CARROLL COUNTY : $8 million veiled from JPs, claims outgoing official
Posted on Thursday, January 1, 2009
Williams
Outgoing Carroll County Judge Richard Williams on Wednesday accused the county treasurer of keeping nearly $8 million in county money secret, but County Treasurer Cindy Collins said she hid nothing.
Williams in an e-mail sent to media outlets in Arkansas and southern Missouri never mentioned Collins by name, but he accused the treasurer's office of taking pains to keep Carroll County Quorum Court members from knowing about money for fear it would be spent.
"It's managing the money," said Williams, whose two-year stint as county judge ended Wednesday. "It's up to the Quorum Court members to make those decisions.
"The county judge can veto the spending of the money, but it's not up to the other elected officials to decide about the money. It's a Quorum Court issue."
Collins, who's been treasurer since 1993, said Williams never understood financial aspects of county government.
"We haven't had cross words," Collins said. "I don't get it."
Darrel Wheeler, a northcentral regional manager for the Arkansas Legislative Audit Division, said auditors have few complaints with Carroll County's finances. The last annual audit was for 2007.
"We've had no major problems with Cindy as treasurer," Wheeler said.
Sam Barr, who starts as the new county judge next week, was unaware of the dust-up between Williams and Collins.
"I haven't talked to him, and he hasn't talked to me," Barr said. "I start Monday, and I don't know anything about it. Starting Monday, I'm going to start finding out."
Williams' email to media outlets said the county had "millions of dollars of recently discovered funds."
He wrote that the county general fund didn't have the $941,727 reported by Collins on Nov. 30. Rather, the amount in the general fund, bank accounts and certificates of deposit was $8,938,420.
"I'm not picking on anyone," Williams said in a telephone interview. "I want things done right by the book."
Williams suggested in the email that the county could use part of the $8.9 million to pay off the remaining debt on the county jail, and the Quorum Court might have authorized 2009 pay raises to county employees if they'd been told the county had so much money.
Instead, county workers received no pay raises, and the county continues to pay off the remaining $1 million jail loan at its 4.25 percent interest rate.
Wheeler said the state's annual audit showed the county had $5.9 million on Dec. 31, 2007, and much of that money was restricted in how it could be used. The $448,093 in a county library fund, for example, can't be used to pay off jail debt.
The county did have $8.9 million at the end of November because almost $3 million was waiting in a county checking account to be distributed to other entities, Collins said. School districts in Berryville, Eureka Springs and Green Forest received the bulk of the distribution in mid-December, she said.
Collins said she has managed county money well, including money kept in certificates of deposits. She's shopped them, moving money to Carroll County banks that offer the best interest rates.
"I hate to stand up for my own character," Collins said. "I've tried to be in a continual learning process in the position I hold.
"Many people think the county judge oversees other elected officials. He does not. They are independent. The treasurer is the custodian of the county money."
Williams, however, doesn't accept Collins' explanation, saying there are many unanswered money questions. He thinks Quorum Court members should make all money decisions, and he plans to raise the issue at future Quorum Court meetings.
"The [Quorum Court members] need to know totally how much money there is," Williams said. "I'm not ticked off. I just want to know. I like open government. It's the people's money."
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