Hall of Fame employee fired; audit forthcoming

— The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame fired one of its three employees earlier this month and is going through an audit of its finances, the organization’s president said Tuesday.

In a letter sent to the Hall of Fame’s 40-member board of directors, Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame President Andrew Meadors wrote that the termination of the organization’s assistant executive director occurred Dec. 4 and “the issues appear to center on the use of a credit card for personal expenses.” When contacted Tuesday afternoon, Meadors confirmed the termination but would not release the name of the employee.

There was no one listed as assistant executive director on the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame’s website late Tuesday afternoon. The last person to hold that title was Jennifer Smith, and Meadors confirmed Smith is no longer with the Hall of Fame but would not confirm that she was the fired employee.

Executive Director Ray Tucker and Zachary Vint, who does not have an official title, are still employed by the Hall of Fame, Meadors said.

Meadors said the Hall of Fame has authorized an audit of the organization’s checking account and credit card records. The audit is being conducted by Frost, PLLC, of Little Rock, and Meadors said he hopes it will be concluded next week.

“We have given and turned in all pertinent data to our accounting firm,” Meadors said. “We’ll go back as far as necessary to figure out the financial figures we’re talking about here.”

Meadors said irregularities in the Hall of Fame’s checking account were first discovered in September, which led to an examination of credit card accounts. He said the irregularities go back “several years.”

Meadors said two of the three full-time staff members had use of the credit card.

“It was very easy to figure out who it was,” Meadors said. “Unfortunately, I would say. Very sadly.”

Meadors said the board of directors is scheduled to meet at 11:30 a.m. today.

“We have caught the problem and it is easily correctable for the future,” Meadors said. “We take this very seriously. We’re a statewide organization, and we take all this very, very seriously.”

Sports, Pages 21 on 12/12/2012

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