Two incumbents on the Bauxite City Council are hoping that an almost entirely new makeup of the board will move their town forward.
The current group -- which still has one vacancy after a council member resigned in April -- met last month to review findings of the city's most recent audit. With one meeting left in the year, the council is looking ahead to correct the problems from the state Division of Legislative Audit's findings.
The audit, a review of the city's books and compliance with state laws in 2012 and 2013, found deficiencies in the offices of the mayor, recorder/treasurer, district court clerk and police chief. The recorder/treasurer's office received the most marks -- 11 -- for noncompliance.
Among the findings, state auditors said that the budgets weren't sufficiently detailed to determine the salary of the payroll preparer and the bank accounts were not reconciled monthly. The city's annual financial statements weren't prepared and published, state auditors also found, and while the city established records of its fixed assets, it didn't make changes when officials added or deleted property. It also didn't list serial numbers and descriptions of the items.
For outgoing Mayor Johnny McMahan, the dings marked a fluid position, filled four times during his tenure and often left vacant. Those who have held the position during his tenure haven't filled it for more than a year, he said.
"We've had four treasurers, and we never really had a treasurer long enough to address these issues," he said.
Most recently, the council in August appointed Candace Carpenter to the position. She resigned Oct. 24 "effective immediately," according to an email she sent McMahan.
"I will be moving out of town this afternoon so can not continue," she wrote in the email. "I wish the best for you all."
Before her resignation, McMahan encouraged her to answer state auditors, who asked for a "written response by October 31 to the Standing Committee on Counties and Municipalities of the action taken to correct [the] matters."
In an email the mayor sent to Carpenter, McMahan said: "I know you had 'very little,' if anything, to do with the findings from the auditor that relates to the treasurer's/court clerk's office but they want you to reply with detailed answers as to what you are going to do in the future, to correct these book keeping mistakes that mostly happened when the town did not have a treasurer in that job."
McMahan said he didn't think Carpenter turned in a letter.
The recorder/treasurer position had been vacant since November 2013, when Sheryl Johnson resigned, saying she felt harassed by a former alderman.
During vacancies, an alderman typically took minutes during council meetings and another was listed as a second signatory for checks.
"I have done the paying the bills part of the treasurer's job," McMahan said. "To do all this nitpicking, we don't have time. I'm just making sure that the light bill and the phone bill is paid."
With all else -- like reconciling bank statements from 13 different accounts -- McMahan said the city officials are doing the best they can with what they have. But the town of 487 doesn't have enough money to pay for more employees, he said.
McMahan's fix was to hire a firm to do the monthly reconciliations, which the firm completed from January to June, he said. But, he said, the council wasn't willing to pay the firm $650 a month, leaving the city back at square one.
He believes the incoming recorder/treasurer -- Becky Jo Mitchell, whom the town's residents elected in November -- will help get the books in order. Mitchell was appointed to the position in October 2003 and served in that role through December 2004.
"She's exactly what the town of Bauxite needs in the treasurer's office, and I just hope the citizens will leave her alone and let her do her job," he said.
McMahan had approached Mitchell about the position, and Mitchell said she prayed about it before deciding she would run for the job.
Mitchell, an administrative assistant, is prepared to hit the ground running. She's quit her job with the state to concentrate on her town. She's read through 10 of the town's past audits, and she said she plans to call the division and set up a time to review the findings.
"I'm probably going to let the Department of Legislative Audit tell me what their recommendations are," she said of the position's shortcomings. "I just want to get that stuff ironed out. I want to already have all that lined up. I think that's the best plan."
Mitchell's position needs to be a full-time job, Alderman Paula Matthews said.
"It's not something you can do as a part-time thing," she said. "Bills come in every day. There's got to be someone there to be able to handle the day-to-day stuff."
The position currently pays $200 a month. Matthews said the council would need to consider a salary increase if the position changes to a full-time one.
For Alderman Mona Struble, the audit didn't list all of the town's problems.
Under the mayor's office, state auditors said the budget wasn't detailed enough for them to determine revenue and expenditures in the street and general funds. The city also donated old fire equipment to the Anthonyville Fire Department, even though it wasn't allowed to make the donation under state law.
Struble said a former employee who was on disability was being paid for his work while the checks were written to his wife. The audit didn't list that, but Struble said she's confident that the matter will be brought up again.
"I believe that everybody should be accountable with the audit," she said. "Johnny should be held accountable because he's the one in charge."
The majority of the auditors' findings are fixable, Matthews said.
"It'll be easier for those items to be fixed once we have someone in there full time to take care of those things," she said. "I think we can fix them as long as whoever comes in as mayor is willing to work together and allows us to be able to come in and help. We've just got to be able to work together -- not against each other -- because we're all there for the same reason, and that's what's best for our town."
Metro on 12/01/2014