Darr repays state $10,973 misspent while in office

Former Lt. Gov. Mark Darr reimbursed $10,973 to the state for improper expenses, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Thursday.

Darr provided the attorney general's office with a check for the entire amount that the Legislative Audit Division had questioned, "thus resolving the matter without a need for litigation," McDaniel said in a written statement.

McDaniel spokesman Aaron Sadler explained that Darr hand-delivered the check to Chief Deputy Attorney General Brad Phelps during a meeting in Springdale, the check was deposited into the attorney general's account and "we will transmit the funds" to the state Department of Finance and Administration.

Asked what triggered the payment by Darr and whether McDaniel threatened litigation, Sadler said, "The attorney general and Mr. Darr have spoken about the issue, but I'm not going to comment on their conversations."

Phelps advised state Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, in a letter dated Aug. 1 that the attorney general's office was "prepared to immediately move forward" with litigation, if necessary, to recoup the money.

Darr, who resigned effective Feb. 1, could not be reached for comment by telephone Thursday afternoon at the Crain Hyundai automobile dealership in Springdale. He announced in a Facebook post in mid-July that he had taken a job as a car salesman there.

Darr is a Springdale Republican. McDaniel is a Little Rock Democrat.

The $10,973 that Darr owed the state resulted from misspending of taxpayer funds identified by the division, which disclosed its findings in mid-December.

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

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

In mid-December, Darr told reporters that he would reimburse the state as soon as possible for what auditors said he owed. But the debt remained unpaid for more than eight months.

In a letter dated July 18 to McDaniel's office, Hammer raised questions about what steps the office was taking to recover the $10,973. Phelps replied, in a letter dated Aug. 1, that "we are prepared to immediately move forward in a lawsuit against Mr. Darr to recover these funds."

Hammer, who is co-chairman of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, said Thursday that "I am glad Mr. Darr took his personal responsibility."

Darr resigned Feb. 1 after the state Ethics Commission fined him $11,000 for violating state ethics rules and regulations, and for misspending campaign funds and taxpayer dollars.

So far, Darr has paid $8,000 of the $11,000 fine, and "he's current" on his payments to the commission under his $1,000-a-month payment plan, said commission Director Graham Sloan.

The lieutenant governor's post has been vacant since Feb. 1, and the office's four employees resigned before July.

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Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Little Rock, Democratic businessman John Burkhalter of Little Rock and Libertarian candidate Chris Olson of Leslie are vying for the part-time job in the Nov. 4 general election.

The winner will take office in January for a four-year term and will receive an annual salary of $42,315. The job's duties include presiding over the state Senate and serving as acting governor when the governor is outside the state. Now that Darr has repaid the state, Hammer said he hopes that the attorney general will work hard to recover state funds lost by former Democratic state treasurer Martha Shoffner of Newport.

In an 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 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 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 three-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.

A section on 09/05/2014

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