Alexander treasurer resigns from post

Alexander’s treasurer has resigned, citing the administration’s “brokenness.”

However, the police chief placed some of the blame for the exit on the treasurer and said he’s investigating finances that he believes have been mishandled.

Treasurer JoAn Churchill announced her resignation March 18 in an e-mail to city officials and media outlets.

On March 19, she told a reporter that the City Council’s failure to pass an ordinance describing her duties and its failure to have a quorum at meetings have contributed to the municipal government’s “brokenness,” prompting her resignation.

“While I loved working for the city of Alexander … I cannot continue under the current circumstances,” Churchill said. She added, “the city’s financial woes are a matter of record and go back for years.”

Police Chief Horace Walters said last week that an investigation into his department’s budget has revealed that some funds weren’t allocated properly.

“Most of the money that was supposed to have been deposited in the Police Department account - they were taking that money and spending it and putting it in other departments,” Walters said, noting that Churchill was bookkeeper of the funds.

Churchill denies allocating funds that way and said she stands by her accounting practices.

Churchill is aware of the investigation, which began a month ago, and Walters said her attendance at work has been sparse since then.

He said he has suspected that the revenue the Police Department is supposed to get from the city’s franchise tax - a portion he estimated at about $12,000 - has not been deposited into the Police Department’s account. Several requests by him to Churchill to view the department’s budget were denied, he said.

About a month ago, he received the budget from Mayor Michelle Hobbs with the goal of finding out what had happened to the funds, he said, adding that he hopes to release more information when he is finished with the investigation.

But Churchill said there was no mishandling; there just weren’t enough funds to go around.

The city’s district court was closed for much of 2012, and the Police Department did not get the 85 percent of bond and fine money that it would otherwise have received, she said.

Because the court was closed, there was not enough money to cover payroll or bills, and the City Council voted to use money from a tax to pay late bills, Churchill said.

“The mayor, council and both chiefs were given financial reports every month showing the status,” Churchill said. “It isn’t anyone’s fault there isn’t enough money. … Meantime, General Fund [money] has covered the Police Department’s expenses, and there was no finger-pointing.”

Walters said he has been attacked consistently by city aldermen who have said he was overspending his budget. He and Churchill have been at odds over Police Department funds before.

At a City Council meeting in January, Churchill announced that the Police Department had $1,200 in its bank account, which wasn’t enough to meet the payroll for its officers. At that meeting Walters requested and was authorized by the City Council to spend about $500 of the department’s funds to repair a vehicle.

In a phone call, Hobbs declined to comment about Churchill’s resignation.

Churchill has requested that the Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit investigate the city’s accounting.

“I personally went to the state congressional chambers in a party of five citizens and asked for an audit of city accounting to put a rest to the allegations the chief and mayor (then recorder) consistently make,” Churchill said in the e-mail March 19.

A spokesman for the division confirmed that auditors are investigating Alexander’s 2011 finances. The division typically audits each Arkansas city once a year.

The division last audited Alexander’s 2010 finances and released a report of the findings in 2012. Several issues of noncompliance with state law by the mayor, recorder, bookkeeper, city court clerk and police chief were found, according to reports.

Churchill was not treasurer at the time and is not listed in the audit. Hobbs was not mayor at the time but is listed as the city recorder. Walters shared the title of police chief with two others during the period audited.

Concern over activities at City Hall has recently prompted someone to start an anonymous blog dedicated to reporting on Alexander’s government.

The blog, titled The Alexandrian and viewable at thealexandrian2013.blogspot.com, has five postings, each about the City Council or its members.

The March 16 post tells how the Arkansas Ethics Commission issued Alderman Faren Wadley a caution letter on March 4 after it found that he violated Arkansas law by using his position as alderman to obtain special privileges or exemptions.

According to the commission’s letter, which was obtained by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Wadley used a city-owned building without knowledge or consent of city officials or residents to conduct martial-arts classes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Wadley settled the case, agreeing that the commission found him in violation of Ark. Code Ann. 21-8-303 “by operating a for-profit business out of the Community Center without paying rent to the City of Alexander or obtaining a business license from the City of Alexander,” the letter states.

Another blog post discusses a “cleansing ritual” performed in the City Hall courtroom by Alderman Jack Shoemaker, who the post says is an American Indian shaman.

Shoemaker did not return a voice message last week.

Walters said last week that he saw Shoemaker making unknown noises in the City Hall courtroom in December, before he was an alderman.

“I just heard a loud noise. I didn’t know what he was doing,” Walters said. “JoAn Churchill was in that room with him. … I went back there, opened the door and saw this guy with these feathers. I shut the door and came back to my office.”