LITTLE ROCK — Pulaski County Circuit Judge Jay Moody held a former Helena-West Helena mayor in contempt Wednesday for failing to appear before a legislative committee when subpoenaed.
The director of the Legislative Audit Division said this is the first instance he knows of when a public official was held in contempt for not showing up.
Former Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley was subpoenaed to ap-pear before the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s Committee on Counties and Municipalities on Oct. 11 to answer questions about problems found in the city’s 2010 audit. He did not attend. Other subpoenaed city officials did.
Moody on Wednesday assessed Valley a $250 fine and found him guilty of criminal contempt for failing to appear and answer a valid legislative subpoena.
Valley, a lawyer, said by email that the ruling ought to be appealed. But he hasn’t decided whether to do so.
“I need to appeal for the benefit of others who will get jerked around with rulings like this. I should not let bad decisions become bad law and binding precedent,” he said.
Valley’s attorney argued in court that Valley didn’t have to appear because his subpoena did not include a witness-fee check for $30 plus 25 cents per mile for travel to the hearing. Valley had said he failed to appear because he had trials scheduled for Oct. 11, the day he was subpoenaed the appear.
Moody found that the subpoena was not invalidated because it did not include a witness-fee check.
Arkansas Code Annotated 10-4-421 gives the state’s legislative auditor the power to subpoena documents or people for an audit. If a person fails to appear when subpoenaed or fails to produce documents, the auditor certifies that fact to the circuit clerk of the county in which the hearing was held. In this case the meeting was at the state Capitol, so Wednesday’s “petitionfor adjudication of contempt” was filed in Pulaski County.
Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, a former chairman of Committee on Counties and Municipalities, said the contempt order should be a warning to city and county officials who think they don’t have to answer legislators’ questions about how taxpayer money is spent.
“The people gave us the authority to watch over the checkbook,” Sample said. “That’s why we made a case of it.”
Even though the fine was small, not forcing Valley to respond to the subpoena would have set a precedent for other public officials, Sample said.
“When you have the trust to spend taxpayer dollars, we felt it necessary that you answer the questions that we have,” Sample said. “We should be able to hold you responsible about how you spend it.”
Legislative Audit Division Director Roger Norman said he believes that this was the first time a person had been held in contempt for not appearing. He has been with the division for more than 30 years.
“I’m just thankful that the subpoena has been upheld for the legislative branch,” he said.
The city’s audit has been deferred until the committee’s next meeting, which will likely be held after the legislative session. Norman said the committee can decide at that time whether to ask Valley to attend its meeting.
Sample, who is no longer on the audit committee, said there are still unanswered questions about tax dollars spent while Valley was mayor.
Problems found in the city’s 2010 audit include:
$11,347 improperly disbursed to elected officials, employees, vendors or other individuals. Also, two bounced checks from Valley for $3,666 that were supposed to reimburse the city for improper reimbursements in 2006.
$231,049 in disbursements paid to hotels, restaurants or businesses without proper documentation.
$108,610 in payments made by debit card rather than prenumbered checks as required by Arkansas law.
$17,839 in payments either to family members of city employees or employee-owned businesses.
$7,701 in bank overdraft fees.
$61,730 to a local construction company for building repairs. Invoices indicate the same company was paid multiple times for performing the same repairs.
Omissions and errors in the city’s financial records, including improper documentation of $2.8 million in the fund balance, $2.3 million in revenue and $2.16 million in expenditures.
$1.29 million in state aid for streets that was improperly used as general revenue.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/17/2013