Griffin accuses Churchill and Wilson of "Illegally" obtaining city credit cards and falsifying a resolution

City of Alexander Council Member Angela Griffin accused fellow Council Member Juanita Wilson and City Treasurer JoAn Churchill each obtained a city bank credit card, "[P]retty much illegally without council's knowledge, without the mayor's knowledge, without council's approval." There is a third credit card held by the mayor listed under the City of Alexander.

The existence of the two cards was reported at the end of the August council meeting by Administrative Assistant Jennifer Hill.

"Now I looked everywhere to give the benefit of that, but I see no resolution we approved," Griffin said. "There's no meeting minutes that we approved for them to obtain these credit cards."

Griffin then tried to use an unrelated resolution establishing check signers with acquiring the credit cards.

"Further investigation with this is that they brought this (resolution) to the bank to obtain this with falsified records," Griffin said holding what she claimed was two versions of the same resolution. "There's a falsified resolution. So they could obtain these credit cards and it's very serious."

"This (acquiring the credit cards) was not approved by council nor was it made aware (Churchill and Wilson had the cards)," Griffin said. "And I must inform council that although that these two elected officials did this and they have every opportunity to explain why they did that, it is council's responsibility to deal with this matter."

"And the way we can deal with that is to request those be returned and close those accounts," Griffin said.

"Because it's pretty much prosecutable and it's illegal," she continued without quoting any legal sources. "And one of the cards has been used currently."

"I would move to motion the return and closure of the credit cards associated with Ms. JoAn Churchill and Ms. Juanita Wilson effective immediately," Griffin said.

"We turned them (credit card) back in and they were not illegal," Wilson began. "We were cleared for three city credit cards."

Mayor Crystal Herrmann said, "There was only one, one of the two cards that was turned in and that was yours."

"Yeah! When I found out I couldn't keep track of where it was going and who was using it," Wilson responded. "Because I haven't used it for anything. I have not spent one dime on it for the city. I gave it to someone to use in the city because they didn't have access to the other credit card that was supposed to be already here."

"So my money, I have not spent one thin cent on that credit card of mine," Wilson said. "And I turned it back in when I found out it couldn't be tracked and shut it off."

Griffin asked Wilson, "At what point was it requested by council to even obtain those credit cards?"

"It wasn't requested," Wilson responded. "It was cleared last year (2022) for us to have three before you became a council member."

"I have a falsified resolution," Griffin again claimed.

"How do you know it's falsified," Wilson asked?

"Because I'm comparing it to the original on here," Griffin explained.

"And, where did you get it from," Wilson asked?

"I got it from the bank where you submitted it to the bank to get those credit cards," Griffin responded.

After making the same accusation twice Herrmann steps in and says, "That's a different situation. That was for them to actually be (check) signers."

"That's right," said Griffin.

Herrmann says, "They didn't take any resolution to the bank for the credit card."

Wilson punctuates with a, "Nope."

"Churchill is a city treasurer and she can have access to any financial things that go on in this city," Wilson said.

Herrmann replied, "That doesn't mean she can have some city credit card in her name and use it personally and then pay it back."

Churchill was unable to attend the September 18 council meeting. But, in an E-mail exchange she was asked, "Have you ever used the city credit card to make a personal purchase?"

Her response was, "Absolutely not!"

Griffin made the motion that the credit cards be turned-in and the accounts closed. It was second by Council Member Joy Gray. In a unanimous roll call vote the motion passed.

"So just to be clear," Herrmann said. "Ms. Wilson has already turned in her card. It is in the front office. We are just missing Ms. Churchill's. So I'll send a letter out to her. Except y 'all will have to, as signers, contact Jerry, Palmer, at the bank."

Concerning disposition of the credit card Churchill said, "I shredded the credit card after clearing approval with the bank manager of our accounts and closing the (credit card) account."

Who will sign checks?

Next on the agenda was the issue of who will sign checks. In January Crystal Herrmann became mayor and the council acquired four new members. Since then, there's been an on-going discussion by council members as to why no one who's at city hall during the day is a check signer. Also, why the new mayor isn't allowed to sign checks when the former mayor did.

It all goes back to the previous administration when it was discovered, after she was fired for not submitting to a drug test, that former bookkeeper Melissa Ratliff/Anthony allegedly was writing herself checks for amounts she wasn't authorized to receive. For the two required signatures she was using, without authorization, Mayor Paul Mitchell's signature stamp and, for the second signature, she was signing her name on checks written to herself, according to evidence. Signing a government check written out to yourself is illegal under state law.

Following the November General Election, the Alexander City Council approved resolution #R-22-21-11-1, "A RESOLUTION FOR THE SIGNAGE OF ALL CHECKS AND DOCUMENTS RELATING TO BANKING ACTIVITY AND AUTHORIZING THE SIGNATURE LIST FOR THE CITY OF ALEXANDER, ARKANSAS." The resolution number translates to the first resolution passed during the council meeting held on November 21, 2022.

The resolution it replaced listed Mayor Paul Mitchell, City Treasurer JoAn Churchill and Bookkeeper Melissa Ratliff as the primary signers. Council members Juanita Wilson and Dan Church were listed as the secondary signers.

By the November election Ratliff had been fired and Church did not seek re-election. Since the run-off election for mayor wasn't until December, the council proceeded to pass a new resolution, which removed Ratliff and Church and added City Recorder Sharon Bankhead as a primary signer. When Mitchell lost the run-off to Herrmann that left Churchill, Bankhead and Wilson to sign checks and other bank documents.

Griffin's proposed resolution amends resolution #R-22-21-11-1. In the reading of the resolution she says,

"Whereas; the City Council of the City of Alexander, Arkansas deem it necessary for these approved check signers to serve as the bank account holders. First, primary, Crystal Herman the Mayor; Secondary, Sharon Bankhead City Recorder; Jennifer Hill, Office Manager/Accounts Payable; Janet Guest, Court Clerk."

Griffin continues,

"Whereas; it is the best interest of the City of Alexander, Arkansas to establish in-house signers for the purpose of maintaining the big day operations of the City, thus adding and removing the following check signers to remove JoAn Allen Churchill, City Treasurer and Juanita Wilson, Alderperson; Sharon Bankhead, City Recorder as primary."

Griffin paused to explain, "She (Bankhead) would still be on there but she would be secondary (instead of primary) so we're not removing her. And add Crystal Herman made her as primary."

Griffin continued,

"To add Jennifer Hill, Office Manager/Account Payable, Secondary; Janet Guest, Court Clerk, Secondary; Sharon Bankhead City Recorder, Secondary."

Griffin then returns to addressing her claim the original resolution approved in November was altered. She says Mitchell's name was removed leaving Churchill, Bankhead and Wilson in place as primary signers.

"I obtained the resolution that the banks have and it's definitely falsified," Griffin said. "Most resolutions have a month, day and year. This one's not even falsified effectively because you can clearly see it's falsified compared to the original signed and sealed resolution that we have."

"Apparently the mayor was taken off and then originally the Primary was Paul Mitchell, Mayor; JoAn Churchill, City Treasurer; Sharon Bankhead, City Recorder; Secondary, Juanita Wilson," she said. "That was on the original one where it comprised of the mayor, council member, City Treasurer, City Recorder."

"But with the falsified record it shows Juanita Wilson as primary; JoAn Allen Churchill, City Treasurer that's primary; and Sharon Bankhead, City Recorder primary."

"If I may say that if there was a change, there is no resolution," Griffin continued. "I mean this is a resolution but there is nothing. We have this meeting recorded. You can go back and look at November's meeting. There is no discussion of this and there's no resolution to remove the mayor, basically. And they made that change and submitted this to the bank."

Before making her motion to approve the new resolution Griffin said, "So with the falsification, with the obtaining credit cards, all of this, again, this loses the city's trust, it loses my trust of our elected officials to be able to have, to be check signers on the accounts."

"So I would move to motion that, I would move to motion to amend the resolution of 22, 21, 11, 1 for the signing of all checks," Griffin said.

Bankhead said, "I don't want my name on that resolution."

"You don't want to be a check signer?" Griffin asked.

"I don't want my name on that resolution," Bankhead responded.

In an effort to reduce the need to vote on a new check signer resolution every time there is a change in staff, Council Member Joy Gray suggested they dispense with using people's names and use job titles instead.

"I would recommend that we put, you know, position holder, office manager, position holder," Gray said. "Whoever is currently holding that position would be a check signer."

The first motion was to amend the proposed resolution to remove Sharon Bankhead as a check signer and to change from using names to using the job titles of Mayor, Office Manager and Court Clerk. The motion passed six to two. Voting "Yes" were Joe Pollard, Joy Gray, Gina R. Thomas-LittleJohn, Tony Staton, Angela Griffin, and Juanita Wilson. Voting "No" were Mitchell W. Smith and Harold Timmerman.

Council members then voted on the original motion to approve the resolution, which now includes the two changes. The motion passed seven to one with Timmerman being the only "No" vote.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, October 16, 6:00 PM in the courtroom at the Alexander Municipal Complex. The public is invited to attend.