker 55
Speaker 61
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 78
Speaker 79
Speaker 84
Speaker 90
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 96
Speaker 83
Speaker 51
Speaker 101
Speaker 113
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 124
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
Speaker 134
Speaker 143
Speaker 152
Speaker 116
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
Speaker 163
Speaker 165
Speaker 130
Senator Jamie Scott
Unverified
Speaker 204
Speaker 206
Speaker 208
Speaker 62
Speaker 212
Speaker 213
Speaker 217
Speaker 104
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
Speaker 221
Speaker 229
Speaker 230
Speaker 232
Speaker 231
Speaker 146
Speaker 236
Speaker 153
Speaker 239
Speaker 201
Speaker 214
Speaker 254
Speaker 167
Speaker 110
Speaker 258
Speaker 260
Speaker 269
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 273
Speaker 237
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
Speaker 280
Speaker 284
Speaker 289
Speaker 290
Speaker 293
Speaker 295
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
Speaker 303
Speaker 306
Speaker 305
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
Speaker 286
Speaker 310
Speaker 315
Speaker 200
Speaker 324
Speaker 328