Lawmakers press King commission to ‘get on track’
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/225144/
Lawmakers on Thursday urged members of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission to end their infighting and get their house in order.
That happened after a subcommittee of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee learned from an auditor that the business purpose could not be verified on $ 485 of the commission’s $ 5, 337 in credit-card purchases over two years.
“We hope you all can work out your own family fights and get it together, but, if it doesn’t happen soon, trust me there will be some things developing down the road,” Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, D-Crossett, told the commission’s leaders.
“You need to get your family quarrel ended and start being a functional entity that works for the benefit of the community,” he said. “We hope things get on track.”
Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, said “this mess” at the commission has to be resolved.
Commission co-chairman Andy Montgomery of Batesville said he and co-chairman John Walker of Little Rock have started to schedule monthly meetings to get the commission on track but haven’t been able to achieve a quorum.
Rep. Daryl Pace, R-Siloam Springs, said, “That’s very sad. I hope that you could find a way to motivate your members to be interested in this, because this is serious business.”
Commission members have often been at odds the past several years. The former executive director, state Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, survived three attempts to oust him in 2003 before he resigned in November 2006.
In February and March, the commission voted twice to hire DuShun Scarbrough of Little Rock as executive director, the second vote being aimed at clearing up questions about the legality of the first vote. He was chosen over former interim director Jerelyn Duncan.
Deputy Legislative Auditor Ron Burch said auditors have representations of what the business purpose was for $ 485 in creditcard purchases made under Duncan and Steele, but “we felt like we needed the documentation, that it should have been kept by the previous administration.”
Scarbrough, who began as executive director on March 5, said, “Any business matters and financial transactions before March 5, 2008, are strictly the responsibility of the previous administration.”
Afterward, Duncan said all the credit-card charges have receipts at the commission.
Commissioner Diane Charles said she’s not sure whether the Legislative Audit Division conducted an audit.
She told legislators she was hoping the auditors would “provide us with our computers that were taken away” when Scarbrough was selected as executive director.
“Hopefully, our audit will tell us where these documents are and that we will get an accurate accounting of what the affairs of the commission truly are,” she said.
Burch said auditors reviewed the commission’s cash, revenue and expenses, postings to the state’s computerized accounting system and compliance with state laws.
“Let me assure the Martin Luther King Commission that if you want information about the accurate accountability, it’s there on the state accounting system,” he said.
Only eight commissioners showed up for a commission meeting earlier in the day. Fourteen are necessary for a quorum. Afterward, Charles and Montgomery defended Scarbrough in regard to Scarbrough being identified in a state Insurance Department case as making misrepresentations in five accident claims from 1996 through 2000.
The allegations are in a Pulaski County Circuit case in which Little Rock cousins Mark Anthony Watson and Fredrick Odell “Rick” Watson are accused of running a car-insurance fraud ring for almost 12 years. Their trial is scheduled for July 29.
Scarbrough has not been charged with a crime. He has denied the allegations. He declined to comment about the matter to several reporters Thursday before he closed the door to his office.
“A lot of people have been named in a lot of stuff, but hadn’t been proven,” said Montgomery.
Charles added, “Until something factual is proven against [Scarbrough ], I just have to go with what I know, and what I know is he’s qualified to be the executive director of the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission.”