Waste District Director Fired

Rice Had Been On Paid Administrative Leave Since August

Maylon Rice

Maylon Rice

Friday, September 14, 2012

— The Boston Mountain Solid Waste District Board fired director Maylon Rice on Thursday after allegations surfaced regarding grant money and other management complaints.

Washington County Judge Marilyn Edwards, the board chairwoman, placed Rice on paid administrative leave in early August, pending an investigation.

Edwards, at the start of Thursday’s meeting, announced she was recusing herself from the hearing because she has more than a 20-year friendship with Rice.

George Butler, county attorney, said last month Rice was suspended after allegations surfaced in connection with the improper expenditure of grant money, accounting procedures to the cash box and other management complaints. Edwards appointed her chief of staff, Dan Short, to conduct the investigation.

At A Glance

The Board

The Board of Directors for the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District are:

Chairwoman, Marilyn Edwards, Washington County judge

Vice Chairman Bruce Ledford, Elkins mayor

Secretary Rhonda Hulse, Lincoln.

Doug Sprouse, Springdale mayor

Frances Hime, West Fork mayor

Frank Weaver, Madison County judge

Larry Oelrich, Prairie Grove

Kevin Hatfield, Huntsville mayor

Lioneld Jordan, Fayetteville mayor

Theodore Curry, Johnson mayor

Ernie Penn, Farmington mayor

Tommy Granata, Tontitown mayor

Source Boston Mountain Solid Waste District

The board met in private for almost two hours. After, Rhonda Hulse, district Personnel Committee chairwoman, proposed firing Rice around 8 p.m. The decision was unanimous.

Rice had no comment about the decision shortly after it was announced. He sat motionless as the board announced his termination.

After the meeting, he stood up and shook the hands of most board members as they walked out of the Washington County Quorum Courtroom. He gave Edwards a hug as the pair were the last officials to leave the room.

Rice began his employment in August 2009.

Loyetta Woods worked as the waste district’s tire program manager from May 2008 to January 2010. She quit after working with Rice for almost six months, she said.

“He made me cry just about every day because of constant accusations,” Woods said. “Everything I did was wrong, yet just before he started there, I was employee of the month, and they recruited me to work at the district.”

In her time at the district, Woods said she observed questionable practices. She pointed to public waste tire management records and also general bookkeeping records for other grant-funded projects.

The district operates a waste tire management program that picks up used tires from dealers and recycles them, according to its website. The state Department of Environmental Quality helps pay for the program for the district through grant dollars, according to district records.

A June 2010 progress report shows an expenditure report with a balance of more than $126,000 in grant money. Those records show a $21,000 purchase from Shipley Motor Company in June 2010 for a truck.

Katherine Benenati, department spokeswoman, said they were aware of the truck purchase using incorrect money and the district worked to repay the misused money.

“While it might have been used for the solid waste program and the recycling program, that’s not something that would have been covered by the grant,” Benenati said.

Ralph Prince, assistant district director, declined comment about Rice or his investigation. However after a request under the state Freedom Of Information Act, he provided access to a shelved wall at the district’s office filled with individual grant records kept in binders. Those binders dated back several years.

Grant binders are supposed to have two general components: the application which describes the grant project and how money would be used, and check stubs with invoices attached, if there were any expenditures for that project, Prince said.

At A Glance

Waste District

The Boston Mountain Solid Waste District is one of 18 in Arkansas. The district provides solid waste management in Washington and Madison counties. It operates a transfer station where residents drop off solid waste and recyclable material. The solid waste is taken to the Eco-Vista Landfill near Tontitown. The district also works with cities to provide recycling programs for residents to reduce solid waste disposal in landfills.

Source: Boston Mountain Solid Waste District

A review Wednesday showed the wall contained 19 binders from 2010 through today. Five of those binders were missing documentation, including check stubs and invoices.

The district used a $15,000 grant aimed for employee salaries to help pay the construction of a building.

The $15,000 came from an administrative grant that “will greatly aid us in this ‘down’ financial year on making payroll,” according to a document signed by Rice. The state department awarded a $27,863 for the payroll grant, according to the records.

Prince was unable to produce documentation detailing the need, funding and construction cost for the building. After requesting check stubs related to the building, he provided documentation showing the district built the red-steel framed building for $64,318 paid to Pick-It Construction. Three checks were used to pay for the building, according to the district’s accounting software.

The district also used money from the combination of two grants to purchase an $18,800 truck. One grant was for the purchase of a truck and sectioned recycling trailer and received $32,192, according to the grant application. The second grant for $12,000 was reportedly for a portable ramp to make it easier to load bails of recyclable products, according to the grant application. The second grant application made no mention to purchase of a pickup truck.

The district used the entire $12,000 from the second grant plus $6,800 from the first grant to purchase a Ford pickup.

The board designated Prince as the interim director with Hulse providing oversight to employees.

“I will meet with them first thing in the morning in regards to what this board expects them to do on a daily basis,” Hulse said. “We’ll have a meeting as soon as we can to discuss going forward in a replacement. I will have the staff give a weekly report what the daily receipts are and what the daily operations are.”