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.

Alexander Council does not order reinstatement of treasurer's administrative access to accounting software

(Editor's Note: Due to being out-of-state the remainder of the week following the August 21 Alexander Council Meeting, and attending to Planning Commission business since returning, I apologize for this article being late. It will be concise.)

Early in 2023 City Treasurer JoAn Churchill said she was having issues with the on-line accounting software (Center Point). First it was not being able to sign-in. Then it was printing issues. With those problems apparently out of the way now she says her administrative level access has been canceled. During the Treasurer's Report portion of the meeting, Churchill said without that access she was unable to print this month's financial statement.

"I know you guys have always had spreadsheets, but we're going to have to find another way now because that feature is not available to me anymore," Churchill said as she began her report. "So I'm sorry, but..."

"That's not true," Mayor Crystal Herrmann interrupted. "I checked with the tech gentleman today and he said you have more... you can log in and print reports on Center Point. You have that option Ms. Churchill."

"It says that I do not have access to that feature anymore," Churchill countered. "And that's just the way it is. I can't get into it."

"All right, once you've not been able to get into anything," Herrmann said.

"We're not going to get into a fight here," Churchill responded.

Herrmann asked, "Do you have a financial report?"

Churchill said, "No, ma 'am, I do not, but I will answer questions if anybody has any."

"Ms. Churchill, you said the system is stating that you do not have access," Council Member Angela Griffin asked. "What's going on when you're trying to get into this system?"

"It says on my computer that I do not have access to that feature anymore," Churchill responded. "And there are several features that have been removed."

Churchill explained the features she is referring to are all available at the administrator level.

"I was always the administrator and now Ms. (Jennifer) Hill is," Churchill said. "And she will need it."

Hill was recently hired by Herrmann and serves as administrative assistant, among other duties. She is also the Recorder/Treasurer for Haskell.

Griffin asked, "What does the administrator access allow you to do?"

"It allows me to get into that feature, the spreadsheet," Churchill explained. "It's a financial analysis and the council has had that for years. And it's not available anymore (to Churchill)."

Churchill also explained that the administrative level has the tools to reconcile the bank accounts. Council members were provided a printout of the reconciled bank accounts. But, they weren't done by Churchill.

Council members took no action requiring administrative access be returned to Churchill.

In other action at the August 21 council meeting:

Alexander now owns all of City Park

The legal battle over ownership of the eastern end of Alexander City Park is over. During the meeting Council Member Juanita Wilson handed the deed to the property to Mayor Crystal Herrmann.

The City of Alexander filed an Eminent Domain lawsuit against David Jacks earlier this year. Jacks owned the property that makes up the east end of Alexander City Park, near Highway 111. Unfortunately, city officials didn't know that when improvements like the gazebo and water fountain were being constructed.

The city had been mowing the grass on the eastern parcel for many years. As far as anyone knew it was city property. The improvements made to that area were done during 2017 and 2018.

It's been approximately three years trying to come to a settlement with Jacks since he first approached Mayor Paul Mitchell about the construction on his property. Jacks finally accepted the $68,000.00 offer, which was part of the Eminent Domain lawsuit.

Didn't get around to the fountain

The agenda item listed under Old Business was, "Fountain project—Alderman Wilson," but once Herrmann had her hands on the deed she apparently forgot about the water fountain, which has been a discussion item the entire year. Street and Parks Superintendent David Durham had already handed out a proposal to repair the fountain, which included a cost estimate. Herrmann, however, immediately moved on to New Business. And now the fountain is being repaired.

During the regular April 17 council meeting, council members Tony Staton, Harold Timmerman and Juanita Wilson presented the only bid they were able to acquire from any marble specialist in Arkansas willing to repair a marble water fountain. The bid was submitted by McElroy Tops and Floors in Benton.

The quote was for $47,020.00. That quote does not include costs supplemented by the city which includes the city street department using city equipment and employees to do the heavy lifting to dismantle and reassemble the fountain and purchase any needed materials to make the repairs. McElroy would have done the actual repairs to the marble, replacing the pumping system and any repairs to the electrical system. It also came with a five-year guarantee.

In the Scope of Work portion of the proposal, presented by Durham, it provides a list of steps to be taken in the repair process. It states;

"1 - Remove all the bowls and pillars from the main bowl safely set aside so work can be safely performed and not to damage the smaller parts.

"2 - We will be removing all the old lighting and wiring to be replaced with new lights and wiring by the electricians upon reassembly.

"3 - We will be removing the old pump system and replacing with an upgraded pump system with external filter for easier cleaning and maintenance and also installing an automatic refill system to keep the fountain at a maintained level to compensate for evaporation. This will also be done during the reassembly process by licensed plumbers.

"4 - We will be working with the product manufacturers representatives to remove the old sealants and grout from the main bowl in order to regrout with a water repellent grout product and waterproof sealing and polishing the bottom. At that time, we will be resealing the drain and putting in the leveling compounds to relevel the fountain tiers as they are reassembled."

The proposal gave an estimated time of, "3 weeks from start to completion."

The cost breakdown included;

Lighting system---$1,500.00

Electrician---$2,900.00

Pump and filter system---$4,500.00

Automatic refill system---$375.00

Plumber---$3,500.00

Main Bowl sealing and grouting materials---$4,700.00

A total of $17,475.00

In the summation written in the proposal Durham said, "I am proposing that council approve $25,000.00 for this project to cover any unexpected expenses and also leave enough money to completely rework all the flower beds around the fountain and gazebo during this project. This leaves $7,525.00 in the [miscellaneous] expense fund for (sic) to cover additional work."

Under the McElroy bid the city would have still paid for the lighting system, pump and filter system, automatic refill system, and the sealing and grouting materials.

Despite never being given the opportunity to discuss or vote on this proposal work on the fountain has begun.

Community Center #2 and Central Fire House HVAC repairs approved

The council accepted two bids to repair the air conditioning systems in the Community Center #2 building and the Central Fire House. Community Center #2 is located at the former Alexander Human Development Center (HDC). The fire house is south of the HDC on South Alexander Road.

Both bids went to Jones Heating and Air in Benton. The council approved a maximum of $45,000.00 to replace two of the three HVAC systems at the Community Center #2. They also approved a maximum of $10,000.00 to relocate and upgrade the heating and cooling system at the fire house.

Change to cottage lease agreement tabled

In the latter half of 2022, some Alexander employees were being allowed to occupy the cottages located on the south end of the former Alexander Human Development Center. The cottages were used by Pathfinders, Inc. as housing for their clients. Earlier this year a lease agreement was developed.

Since Alexander doesn't have any employees who live in the city, part of the attraction was to allow them to live there rent free ($1 per year) with utilities included in exchange for guarding the property and being on-call if needed in an emergency. So far, a combination of police and street employees are occupying the cottages. There has been a decline in vandalism since this program began.

Mayor Crystal Herrmann has proposed passing along the cost of electricity and gas to the occupants as a way to discourage unbridled misuse of the utilities. Each cottage has an electric and gas meter.

Some council members reminded everyone that was one of the perks in exchange for guarding the property and being on-call. Others see it as a way of encouraging self control.

Council Member Joy Gray asked for a review of past utility bills to determine if a cut-off point can be established where the city and occupants can share utility costs. The issue was tabled until the next meeting.

Animal rescue contract adopted

The Alexander Council approved a resolution, "Allowing the Mayor to enter into a contract with Southern Hearts Rescue LLC." to assist with animal control within the City of Alexander. A section of the resolution states, "Southern Hearts Rescue LLC will assist in the pick up of stray/confiscated animals including aggressive animals for $200.00 per animal."

Attempt to add two check signers failed

An attempt to add more check signers to the current list of three failed in a five to three vote. The original goal was to add Mayor Crystal Herrmann, Jennifer Hill (Office Manager/Accounts Payable) and Janet Guess (Court Clerk). The motion made was to add only Hill and Guess. Guess currently can only sign court related checks.

Currently City Treasurer JoAn Churchill, Recorder Sharon Bankhead and Council Member Juanita Wilson can sign checks. Wilson said her and Churchill come in every Thursday to sign checks for utility bills and other vendors. But, the argument being made is sometimes an item needs to be purchased between Thursdays and a credit card will not be accepted.

Voting "Yes" were Joy Gray, Angela Griffin and Joe Pollard. Voting "No" were Mitchell W. Smith, Harold Timmerman and Juanita Wilson. Council members Gina Thomas Littlejohn and Tony Staton were absent so they are counted as "No" votes.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, September 18, 6:00 PM in the courtroom at the Alexander Municipal Complex. The public is invited to attend.