Official: 'Soon' Darr'll pay up

McDaniel aide talks of $10,973

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN --1/7/2014--
Lt. Gov Mark Darr tells reporters Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning after ethical violations surfaced last week.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN --1/7/2014-- Lt. Gov Mark Darr tells reporters Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning after ethical violations surfaced last week.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's office expects former Lt. Gov. Mark Darr to reimburse the state $10,973 for improper expenses "very soon," a spokesman for McDaniel said Monday after Darr, who is now a car salesman, declined to comment about the debt.

McDaniel spokesman Aaron Sadler declined to specify what he means by "very soon."

Earlier this month, McDaniel's chief deputy said the office was "prepared to immediately move forward" with litigation, if necessary, to recoup the money.

On top of the $10,973, Darr also was fined $11,000 for improperly spending campaign funds and tax dollars and violating state ethics laws and regulations.

He has paid $7,000 of the $11,000 fine, thus far, and "is current on his payments," said state Ethics Commission Director Graham Sloan. Under Darr's payment plan, he must pay the commission $1,000 per month.

Darr resigned, effectively on Feb. 1, after the state Ethics Commission levied the fine. The part-time position has been vacant ever since and the office's four employees resigned prior to July 1 to take other jobs.

The nearly $11,000 that Darr, a Republican from Springdale, owes the state -- beyond the $4,000 in fines that remain -- stems from misspending of taxpayer funds identified by auditors for the Legislative Audit division, which disclosed its findings in mid-December.

The division's auditors said Darr received $9,836 in improper mileage reimbursements from January 2011-September 2013, used a state travel card to purchase $1,137 in personal items that lacked a business purpose and used a state credit card for $205 in lodging within Little Rock in violation of state travel regulations. They also said supporting documents for expenditures of $2,755 were not maintained by Darr's office, so they were unable to substantiate the business purpose of these expenditures.

The auditors recommended Darr reimburse the state $10,973, Deputy Legislative Auditor Jon Moore said in a report dated April 7.

State Rep. Kim Hammer, co-chairman of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, asked McDaniel in a letter dated July 18 about what "steps your office is taking to recover the funds due to the State of Arkansas, on whatever legal basis might apply, from Mr. Darr.

"If you have determined that no steps should be taken to recover funds due the state of Arkansas, please explain the basis for that conclusion," said Hammer, a Republican from Benton.

Brad Phelps, chief deputy attorney general, replied in a letter dated Aug. 1 that Arkansas Code Annotated 25-16-709 authorizes the attorney general to file a lawsuit against state officers who are indebted to the state of Arkansas.

"Mr. Darr is indebted to the State of Arkansas based upon his actions during the time that he was Lieutenant Governor," Phelps wrote. "Our office stands ready to enforce this law and we are prepared to immediately move forward in a lawsuit against Mr. Darr to recover these funds."

Sadler, McDaniel's spokesman, said Monday afternoon that "we have talked to Mr. Darr and we anticipate that this debt will be resolved very soon, without any need for litigation."

Asked when "very soon" would be, Sadler replied, "I'm not going to elaborate any further."

Reached at the Crain Hyundai automobile dealership in Springdale earlier in the day, Darr told a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "I am not answering your questions."

In December, Darr told reporters that he would reimburse the state as soon as possible for what auditors said he owed the state.

Darr announced in a Facebook post in mid-July that he had taken a job as a car salesman.

Hammer said Monday that it was coincidental that his letter to McDaniel was dated July 18, shortly after Darr announced his new job.

He said he asked McDaniel what he was doing to recover funds from Darr, a Republican, because he asked the same question to McDaniel in a letter dated May 29 about former state Treasurer Martha Shoffner, a Democrat from Newport.

"What's good for one is good for the other," Hammer said.

In his Aug. 1 letter to Hammer, Phelps wrote that, "As we agreed on the phone, given the pending federal criminal charges that are set to be tried to jury in December of 2014, it is prudent at this time to wait until that federal matter is resolved before instituting any legal proceedings against Mrs. Shoffner."

Shoffner's second jury trial, this one focusing on allegations that she used campaign funds to pay $9,800 in personal credit-card expenses, is scheduled to begin in December.

In her first trial, a federal jury convicted Shoffner in March on all 14 bribery and extortion charges she faced.

In that trial, former bond broker Steele Stephens, 52, testified under a grant of immunity from federal prosecution that he gave Shoffner $36,000 in cash during a 3-year period to help her pay for an apartment in Little Rock, where the treasurer's office is located.

He said that during the same period, he saw his share of the state's bond business increase dramatically over that of other bond brokers who did business with the state treasurer's office. He testified that he earned $2.5 million in commissions as a result of his bond business with the state.

Metro on 08/26/2014

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