In 30 seconds
- Council held a special meeting, required by state law, to review findings from the city's 2024 legislative audit and the corrective action steps proposed to fix them.
- Findings include about $140,000 improperly spent from restricted street funds, an overtime overrun of $283,780, and general fund and street fund spending that exceeded budgeted appropriations by $407,088 and $390,745 respectively.
- Other findings: incomplete fixed-asset records (vehicles hard to track down), leave payouts miscalculated using calendar year instead of hire anniversary, and a $23,833 case where a deputy clerk drew both city salary and APERS pension benefits, which the auditor called "double dipping."
- Additional findings covered missing documentation on disbursements, a voided check that was paid improperly, and credit-card spending without supporting receipts.
- Proposed fixes: an overtime approval/cap process, new HR/payroll software, a pause on new debt without documented proof of funds, mandatory receipts for reimbursements and credit cards, secondary review of disbursements, and a switch from per diem to receipt-based travel reimbursement.
- The city still owes about $140,000 on a county jail debt and has an unpaid Axon body-camera bill dating to 2021; the mayor is consulting Blytheville's mayor, via Arkansas Rep. Crawford's office, on how that city renegotiated its debt.
Recap
Why this meeting
Mayor Joseph Whitfield opened the special called meeting, noting state law requires the council to review the 2024 legislative audit report . He said the session would go deeper into the audit's findings and the corrective action steps needed to fix them .
Restricted street funds
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller (Ward 1) asked about the street fund's finances, noting it held about $22,000 in assets against roughly $834,000 in liabilities, and asked whether that reflected overspending in that department . City Clerk Sandi Ramsey explained the general fund ended up owing the street fund about $140,000, because state law restricts street-fund money to street-related items; going forward, costs like mowing vacant lots and razing buildings must come out of the general fund instead .
Overtime overruns
Mayor Whitfield read the audit's finding that overtime spending exceeded budgeted appropriations by $283,780, attributing it in part to a lack of approval procedures and oversight . He said an approval process for overtime is now in place, with a cap so only essential overtime is worked . He estimated the city is already $25,000 to $35,000 over its overtime budget for the current year, at roughly the halfway point . Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1) pressed for a comprehensive time study of department schedules before adding staff, asking whether tasks assigned to six employees could be handled by two .
Leave payouts and a double-dipping case
Mayor Whitfield said leave payouts were miscalculated because clerks used calendar-year dates instead of employees' hire anniversaries, causing some employees to receive higher vacation payouts than they should have; a separate finding on compensated absences found leave records did not match reported time and amounts paid . He said the city is evaluating HR/payroll software, My HR Pros, which includes direct deposit, as a fix . A deputy city clerk was paid $23,833 while also collecting APERS pension benefits, which the auditor called "double dipping" . Clerk Sandi Ramsey said a 2008 city ordinance had allowed the arrangement until the auditor flagged it as improper last year .
Fixed assets and spending above appropriations
Mayor Whitfield said the city's fixed-asset listing was not properly maintained, lacking values, locations, and purchase dates, making it hard even to track down city vehicles . He read a separate finding that general fund and street fund expenditures exceeded their budgeted appropriations by $407,088 and $390,745 respectively . Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) said the council has, at times, voted no on spending requests only to see the spending happen anyway .
Documentation gaps
Mayor Whitfield read a finding that disbursement testing showed a lack of documentation for proper payments, with corrective steps requiring complete documentation for all reimbursements and a secondary review process . A separate finding involved a voided check that was deposited, reissued, and then deposited and paid again improperly . Credit-card transactions also lacked supporting documentation; going forward the city will require all credit-card spending to be backed by receipts .
Debt controls and travel reimbursement
On outstanding debt, Mayor Whitfield said the city will set payment plans with creditors holding its outstanding balances and pause new debt agreements unless there is documented proof of funds and a strategy to pay . He also proposed moving from per diem to receipt-based reimbursement for travel, saying reimbursement is simpler because "if you don't bring your receipt, there is no deal" . Clerk Ramsey said per diem had been costly because employees were paid a flat amount regardless of whether they ate, while receipt-based reimbursement is simpler to administer .
Outstanding debts and next steps
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller asked whether the city still owes roughly $140,000 to the county jail now that the jail has been taken over by the state; the answer was yes . He also asked why the city has not paid its body-camera vendor, Axon, an outstanding debt since the cameras were purchased in 2021 . Mayor Whitfield said taxpayer money "has to be respected and treated as for what it is," even when that is uncomfortable, and that the corrective plan only works if the administration enforces the policies, not just discusses them . He said he contacted Arkansas Representative Crawford's office, which connected him with the mayor of Blytheville to discuss what has worked there for renegotiating city debt .
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
2024 Audit Draft Findings — Supplemental (Mayor)
Cover page and the first page of the state's 2024 audit findings sent to Mayor Whitfield . Lists 4 supplemental findings: the Airport Commission budget was not approved by a city council ordinance or resolution ; council minutes did not always show the Treasurer's report or the mayor's full annual report, and the council did not approve minutes covering January 25 to February 20, 2024 ; disbursement records had errors, including missing fuel-ticket documentation, a $238 documentation mismatch, a $125 vendor calculation error, $3,620 in late fees, and a $107 per diem paid without documentation ; and a fire-equipment donation from the Attorney General's office lacked documentation, with the city unable to produce the debt agreement for financed equipment called the Cascade System . The city was asked to respond in writing by May 20, 2025 .
| Late fees paid | $3,620 | |
| Documentation mismatch on one disbursement | $238 | |
| Vendor calculation error (overpaid) | $125 | |
| Per diem paid without documentation | $107 | |
| City's response deadline to auditors | May 20, 2025 |
2024 Audit Draft Findings — Reportable (Mayor)
Six reportable findings against the Mayor's office, printed twice in the packet with identical text . The city missed payments on 5 financed equipment agreements for a third straight year; a Caterpillar truck was repossessed with a $251,297 balance, two Caterpillar tractors were repossessed and sold at auction on November 7, 2024 with balances of $61,101 and $158,815, a Caterpillar excavator was in repossession with a $92,563 balance, and the city took on $141,020 in new debt with J.A. Riggs in 2024 that may violate a state constitutional limit on short-term borrowing . The city's fixed-asset list was incomplete, paid overtime exceeded the budget by $283,780, General Fund and Street Fund spending exceeded appropriations by $407,088 and $390,745, a Deputy City Clerk was paid $23,833 while also collecting state retirement (APERS) benefits, and the council did not act on the prior audit report at its first meeting after receiving it .
| Missed annual payment for police body cameras | $32,505 | |
| Repossessed Caterpillar truck balance | $251,297 | |
| Repossessed Caterpillar tractors (2), auctioned Nov 7, 2024 | $61,101 and $158,815 | |
| Caterpillar excavator in repossession status | $92,563 | |
| New debt with J.A. Riggs in 2024 | $141,020 | |
| Overtime over budget (Police / Street / Fire) | $283,780 total ($168,265 / $47,639 / $46,889) | |
| General Fund / Street Fund spending over budget | $407,088 / $390,745 | |
| Deputy City Clerk pay while also collecting APERS | $23,833 |
2024 Audit Draft Findings — Material Weakness (Mayor and Treasurer)
The audit's most serious finding, sent separately and identically to Mayor Whitfield and Treasurer Derrick Turner . The city spent beyond its approved budget, and the General Fund, Street Fund and Landfill Fund each ended 2024 with a deficit balance. Unpaid bills in the General Fund totaled $2,148,000, including payroll taxes, retirement contributions, jail housing costs, truck rentals, and a camera lease. The city lost its state general-revenue turnback and faced late fees, bank overdraft charges, utility shutoffs, and equipment repossessions because it could not pay debts on time .
| General Fund / Street Fund spending over budget | $407,088 / $390,745 | |
| General Fund / Street Fund budgeted revenue over actual revenue | about $238,000 / about $258,000 (draft scan partly illegible) | |
| Deficit fund balances at Dec 31, 2024 (General / Street / Landfill) | $926,637 / $811,916 / $454,140 | |
| Total General Fund accounts payable (unpaid bills) | $2,148,000 | |
| Payroll taxes owed | $1,264,005 | |
| Retirement benefits owed (LOPFI/APERS) | $242,155 | |
| County jail housing costs owed | $140,000 | |
| Truck rentals owed | $133,000 | |
| Camera lease owed | $88,000 | |
| Owed to other vendors | $280,840 |
City's Corrective Action Plan — Supplemental Findings
Mayor Whitfield's written, signed response to the 4 supplemental findings, addressed to the state's audit contact . For the Airport Commission budget, the city will draft a formal ordinance and set an annual budget calendar . For missing minutes content, the City Clerk's office will use a standard template that always includes the Treasurer's report . For disbursement errors, the Finance Department will require fuel-ticket documentation, review coding before payment, track invoices to avoid late fees, and require documentation before paying any per diem . For the Cascade System donation, the city will keep written authorization and debt agreements on file before receiving financed equipment .
| Late fees the corrective plan addresses | $3,620 | |
| Undocumented per diem the corrective plan addresses | $107 |
City's Corrective Action Plan — Reportable Findings
Mayor Whitfield's written, signed response to the 6 reportable findings, addressed to the state's audit contact . The city will set up payment plans with equipment lenders and pause new debt, refine the fixed-asset list, and cap and require approval for overtime . It will tighten monthly budget monitoring , review employee retirement eligibility before payroll, and review future audit reports at the council's first meeting after receiving them . It will also improve leave-time recordkeeping, strengthen disbursement documentation and review, and improve check void/reissue controls , and require receipts and supervisor approval for all credit card charges .
| Overtime over budget the plan addresses | $283,780 | |
| General Fund / Street Fund overspending the plan addresses | $407,088 / $390,745 |
Transcript
Auto-generated from the meeting video's captions and lightly cleaned for readability — wording is kept as spoken, not corrected, except that caption-garbled names of city officials are normalized against the roster. Speaker names follow the attribution work in our governance record; a ° marks a name our reviewers have not yet verified. Every timestamp plays the city's video from that moment. Watch the full meeting ↗
0:00
All present is to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
0:13
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Percy Callen Rhodes.
0:16
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Ms. Miller?
0:17
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1) Here.
0:18
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Dr. Miller, this is mine. Mr. Adams?
0:21
Unidentified Here.
0:22
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Did you say Collyer? Mr. Davis? Mr. Skinner? He's right here with you.
0:31
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So, um good evening or good afternoon everyone. Thank y'all for being here today. We have this special called meeting as a result of our last meeting on Tuesday. If you're watching from home, we did briefly review the 2024 legislative audit report that was provided to us um to review and we have to do that by state law. So, this meeting is a chance for us to do a slightly deeper dive into some of the findings that we had from that audit report as well as some of the corrective action steps that will need to be taken to make sure that we fix that situation. So, that is [clears throat] the only item on the agenda this evening. Um I wanted to first to just open up the floor for any questions or comments around areas that may have been alarming. This this wasn't pretty basically a real package, so I know that all of y'all still have some areas that we probably weren't familiar with or didn't familiarize ourselves with, which is why I think this meeting is important this evening. Um what's about Mayor Reed? Um questions or first comments around areas that were pretty concerning, you know, which is the only thing that you can ask.
1:56
Unidentified So, like one of them was when we talked about the street fund, like
2:01
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller (Ward 1) They had only like 22,000 assets, but you had about 800 uh 300 well, 834,000 in liabilities. So, was that just a a complete overspend in that department, or was that or was that um Cuz I know that I know that there is often times what's appropriated versus what's real cash. So, was it Was that It wasn't a We didn't appropriate enough in that in that account, or we just we didn't have enough money in that in that account. Did that make sense?
2:40
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I think I understand what you're asking. And And correct me if I'm wrong, Madam Clerk, but um with the truck with the purchase or financing of the trucks had been anyway implicated Okay. Implicated that. I do know from from going through the budget actuals and variance um I've kind of I've somewhat seen the 2025 audit that um I've had to answer questions about. And to your point, there is a trend where um we're allocating a certain amount of money for what we perceive that we're going to spend on a year, and emergencies come up, and those emergencies are probably equipment uh contract labor personnel um So, I don't know if there's ever a city that has an audit where, to the T, they've appropriated every single dollar um without any variance or involved, but um that's been a trend that we've had, and not just with the street department, but I mean, pretty much virtually every department.
3:44
Unidentified Now, I know that like sometimes we have to, you know, go back and readjust the budget. We had to What's it? Get a budget
3:52
Unidentified Amend the I mean I do a budget amendment. Um and that you know that that's that's fine. I know that we didn't get um a consensus or a majority to do that um for the last audit because there were a lot of expenses on there that quite frankly I know me as a board member I think some of the other board members as well they just weren't going to readjust uh when it was just expenses we just didn't know about. Um
4:19
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1)° But you know things things that things that are uh you know that that we know about or things that are expected like you we buy another truck and it's a hundred and thirty something thousand or we we purchase that. Those things that I think we can agree to reconcile but it at least I I'm speaking for myself. Um we can we can we can reconcile by by amending amending the budget so that all you know so that all reconciles for audit purposes. But like I know that was an issue. It was like something that there was just expenses we just didn't know about and so we was like we're not we're not approving uh uh what what's the exact term Don when you when you when you um Basically you get permission for all of the irregularities or the the areas that you're needing to reconcile.
5:10
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° The cleanup budget.
5:11
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1)° Cleanup budget. Thank you. Yeah so we we didn't um we didn't recommend we didn't get a a majority to vote to agree for a cleanup.
5:21
Unidentified Page eight.
5:22
Unidentified But that was for 23 right? That was for 23. We didn't
5:26
Unidentified And and I I believe 24
5:30
Unidentified and 24 24 that was an issue.
5:33
Mayor Joseph Whitfield To your point I I think that that's valid because I mean when we look at our financial standing right now it it's it's a colorful um reason it's not just black and white I think it's colorful for where why we find ourselves where we are. It is in part due to the fact that there are some purchases that I mean, I was not here in 2024, but from being able to kind of have a bird's eye view and see this after the fact, those type of purchases added up and so there is kind of when you amend the budget, I do think it's important to note as a body what we are saying is that we approve of those expenditures or that that
6:16
Unidentified Right.
6:17
Unidentified those transactions and what comes along with approving those transactions that may not have been made.
6:24
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey And also in 2024 um we we did not know that we we weren't allowed to do this and other cities were in the same boat. We were all of the lot cleanup and the mowing and all of that and the equipment we use for lot cleanup, we were not aware that that could not be paid out of the street. We assumed that because we were cleaning up the lots on streets or in everything and mowing areas abutting the street that all that was legal. Like I said, we weren't the only city in the state that did that, but they they had to start cracking down and we ended up the general fund ended up owing the street fund and it was the treasurer handed it to accounting like $140,000 because street money can only be spent on street items like asphalting, putting in a culvert that abuts a street. You can clean a ditch that abuts a street. If you have to rent a piece of equipment that you're using on the street to clean the ditch, that's allowable from the street, but all of this mowing that we're doing and raising buildings and houses and mowing vacant lots all that that's got to come out of the general fund from now on. Which cuts into our general fund money and uh
7:52
Unidentified Now and here's the thing. So let's say on the general fund when we are uh uh you know take taking in in the best case scenario we're taking in payment from those people who have requested to have something torn down. Is that going into general fund?
8:09
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° It goes into the general fund.
8:11
Unidentified Interesting.
8:12
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Yeah anything having to do with raising structures uh like I said if if they pay us to mow their lot all of that goes into general fund none of it goes into street. Only things related to street go into street.
8:25
Unidentified Okay. And so then is that is that line itemed? Is it I mean it's a
8:29
Unidentified It's a it would be a it's a probably in the budget and there's a line item for this uh
8:34
Unidentified Okay.
8:34
Unidentified a street uh not street but for like mowing.
8:38
Unidentified Okay. So so that would be a line item.
8:40
Unidentified It would be a line item yes for your budget.
8:42
Unidentified Okay good. Cuz that was another thing too was like I know there was a comment that some of the council members made was like okay so like when we go and we collect that where is that money going?
8:52
Unidentified It's going into the general fund.
8:54
Unidentified Okay.
8:54
Unidentified And we weren't able to track to see where that was.
8:57
Unidentified You know you know cuz you know how it is always this it's I'm not saying I'm not this I'm I'm I'm coming from this sentiment but this assumption is that it's all this money that we're making from um collecting you know and where is that money going? Um but quite frankly I couldn't you know respond to people who brought that question to me because I didn't really know where that was in the budget where that where that line item was.
9:25
Unidentified Well you have lot of uh some people are are paying on structures that we've torn down for them.
9:31
Unidentified Yeah.
9:32
Unidentified Uh they're making some are making substantial payments some might be just paying $10 a month. It's kind of like
9:38
Unidentified Okay.
9:39
Unidentified when you get a a ticket, the city doesn't get any money off of a ticket until people start paying on them, you know.
9:45
Unidentified Okay.
9:45
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° And but like I said, we have to be real careful now to make sure that when we rent equipment or use equipment that we're putting it in the right place. And so we're being very careful about that. That's why right now your street depart your street fund might have some money in it because we haven't been using it for mowing and uh things like that.
10:08
Unidentified Yeah. And for most part, we haven't had as many uh uh lawn care things, have we? I mean, I don't know.
10:19
Unidentified Yeah, when you say
10:20
Unidentified I mean, like like are we are we doing as much mowing this year as we did last year?
10:25
Unidentified Less. Um and I say less because or I guess in turn I guess what I should say is are we doing more most most of our Um cuz I know some of what we were doing general contract we're contracting it out or we're doing more.
10:40
Unidentified Oh yeah, yeah. We're not contracting with anyone to cut.
10:43
Unidentified Um so we don't have any outside tenders doing it?
10:46
Unidentified No. Not on that. No.
10:47
Unidentified Okay. Okay.
10:50
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I think um similar to that one I mean similar not similar. One of the areas that I um definitely have wanted to target as um quickly and expeditiously as possible has been overtime and we were talking about this just before the meeting started. Overtime um and this is particularly point number three on the reportable mayor findings um which you have a copy of. If you are watching from home, this is also in both the packet that's for today but also the packet from this past Tuesday the 21st as well. But um we exceeded those budgeted appropriations by $283,780. It's a quarter of a That's a quarter of a million dollars where um arguably lack of procedures and um oversight on overtime allows us to run that type of tab up. And so, similar to what was said prior to the start of this meeting, um from my assessment, we have done a good job of tracking overtime. So, when departments do um when department heads do approve it, there's usually a
12:00
Unidentified slip that says this person worked this many hours.
12:03
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um however, I've added um that there's also an approval process now. There needs to be an approval of overtime. Um capping overtime is going to be necessary where um only essential necessary overtime is worked. We at this point, I do know are um slightly overbudget for overtime for what we allotted this year in 2020 um six. And so, we hit that point I want to say roughly a month ago in April. I believe I brought that to the table to show that um police and fire were pretty much at the right at the brim of what we had allotted for them this year. So, what comes with that I I I know are a couple things.
12:48
Unidentified [clears throat]
12:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° How Lafayette is structured, um that I do believe impacts this process of how we track overtime. Um where are the where our highest paid years for um emergency personnel. And I do believe that that's impacted the way that payouts have been made for overtime. Specifically or also specifically um scheduling, there's scheduling changes that I do believe can be made if we have an opportunity to put a few more people on staff. That will Staffing um in in um in reference to staffing, staffing has been something that I've specifically had a conversation around with certain department heads. Sometimes the conversation is you're going to pay it through you're going to pay salaries through either overtime or through salary. You mean you're going to pay it one way or the other. So, making sure that departments are adequately staffed, um, reasonably so, is something that I've had a constant conversation with department heads about, but um, scheduling is part of that as well as, um, what was also mentioned prior to this call was or prior to this meeting was, um, how call outs happen specifically for our emergency service providers. Do we need five responders to a situation that might need two?
14:06
Unidentified Yeah.
14:07
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So, those are the sort that overtime and and I'm curious as to what your thoughts are, but I I believe that particular, um, piece of, um, this particular finding I do believe will start to net us some of those some of our, um, operating funds back. We'll we'll be able to get them some of that some of that money. And that's one area that I just wanted to mention. That's one of the priorities having looked at this, um, this audit report for me.
14:33
Unidentified Yeah. So, the police, um, hopefully that's getting better because we increased, um, police staff. And that was to that was to cut down on overtime. What is our I I I know I'm putting you on the spot now, but [music] in comparison to this number that we're looking at from 24 where we in comparison
15:01
Unidentified Definitely less if I if I had to
15:03
Unidentified halfway in the middle year [music] too, so
15:05
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Yeah, I've, um, I've I've been pretty good about getting a monthly statement from, um, the Perry City Clerk for overtime specifically because I have requested that information monthly. As of April, we were right at the brim for both fire and police. So, I I mean I I less, but, um, we don't want to be over what we appropriated.
15:24
Mayor Joseph Whitfield If I had to guess, we're probably anywhere between 25 and 35 thousand dollars over what we were allotted for for um overtime this year, which is
15:36
Unidentified You said 35?
15:37
Unidentified Yeah, probably between 25 to 35 thousand over what we allotted.
15:41
Unidentified Okay.
15:41
Unidentified So,
15:42
Unidentified Okay.
15:42
Unidentified That's not a lot. That's a lot more conservative.
15:44
Unidentified a lot.
15:45
Unidentified A lot more conservative.
15:45
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1) But that's a lot though. I mean, to be halfway into the year and we're already, you know, at the brim. So, one of the questions I'm wondering is do we need to look at before we start considering, you know, we may have to hire or may have to add, have we done a comprehensive time study to see what these schedules are are actually looking at looking like? Because sometimes, if you and it's not comfortable, it's not it's not popular, nobody wants to do it, but at the end of the day, if you are definitively looking at the hours spent on the clock every day by people and you know what they're doing and are they productive, that is a way to, first of all, cut down on people just being on the clock and they really don't need to be there or and and no disrespect to any crisis in town, but to what you just said, if you have six people going to something that maybe two people could handle, then it would be nice I know that they have to do slips, right? That whenever there's a callout, everybody who went is involved and you have to have that written down and all that. So, all of that would, I think, be beneficial in a packet, you know, or just sort of keeping track of that. I know Attorney Etherly, when you uh helped us with the interim position, I know that was one of the things you went around and talked to all the department heads. So, how I mean, how how How did Okay, how did that look for you? What did you Did you have that conversation with them? Like, look, you know, because for us to be this close, that's to me that's a that's a lot to be halfway into the year.
17:43
Unidentified I think that's a kind of conservative. I mean, but you know, I'm probably a little more lenient, but I think that's kind of a conservative number. You talk about You said 35 total, that's all three departments?
17:52
Unidentified Between Well, and that that's specifically between police and fire.
17:57
Unidentified Okay, police and
17:58
Unidentified were the only two that were close to
17:59
Unidentified Police and fire combined at 35? I mean, obviously we don't want to go over any at all. But, um, 35 um you know.
18:10
Unidentified August, September, October, November, December, we still got 5 months in the year.
18:14
Unidentified we definitely need to We need to keep our eyes on it.
18:17
Unidentified Yeah.
18:17
Unidentified But, I mean, in comparison to um 24s, which we don't know what We don't know what 25s looks like yet, do we? But, 20 Wait, is 25 could be worse or better?
18:30
Unidentified I would I would say it could be worse.
18:31
Unidentified I would say it's similar.
18:32
Unidentified And I I And then I have to cut you off, but I want
18:34
Unidentified No, that's okay.
18:34
Unidentified Uh I'll take it.
18:35
Unidentified I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This messed up.
18:37
Unidentified Councilman Paffrath.
18:37
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° I'm sorry. I The question I think was whether I do the non-emergency departments. I I had them to check in with me to get permission to to go over. Um, I know street and sanitation would literally tell me what the times were for each individual and then uh of course Mr. Collins was over there at the time. He would let me know, we got this guy who's about to hit overtime, this guy's not, and then they kind of made the appropriate adjustments and then when you apply the trucks, they had a truck down. My thing was don't leave any trash on the street, so go ahead and and do it. But, the
19:10
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° emergency departments, I I didn't I didn't do that with them because I don't know what's going to happen. And when you might need emergency services. And so, what I would do is just simply ask them to report to me, not from the department. I would get it from uh from Ms. Ramsey's office through her clerks. Just to keep up with it on a weekly basis. And then I mean, I'm sorry, bi-weekly basis, per pay period, I should say. Uh so that I could see what they were doing. And then I would just kind of let them know, you know, overtime
19:40
Unidentified too high.
19:41
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Tell me what happened or whatever. And some of they give me some explanation. I just kind of emphasized the need to not run overtime. But I didn't try to manage the events [music] cuz if there's a fire, and people got to come out, not a lot you can do about it. If there's a police emergency, not a lot you can do about it. Um we had like assistance requested at Barton one night. Our department went down to help out state police, sheriff's department. Uh so, not a lot you can do about that at that time. So, it's kind of unplanned, but it was more staffing. And, you know, my conversations with Chief Sanders were more about getting enough people to avoid [music] the overtime. So, I don't know what the staffing situation is right now with the police department, but
20:31
Unidentified Are we full? Are we full staff?
20:32
Mayor Joseph Whitfield They were full until about a month ago when we lost, I think, three people. So, in that time, the police Um and I believe that the chief the chief that was a part of a conversation that I think this body had prior to my time where they where they got to that threshold of officers, then we would do that raise for some of the salary the salaries for those for that department. So, they did reach it, [music] and in that time have since lost um a few officers. And and have made a a hires, but not enough hires to um replenish the department fully, though.
21:09
Unidentified Okay.
21:09
Unidentified So,
21:11
Unidentified So, we're in in theoretically down one officer. Sort of.
21:16
Unidentified I think one or two at this point.
21:18
Unidentified two.
21:18
Unidentified Yeah.
21:20
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1) Do you have any departments um where you have a lot of chronic absenteeism? And the only reason why I'm asking is cuz, you know, if you have and this this is for any department, you know, where you have chronic call out, not showing up, you know, if we need to trim and and readjust, you know, that may be an area we may want to consider.
21:47
Mayor Joseph Whitfield That's a good question, and I would say that that A, that looks different per department. Um it also looks different at different times of the year. Um I haven't really identified a trend with chronic absenteeism. One of the things that was that was flagged, I'm not sure if this specifically one of the findings that I put that I summarized or focused on, paid leave, um whether that's vacation, whether that's sick leave, bereavement, um the the way our the way that though our the way our employees calendar year works is that your anniversary date is when you were hired, not the beginning of the year. And I And I believe that some of our um department secretaries or clerks were um making those payouts based on calendar year, not the hire but not their hiring anniversary. So, that was also flagged in the audit, where we have to have tighter I think and I'm bringing that up because I believe slightly more than chronic absenteeism, the issue of um paid leave not being tightly monitored, checked, and systematic. That's been an issue. Um so, there were certain payouts that were higher for um vacation for some employees that shouldn't have been. Um And by higher
23:04
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1)° Do we have a Do we have a a human resources certain data system or
23:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield We do not. Um part of what There is a software that we've been looking at. Um My HR Pros. It is a company that's run [music] out of Van Buren, Arkansas. But having looked at it the the benefit from my perspective is that A it allows, as you kind of pointed out everything that's HR to be centrally located in one place digitally from onboarding processes, which have needed to be revamped, training, um onboarding documents whenever you're starting the role. All of them And I'm And I'm sure a lot of folks at home or some of us here may have worked at a place where you get an app and every document that you need is you can fill out and HR gets that right away. The The other benefit of uh of HR Pros not that that's where we're going to go yet. We have yet to have that uh that meeting internally. But um the other benefit it it comes with direct deposit. So potentially another that could be another cost savings. They wouldn't run payroll until the city's ready to run payroll, which I know um that was conversation that we had, but potentially another area for savings. So And just having a software, I do believe also contributes to those savings because it will create less less error for um for those paid leave for those paid leave issues. So you the the the manager or the director can approve overtime based on the bank that's actually present in front of them, not based on the paper trail where some of the papers not might not be there. Um you're able to see how many days that person actually has and if they have them, you can approve it. If they don't, you can disapprove it straight from your phone or from your device. So I do We that's the route that we need to go. Yes.
24:59
Unidentified Okay. So, it looks like you have gone through and responded to the findings. Do we want to go through those or
25:14
Unidentified Say again?
25:15
Unidentified You You like you respond you you
25:17
Unidentified I can go Yeah, I I
25:18
Unidentified And the shower had anything.
25:20
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And I definitely want this should be an opportunity for questions, clarity, especially our folks at home who are watching and want to make sure that they understand what's going on. Um I can go through this briefly, but I definitely leave space for questions as well. And these find Again, there there are specific findings there for the mayor, there are specific findings there for the clerk, and then there are specific findings there for the treasurer based on each of our roles, and some of those overlap some of them, but enough distinction that that they're different uh different reports. So, Um failure to So, for the one of the first findings, and these the reportable ones, the ones that as the auditor told me were the more the more severe. Um you I believe you I think last week's supplemental as well, but reportable ones that we definitely need to move on rather quickly. Failure to make uh make finance purchase agreements leading to new debt and conflicting [music] with limiting limited short-term financing options. So, the corrective action step that I um upon review put put down and wrote was that the city will set payment plans with respective partners that hold our outstanding balances, and there will also be a pause on conducting debt agreements without clear proof of funds or strategy. Um I wrote that second part because I do believe a full if we're going to entertain a conversation around a debt arrangement, we need to be able to know that we can pay it. It doesn't do us any good to I think we should be having these conversations around um making sure our claims are paid, and making sure that we have those arrangements, but on our end we have to do that due diligence to make sure it's financially smart for us as as the debt is my number one priority. Trying to do a good thing could turn into a could turn into potentially to a bad thing. And so I just want to make sure we're not misstepping. And the the second part of that was making sure that we set up payment plans. So part of the day every day is is conducting conversations. Last meeting I brought up energy as an example. Part of the day is spent making phone calls to to folks that say we have that there is an outstanding balance or claim to see what's the exact amount. Does it differ from what we have on paper here in the administrative office? How are they willing to work with us? etc. those questions. So there are attempts to make those calls and I think that that's that's been proven to be effective and successful. And then the the more the more difficult part is to make sure that arrangements make sense. I don't know if I don't know if there are any questions about that one in particular.
27:58
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1)° So are you making sure that um you're and I know you are, but just so you know there's clarity. So and you are processing with the city attorney, right? I mean to make sure that
28:15
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Some of those some of them have been. Not I haven't done that with all of them and I think following the conversation on Tuesday um want to make sure that that conversation those conversations include him. Um I try to Some he has, but for example energy that was one that I just they came in, we happened to have a conversation, two of them to be exact, and I took those meetings. So but making sure that we get making sure the the city's taken care of and making sure that we're getting a a agreement. I think we definitely want to work with the city attorney. So, yeah. Not not trying to bypass that step at all.
28:56
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um the next point, the fixed asset listing was not properly maintained, not listing value, locations, and purchase dates, and/or serial numbers. Also included leased items by street department. Um the fixed asset list, this is pretty simple. The fixed asset list should be refined by the mayor and city treasurer/clerk for accurate record of listings. This was noted by the auditor. Um it was noted to me. I don't know how long it's been this way. And maybe the clerk, maybe you can provide some clarity, but the treasurer has been the person that I think has been monitoring this. Although um it's the mayor's role um as it was described to me by the auditor that's supposed to maintain the list. I'm not I'm not sure if that was when that came about, when that that role was assumed. Um has that been a thing for a while?
29:47
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey The treasurer's been doing it for a while, yeah.
29:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So, um I one of the just naturally from wanting to know, I think when when I wanted to make sure we know where our our vehicles are at all times and making sure that we're not spending wasteful uh wasting residents' tax dollars on gas um inappropriately, even tracking down vehicles was somewhat of a hassle. So, I understood that the list do need to be put together in such a way that um things don't magically disappear. If there is a loss, that we report that. Um so, record keeping for this has just been an issue that we haven't maintained it um as as clearly as as we need to. And so, I believe that this is in part the folks that see those changes more frequently are going to be department heads, and it's not to offload it on department heads, but department heads know what equipment they have from their specific vantage points and then there are other things that I believe we may have information for a little bit more readily, but I have spoken to all of the department heads about making sure that we have inventory list of all equipment, vehicles, anything that we own from them. And so department a couple of departments have been better about that than sending sending that in. But um
31:06
Unidentified And mayor, the DFNA they provide free training for that. Like how to document and maintain fixed asset list, how to properly inventory, how to do the actual tagging. It's all free. And it really would probably benefit our department heads especially or whoever is going to be responsible for our inventory list cuz some at the end of the day somebody's got to own it even if the department heads are looking over their own individual inventory list. Um you know, they need to be trained to know how to do that. I know it was I had that responsibility one of my jobs. It was not something I knew how to do at first. You know, I had to be trained. You know, it's something you have to be trained and have to know how to do. Um and it could just be one of those things people just don't know how to do it or they don't know what the expectations are. But typically for any item that's over a certain amount of money it's supposed to be tagged unless it's what we call a walk away item. And those are tend to be the types of items that people like to steal like tools and well we're not going to say steal. We're going to say walk away. Tools is a big one. Um they're a lower lower than that than that financial threshold but they tend to disappear. Um but all of our vehicles they should have an inventory tag. All of our maintenance equipment if it falls within a certain financial that needs it, you know, and you can you can tag that stuff and get you a scanner and zap it into your system and you're good to go. And it doesn't take that long. But it's probably I'm thinking it's probably people don't know. And it's people in the state that will come and they will offer assistance on how to do that.
32:56
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° That's pretty And I'm I'm definitely I've made a note of that.
32:58
Unidentified Cuz how many times I bet you there's things that that we've purchased and we don't know where it is now.
33:03
Unidentified Mhm.
33:04
Unidentified Yeah, we don't know what happened to it.
33:06
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° And it's not just I think as an observation, again from bird's eye view, asking about certain pieces of equipment or certain vehicles, the responses have kind of shown me that we I don't know when we've had a complete list. I don't
33:22
Unidentified Yeah.
33:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I'm sure at some point we did. I don't know the last time we had a complete list of all of our assets and value and as you may mention, tagged. So, um that is something that we're working on and I've definitely made a note. Um part The part of I believe there are a lot of internal changes that have to happen and and I'll probably say that more than once tonight. Um fundamentally, I think the function of department heads, I have tried to shift. I think department heads we want to empower them to be more administrative figures. Like you you you are not you're not merely I want to say merely a manager. You're you're not being told what to do, when to do it. Department heads, as I've made the case for this table, you're you're supposed to bring certain level of expertise, certain level of experience, there's a certain level of critical thinking that we want you to have. And I believe that this is an expectation that that just falls right in line with
34:21[music]
34:21
Mayor Joseph Whitfield what a department head would report that flows into a master list that as this shows the administrative administrative office then provides. So, a change like that I think makes this a little more, um, feasible for sure. Number three, that was paid overtime. Um, we mentioned that. That is, and I should say this, so again, what was created because of this, there is a approval, um, overtime approval document now where overtime needs to be approved. There is a document um, that was created because similar to what uh, Councilman Anthony pointed out, I do believe we have to there will, um, unfortunately, I do believe that we'll have another fire between now and December. I do believe that we'll have another police call where someone needs to report for an emergency between now and December. So, inherently, not thinking about overtime is bad, but rather just thinking about it as something that needs to be monitored. And I think adding that level of, um, approval, I think will slow down for sure what what's spending that what's spending that line out. Uh, next up, number four was general fund and street fund expenditures exceeded budgeted appropriations by $407,088 $88 and $390,745 respectively. Uh, the corrective action plan for this item was that the city will implement stricter monthly budget monitoring similar to, uh, paid overtime and require enhanced review of expenditures to prevent funds from exceeding appropriated amounts. Department heads and finance personnel will conduct regular budget to actual reviews and budget amendments will be presented to the city council when necessary to maintain compliance with municipal finance requirements. So, and I and Clerk, I'm uh, Madam Clerk, I would actually correct me. So, I did have a conversation with the Treasurer where I do believe this year there are a couple items where amending the budget we need to be proposed and what was shared was that that's better done at the end of the year instead of
36:35
Unidentified Um because there's no telling between what happens now and then um then being the end of this fiscal year. So um And I also believe it's my understanding that these trucks will contribute to this uh excessive spending for this department.
36:54
Unidentified Um cuz we didn't amend the the budget last year. We bought equipment.
36:58
Unidentified Yeah, the appropriations.
37:00
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° So Yeah. Mr. Ashley, did you talk about this? Like when we go along, just approve the appropriation in those cases where we should approve like for instance like we if we purchase, you know, a truck or something it's going to be 150, it's going to take us our appropriations over by that amount. Let's do the appropriation amendment then instead of doing waiting to do a cleanup at the end. Or did I misunderstand you?
37:32
Councilman Don Etherly° I can remember a time or two in my existence here where we actually had an amended budget
37:40
Unidentified Yeah.
37:40
Councilman Don Etherly° in the middle of the year and corrected some numbers but only a couple of times.
37:44
Unidentified Yeah.
37:45
Councilman Don Etherly° Most times the way we've done it is to to do a cleanup.
37:49
Unidentified Yeah.
37:49
Councilman Don Etherly° Um but unfortunately the reason why we've done cleanups is because most things were done without sometimes without us knowing about it.
37:56
Unidentified Yeah.
37:57
Councilman Don Etherly° And then administrations will want to clear up things before the audit report. So
38:02
Unidentified Yeah.
38:03
Councilman Don Etherly° My preference is to do it as we go. It takes a little more work but I mean I think it's beneficial to do it that way.
38:09
Unidentified Yeah.
38:09
Unidentified I was going to say that
38:11
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° what the clerk just said about the the treasurer. Did Did he say he like to do it at the end?
38:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield End end of year. And I brought that up cuz I called I've So I've spoken with the treasurer maybe twice about what's needed to amend the budget and what would be the best way to format that to put that in front of you all and what was expressed from the treasurer to me was that doing at the end of the year he felt made more sense but I was going to ask Councilman Etherly you believe that doing it doing the year makes is better for the city and and I and I guess you you get it done from the standpoint that you get it done and it's
38:48
Councilman Don Etherly° It's easier for him to do it that way. But from this chair
38:53
Unidentified It's better for the office.
38:55
Councilman Don Etherly° I like to do it as we go so we keep up with with with the numbers.
38:58
Unidentified You could at least do it quarterly or you could even do it monthly if you want to. I mean it gives that way when you look at the then he can give you a new budget print out and you can look at the budget see exactly where you are before you go buy anything.
39:11
Unidentified And particularly for these issues that we know we spent it we know we approved it we know that it's over the appropriations cuz we didn't know we were going to go buy a hundred and fifty thousand dollar truck. You know, appropriation is just an appropriation is what you plan to spend. Well, we planned to spend 400,000 but we realized we had to spend 550 cuz we had to buy a truck. So in those cases like to me we might as well just go ahead and amend it then. So we know what we're looking at, you know. Cuz we basically we're going to we're going to have to spend it it's already going to be spent anyway.
39:47
Unidentified Well, a perfect example is going to be these uh when you start doing road work Tulip Circle and Springdale Road you're going to be over what you appropriated in the budget so it's better to go ahead and do it now after we complete the job and then you see what you really need for the remainder of the year.
40:04
Unidentified Exactly.
40:06
Unidentified That's a good point.
40:08
Unidentified And then if it's already been appropriated then wherever other budgets coming from that that amount is deducted so you know you have less money in the account instead of waiting until the end of the year cuz kind of like you just kind of want
40:22
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Well, you can also get an idea of what kind of revenue you've got coming in for the street fund because your revenue in the street fund is it fluctuate each month. Depends on the gas usage statewide and the turn back money and all that. So, one month you may not have 6 or 70,000, you might only have 53,000. You'll know where you're going.
40:47
Councilman Don Etherly I probably need to clean up something I said. Cuz Mr. Turner's probably listening. I didn't mean to imply when I said administration overspends and then he it's easier for him to clean it up. I believe sometimes it the clerk and the treasurer have been caught in the middle of overspending and then sometimes it's easier to fix it in the end versus
41:10[music]
41:11
Councilman Don Etherly sometimes the council I mean we've literally had times where the requests are made, council said no, and then the thing happened anyway. And then they probably feel trapped in the middle between the council and the administration and so forth. To that issue it's probably easier for him to clean it up in the end. But we would like to know. And so I would like to know.
41:32
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I would yeah, me too. That's good. That's good to know. Very good. And in light of that same point from number four, what's also been proposed is going to be just budget meetings between myself and department heads. Department heads I know come into clerk's office pretty I don't want to say regularly, but just wanting to make sure we're getting is that box states monitoring budget to actual. So, we know this is what we have to work with at the beginning of the year, but where are we actually at this month's check-in? So, I'm not sure if there's been a culture of that type of, um, meeting happening between the mayor's office and department heads, but I do believe it's important to start that so that those conversations can be recurring and, um, be pretty straightforward. That That was another, materialization of that recommendation. For number five, um, the deputy city clerk was paid $23,833 while collecting APERS benefits. And this was a finding that the auditor, when we signed spoke, uh, basically described as double dipping. Um,
42:52
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° So, so how did that happen? What was it that she had cuz she had retired, right? And was it that she had But I know you have a limited time where you can come back after you've then retired. So, what what happened? I know there was just some discussion that she she might come back.
43:13
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Well, what happened with that is the city council passed an ordinance back in '08
43:20
Unidentified Okay.
43:21
Unidentified that said that as well as a deputy clerk
43:26
Unidentified Mhm.
43:26
Unidentified being able to draw from APERS,
43:29
Unidentified Mhm.
43:29
Unidentified they could also draw uh, half of their salary, you know, from the city general fund.
43:36
Unidentified Simultaneously?
43:37
Unidentified Yes. That was an, uh, until last year
43:41
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mhm.
43:41
Unidentified when the auditor pointed it out, they said that that was not allowed. The city attorney is checking on that for us to see
43:50
Unidentified why we did not know that it was not allowed,
43:53
Unidentified you.
43:53
Unidentified you know, before.
43:54
Unidentified I thought it was cuz I Yeah, I've always thought it was allowed. You just had to sit out like 3 months or something.
44:01
Unidentified Well, you
44:02
Unidentified Yeah, they had to sit out a certain amount of time.
44:03
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° APERS you, uh, have to stay out 180 days.
44:06
Unidentified 180 days,
44:07
Unidentified And then in the uh
44:09
Unidentified okay.
44:09
Unidentified Okay.
44:10
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° in to come back and uh work for the city. Like in the general fund, you could come back right away, you wouldn't have to stay out. But the person in question was had retired and was drawing from APERS as well as from the city. Like I say, we did we were not told until this year that that wasn't allowed and that ordinance was passed in '08.
44:30
Unidentified Oh.
44:31
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° See, but the auditors never told us that we had no idea that she's the first deputy clerk that's retired.
44:38
Unidentified I got you.
44:38
Unidentified So, we didn't know.
44:40
Unidentified Okay.
44:40
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° But that's why the city attorney's checking with the legal people in Little Rock to see if that is actually the case.
44:47
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Okay. And I'm I'm convinced myself personally that cuz I I think that sound about right when I was just what was described to me. It might be cleaner to just put measures in place that don't allow those to pay someone out of the general fund while at the same time collecting cuz I I think that I can see I can see how that's double dipping.
45:17
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° So, I mean like like okay, like just to give you an analogy, like in education, sometimes we have to do it cuz you have a teacher, she's at retirement age and you just have a you have a teacher void. And so, to get that teacher to actually stay on board, that's kind of the the draw. You you let them retire out, they go retire for apparently now it's 6 months and then they come back so that they can draw retirement while they're working. Now, I don't know what the percentage is where they can draw where they can be paid full paycheck or they can withdraw full retirement. I don't know, but I know that you APERS does allow you to do that, but it's a certain number of days, you know, a number of months before you can do that. So it's it's not illegal. It just sounds like maybe she wasn't in the the time period. Like she didn't sit out long enough. That's what I'm assuming. I don't know if that is the case or not. Yeah.
46:18
Unidentified Which is
46:18
Unidentified But it April does allow you to do that. Yeah.
46:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield It is It is why at the very end of my recommendation I put review by administrative staff and legal counsel especially when necessary prior to payroll processing. If it is allowed, that's fine, but I think that review needs to happen. Just where are they in their status of employment so that
46:41
Unidentified Yeah.
46:41
Unidentified we could avoid it if necessary.
46:43
Unidentified It just depends what the policy is.
46:45
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah. Were there Were there any other comments on that one? Um next up was number six. The governing body reviewed the prior year report but not the first regularly scheduled meeting following receipt of report and took no action on the findings. And so pretty similar to what the attorney said last I mean we're doing it now and I know that um at the beginning of the year we need to also uh make sure that our budgets are ready. So I think this was just one of those points where we have to just make sure we're doing it timely.
47:18
Unidentified Yeah.
47:19
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So that one that that was pretty pretty simple enough. Um number seven, during testing of compensated absences records were not accurate with reported leave time and amounts paid. So again going back to I think Councilwoman Miller's question around chronic absenteeism, this was I think more discussed as an issue in terms of where we're actually seeing um invalid or incorrect amounts paid to city employees. Um we have to have a system that allows us to definitively see what leave time an individual has. So and I believe that goes hand in hand with just potentially HR an HR software um that just allows us to track that slightly slightly more easily.
48:06
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Just for curiosity, on our HR uh for leave and stuff like that, do they accumulate like a day every month or they just get a set?
48:16
Unidentified They get a set, right?
48:17
Unidentified Set 10 leave days and so many sick days a year or just a set?
48:22
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° It's like a quarter of a day uh uh a month. What was it a day?
48:26
Unidentified Okay, so you you accumulate a quarter of a day a month. Okay. Okay.
48:30
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° No, the the that the fire and police are different. They come in with a different set of rules.
48:34
Unidentified Okay.
48:35
Unidentified But they just the general population is
48:37
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Okay, so you get a quarter of a day a month. And then do they um are they this is something I'm curious about. Are they able to cash out days if they don't use them all?
48:48
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° you uh if you don't take all of your vacation during your allotted period, then you lose it.
48:53
Unidentified Okay.
48:54
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Now, the sick sick days you can accumulate. The fire and police can accumulate up to 90.
48:59
Unidentified Okay.
48:59
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° And I believe the uh regular employees would accumulate up to like 60.
49:03
Unidentified Okay.
49:03
Unidentified And you know, in case you have a serious illness.
49:06
Unidentified Okay.
49:06
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Uh but you you can't sell any of them back.
49:08
Unidentified Okay, so there's no sick bank.
49:10
Unidentified Yeah.
49:10
Unidentified Okay. That's that sucks. Hm. Okay.
49:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Hm. Number eight, um disbursement testing showed lack of documentation and proper payments. Um city will the city output will strengthen internal controls by requiring complete documentation for all reimbursements or disbursements and implementing a secondary review process to ensure all payments are properly authorized, supported, and compliant with applicable policies. One of the conversations
49:43
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Okay, before you go. I don't know what that means. Disbursement testing. What does that mean?
49:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So basically when um the auditors come in, they look for a specific um
49:54
Unidentified Oh, when they pick they pick their sample.
49:56
Unidentified Yeah, they pick their sample, random sample.
49:58
Unidentified Okay.
49:59
Unidentified And so
50:00
Unidentified So, it was like a documentation from the sample that they pulled. Okay.
50:04
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And I think this for the city brings the question, do we want to do per diem or reimbursement? I I think that's a good conversation to have. Um and I think reimbursement for receipts is pretty simple because if you don't bring your receipt, there is no deal.
50:20
Unidentified Per diem.
50:21
Unidentified I mean, reimbursement keeps you out of trouble.
50:23
Unidentified Yeah.
50:23
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Yeah, they when we went to the per diem, that that's extremely costly for us because whether you eat or not, you're going to get paid x amount of dollars for the meals if you go. It was much much simpler when if you didn't have a receipt, you didn't get a check.
50:39
Unidentified You you you just don't get the check.
50:40
Unidentified Yeah.
50:42
Unidentified And the council will need to vote to go back to receipt reimbursement.
50:47
Unidentified Now, just out of curiosity, do we have anybody that's traveling that um Okay, I'm just going to say like like is there anyone that would travel like from street and sanitation? Um I'm trying to think of somewhere else.
51:03
Unidentified No.
51:04
Unidentified They Okay, so nobody in our really low-paying um areas. Okay. Cuz in that case, you might would make an allowance. You could make make an allowance, but cuz they probably not going to have They probably not even going to have the money to for gas money, but yeah.
51:20
Unidentified Train I think um the most common are police and fire for trainings.
51:25
Unidentified Okay.
51:26
Unidentified Um probably more police than
51:27
Unidentified Yeah, they can all do reimbursement. Yeah, they can do reimbursement.
51:31
Unidentified Well, and and the other the other thing, too, is if we have to send a couple of uh street workers to Memphis to pick up a truck,
51:39
Unidentified Y'all can Y'all can pay it yourselves.
51:41
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° we could the the the mayors have always been allowed to decide both do you want to us to buy them their lunch?
51:48
Unidentified Okay.
51:48
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Or do you uh typically uh the unless you have an overnight stay, you're not supposed to be able to get your lunch paid, but
51:59
Unidentified Mhm.
51:59
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° we try to buy them their lunch or reimburse them if they eat reasonably, you know, because
52:04
Unidentified Sure.
52:05
Unidentified you know, not like they go to a steakhouse.
52:07
Unidentified Right.
52:08
Unidentified Sure. Okay.
52:09
Unidentified We try to help and then
52:11
Unidentified Okay.
52:13
Unidentified So do So is that something that we So we've we've So basically we'll accept your um recommendations.
52:20
Unidentified Yeah, and would that have to be an ordinance?
52:22
Unidentified Well, to approve approve that or
52:25
Unidentified I think the city attorney can do an ordinance.
52:28
Unidentified I It is definitely going to be a a suggestion to to move away from the
52:32
Unidentified Are y'all good with that? Like just going to a complete reimbursement?
52:35
Unidentified Yes.
52:36
Unidentified Okay. Okay.
52:41
Mayor Joseph Whitfield This is the the second to last one from the uh reportable mayor your findings. Number nine, um and I'll just close that point out. I'll make sure that I talked to the city attorney about
52:51
Unidentified error.
52:52
Unidentified Huh?
52:52
Unidentified That's a clerical error. We can move on.
52:54
Unidentified I mean the Yeah.
52:55
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Number nine, yeah. Voided check was deposited and reissued um and then got deposited and paid improperly.
53:02
Unidentified Clerical Somebody just Somebody just played the okey-doke on us.
53:05
Unidentified Yeah.
53:06
Unidentified Okay.
53:08
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Number 10, um proper documentation was not provided to support credit card transactions was um the final report for a final finding for the reportable mayor findings. The city will require all credit card expenditures to be supported by proper receipts and documentation with supervisory review um approval prior to payment processing and ensure compliance with the financial policies and and the audit. So
53:33
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Now, is this travel related or is this just general purchase?
53:37
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° No, I didn't get a I don't think in the sample that I got that was shown to me, it explained it definitively, so it I don't know if the car was stolen or if
53:47
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Folio would have been uh like if you uh went to a hotel, your reservation might have been made on the credit card, but you didn't bring your folio back to prove you actually stayed in the hotel.
54:00
Unidentified Right.
54:00
Unidentified You know, you know you know you know you know you did, but we didn't have any proof that you actually did.
54:04
Unidentified Yeah, you didn't bring your receipt back.
54:06
Unidentified Yeah. And so
54:06
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° I said before I I got to say in a situation like that, eat it. You know, I I've had to. I couldn't find my receipt. Hey, eat it. You don't have a receipt, you don't get your money back. And then these days you can just call the hotel. They'll send you a receipt.
54:23
Unidentified Okay. Yeah.
54:24
Unidentified But anyway.
54:25
Unidentified Yeah, I mean that's basic.
54:27
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah, they'll send you a duplicate. Uh so that that's just for the report reportable mayor findings. And again, the difference between the supplemental ones were that these were ones that were more so impactful on our financial operations, but were there any additional questions for those at all?
54:49
Unidentified That's not a uh that's not a current employee, is it? That uh that last one.
54:55
Unidentified No.
54:56
Unidentified Okay. Like I said, you can deduct it from their paycheck. Put them on a payment plan.
55:04
Unidentified I do um I mean that's what they used to do with the state.
55:07
Unidentified I agree.
55:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I agree. I I do believe that the conversation that has been had in my in my office with department heads and in some cases city employees have come in is that the money that the city operates with is is this is taxpayer dollars. It has to be respected and treated as for what it is for, which is for the operation of the city in the capacity that it's supposed to be. And so we we are the chief staff and I'm are adamant about making sure that folks get that even if it's uncomfortable like councilwoman Miller said for some folks to it is what it is.
55:44
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° It is what it is.
55:46
Unidentified Yeah.
55:47
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Was there anything else from that one?
55:51
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° So to satisfy all the requirements will there be a um ordinance or something?
55:59
Unidentified For to move us from per diem reimbursement back to
56:03
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Okay. And then is there anything else that we had to do to satisfy the requirements? Cuz I don't I don't want to see in the next audit we you know the findings went out and we didn't respond to it or we didn't do do what we were supposed to do.
56:17
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I mean this is half of it. This is to be frank this is half of it. The other the other half of it is on the other side of this wall making sure that policies are put in place to be followed not just sitting around sitting around talking about and as I put together that corrective action plan these are things that I believe are very feasible to do. They might take some wiggling to make them fit neatly but like I just mentioned we want to be responsible with the dollar that the dollars that we're given and so just the other half of it is making sure that we actually do what we say we're going to do and I and the chief of staff and I are aligned on in that. So
56:53
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° So I know I shouldn't ask this have you said you've seen a preview of 25?
56:57
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Briefly and my preview not
56:59
Councilwoman Maxine Miller° Is it worse or better? I know I shouldn't ask.
57:03
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I don't well no I don't I don't remember the numbers enough to know. I was just asked a couple questions by the auditor to verify a few things. So
57:12
Unidentified Okay.
57:12
Unidentified if you had any insight to it or if you
57:14
Unidentified Okay.
57:15
Unidentified If you had any insight towards comparing 2025
57:19
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey They they've just started 2025.
57:21
Unidentified They just started 2025.
57:22
Unidentified started.
57:22
Unidentified Okay. Why are they so late?
57:25
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Well they have so many other places to go. They do the schools and then they do other places and they've been short-handed.
57:33
Unidentified I see. Okay.
57:34
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° they finally got to us.
57:35
Unidentified They finally They finally got around to us. Mhm. Okay.
57:39
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° They'll probably be here two or three months.
57:44
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Fine. Fine. Were there um Thank you for answering that. Thank you for answering that, Madam Clerk. Were um Was there I want to pause again. Were there any other questions? Not maybe from that one, but just in general from the um file? I definitely want
58:01
Unidentified Well, I did have one question.
58:02
Unidentified Uh-huh.
58:02
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller (Ward 1) And I I know we are ready to go. The um county jail, you know, the that 140 that we um allegedly um owed. Do we still owe that now that the county now that the jail has I know that's previous debt, but do we still owe that considering now that jail's been bought out by the state?
58:22
Unidentified Yeah. Yes.
58:23
Councilman Dr. Kyle Miller (Ward 1) Okay. All right. And then the other thing, the body cams. Why Why are the Why are we not paying that? Why are we not paying the body cams? Um they said that's appear like three times.
58:35
Unidentified Act, which I believe is Axon, if I think off the top of my head.
58:39
Unidentified Okay.
58:40
Unidentified Yeah. Ax- Axon.
58:41
Unidentified Axon.
58:43
Unidentified No No money.
58:43
Unidentified about the company name.
58:44
Unidentified No money.
58:46
Unidentified Well, I mean, we we get I know someone said you can't use a COPS grant. But I looked it up. You can. You can use COPS grant. Now, we may have already over-expended in the COPS grant for something else, but you can use COPS grant funds for that.
59:00
Unidentified We need to check with Mr. Turner and see how much we can draw down this next time.
59:05
Unidentified Mhm.
59:06
Unidentified Uh and uh a lot of things that have have only been on your your list is simply cuz you don't have the money for cuz
59:14
Unidentified Yeah.
59:14
Unidentified revenue's down, but
59:16
Unidentified I see.
59:16
Unidentified we can I'll send him an email tonight and see when he can draw down some money and if so, how much.
59:22
Unidentified Okay. Okay.
59:24
Unidentified And just point point of uh that's yearly we've owed that, or is that just that's an outstanding debt?
59:30
Unidentified That's an outstanding debt since we bought them in '21.
59:33
Unidentified Okay, got you. No problem. Do we still have those? Do we still have those?
59:36
Unidentified Mhm.
59:37
Unidentified Yes, sir.
59:37
Unidentified Okay. They still work?
59:39
Unidentified Yes, sir.
59:40
Unidentified Okay. We need to pay them.
59:43
Unidentified Um I was just going to add to that point that uh I believe I believe as as we as we see the impacts of these cuts, I I believe I mean we that won't be money that we'll get a chance to save. I think it'll be money that
59:55
Unidentified we need to put on
59:55
Unidentified Of course.
59:56
Unidentified balance or so we'll need to allocate whatever fund or revenue that comes back to us
1:00:02
Unidentified And then and then the last question, I'm going to let you back up. The the uh uh iron stuff, I know you said you talked to somebody about negotiating.
1:00:12
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um I reached out to Representative Crawford's office. Um they had put me in touch with um the mayor of Blytheville. So, the mayor of Blytheville
1:00:21
Unidentified He had to do the same thing?
1:00:22[music]
1:00:22
Unidentified Yeah.
1:00:23
Unidentified He had to do the same thing? Why did he put you in touch?
1:00:25
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° uh it's uh I'm not sure if the mayor is a man or woman, but the mayor at the time had Blytheville had similar issue. Um so, the point of contact was for us to discuss um what worked for Blytheville and what could potentially work if that could potentially work for us. So, that was the outcome of that correspondence.
1:00:46
Unidentified Okay. So, we're working on it.
1:00:48
Unidentified Yeah, but it will be a It is a conversation that's um pending, so I'm looking forward to that.
1:00:53
Unidentified Okay.
1:00:55
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And if um if there's not anything else pressing right now, I'll I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.
1:01:02
Unidentified So moved.
1:01:03
Unidentified Second.
1:01:04
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Meeting adjourned. Thank you.
1:01:15
Unidentified Record
How this page was made: built from the city's own meeting video (YouTube ↗) and its posted meeting packet (Drive folder ↗). Dollar figures are quoted from the documents; nothing here is paraphrased from memory. Corrections: cheekforhelena@gmail.com.