City of Alexander Mayor Crystal Herrmann provided council members a verbal summary of the annual Legislative Audit report, for the calendar year 2024. The audit is conducted annually by the State of Arkansas. The audit for 2024 was performed in 2025. Council members received a copy of the report.
City officials listed in the report for 2024 are, “Mayor: Crystal Herrmann, Recorder: Sharon Bankhead, Treasurer: Vacant, District Court Clerk: Janet Guess, and Police Chief: Robert Burnett (resigned December 17, 2024).”
Anyone who follows news out of city hall knows Chief Burnett, and two other officers, were fired by Herrmann the Tuesday following the December 16, 2024 council meeting. Former treasurer JoAn Churchill resigned in December, 2023. This was Herrmann’s second year as mayor.
The report states, “During our evaluation, noncompliance with state law and accepted accounting practices was noted in the office of the Treasurer.”
The report states, “Accounting procedures for municipalities are set forth in Ark. Code Ann. §§ 14-59-101-14-59-119. The City was not in compliance with these Code sections and other accounting procedures as follows: Prenumbered receipts were not issued for all funds received. Cash receipts journals were not properly posted and reconciled with bank deposits. Monthly bank reconciliations were prepared but were not accurate. A detailed fixed asset listing was not maintained to include additions, deletions, and a control total. A similar finding was noted in the previous two reports.”
Since a bookkeeper is not listed, it is unknown who was maintaining Alexander’s accounts. Herrmann did not elaborate clearly who was performing the duties of treasurer, or bookkeeper, in 2024 after the resignation of Treasurer JoAn Churchill. She did, however, discuss the performance of District Court Clerk Janet Guess.
“So with Miss Janet, our court clerk, God bless her,” Herrmann began. “She's had this rotation of the same timing. I think judge for and like a lot of it, they came out. They've done some different training and literally just is a receipt deposit. There's nothing missing. It was literally just one of the way that I just saw her receipt and her deposit at a certain time.”
As stated in the report, the purpose of the annual audit, “(I)s to assist local government officials by promoting sound financial management and accountability of government resources. The Legislative Auditor reports on the fiscal affairs of local governments, as well as compliance with relevant state laws and observance of good business practices to provide accountability for tax dollars expended to support government operations.”
The report also states, “Management of the City is responsible for maintaining the financial records and complying with state laws and accepted accounting practices.”
The audit does not involve a financial reconciliation of the budget.
Council members voted to accept the audit report as required, which will appear in the minutes as proof of receiving the report.
Resolution entering into jail agreement for 2027 approved
The monthly cost will be $4,218.54. The annual total is $50,622.40. The cost for 2026 was much lower at a monthly payment of $2,564.18; $30,769.39 annually. In 2025 the monthly cost was $3,011.59; $36,139.04 annually. For 2024 the monthly cost was $2,527.85; $30,334.18 annually. The costs are based on the actual cost for housing Alexander's inmates the previous year.
Under the agreement the city will still be charging a fee of $20, "[T]o be paid by each defendant upon conviction, plea of guilty, plea of nolo contendere, or bond forfeiture for all misdemeanors, traffic violations, or other first or second-class fines, to defray the cost of incarcerating City Inmates."
Police Chief Timothy Preator did offer a suggestion to lower these costs. Even though most of the prisoners brought to the county jail are there to be booked and then released, the city is still charged for an entire day. Preator said those costs could be eliminated if the city had its own fingerprint machine to book those prisoners who don’t need to be jailed. Preator said he has been talking to the Bauxite Police Department about purchasing a fingerprint machine they are no longer using.
Other news from the September 21 council meeting
Park is popular; Clean-up day “a little slow”
About the city park she said, “I cannot tell you the amount of visitors that are parked. It is really good. ... The parking lot seems to be staying very full throughout the rotations of the day.”
About the city cleanup Herrmann said, “It was a little slow, but we did fill up two large dumpsters with waste. ... I wish we could have gotten more out of the city. We filled up three bins of e-waste televisions and things to the nature.”
Herrmann is considering doing another cleanup in six months when the weather is more appealing.
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