The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published April 26, 2017

Audit request may cost over $100,000 if approved

CAMDEN COUNTY – The county commissioners may be spending over $100,000 for a state audit if their request is approved by Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway.

Last week two of the county commissioners (Greg Hasty and Beverly Thomas) voted to request a full state audit of the entire county.

The issue had been addressed on March 7 at a meeting between two of the three commissioners (this time it was Greg Hasty and Don Williams). According to the minutes of that meeting, several citizens had requested it.

“The Commission met with a group of citizens concerning having a comprehensive audit performed on the county. Following discussion Commissioner Williams made a motion to begin moving forward and taking the necessary steps to have a comprehensive, performance audit of Camden County government performed, including researching everything that is involved, whether we should have it performed by the state versus a private company from outside Camden County, the pros and cons of each alternative, and the costs that will be involved. Commissioner Hasty seconded the motion. The motion passed by vote: Commissioner Williams (Yes), Commissioner Hasty (Yes).”

Last Tuesday (April 18) Thomas and Hasty voted to move forward on the matter. The minutes of the meeting mentioned a Richard Pope but failed to identify who he is or why he was speaking at the meeting.

“Richard Pope stated that he understands that there are two different types of audits, a comprehensive audit and a performance audit. Richard also stated that he wanted to clarify that the comprehensive audit is what we are asking for and is not as intrusive as people think. Commissioner Thomas stated that it is her intention to do the entire county not just one separate office. Commissioner Thomas also stated that this will be followed by a resolution as it is required by state statue.”

The minutes of the meeting also failed to clarify what that “one separate office” was and if it was aimed at County Clerk Rowland Todd.

(Todd has filed a lawsuit against Hasty, Williams and Thomas as individuals. Todd has not named Camden County or the Camden County Commission in his suit and is not suing as “County Clerk” but as a private individual).

The idea, according to the minutes is to audit the entire county.

“Commissioner Hasty then stated that if we are going to clean up the county we are going to do the whole thing and that is including the commission.”

If the audit is agreed to, then the cost would be unknown and was estimated at that meeting by Pope who said it could cost the county over $100,000.

“Commissioner Hasty stated he would like to try and put half of the cost in this year’s budget and half in the next year’s budget. County Treasurer then stated that we won’t actually know the cost until the audit is completed and it could take quite some time for the audit to be completed. Richard pope stated that they gave them the amount of $100,000.00 to $150,000.00. Commissioner Hasty then introduced a motion for the audit. Commissioner Thomas made a motion to include the reading of the letter from Commissioner Williams and the letter to be submitted to the auditor for a state audit to be conducted. Roll call was taken for this vote. Commissioner Thomas Aye, Commissioner Hasty Aye.”

A Facebook post last week from someone identifying themselves as Commissioner Don Williams, explained more details on the idea for an audit and if it would address Sunshine Law violations.

“Without actually looking at the state statutes on this question recently (so I’m not completely certain about this) I also believe the State Auditors office looks into Sunshine Law Violations. I suspect if anything suspicious is found, they probably then turn it over to the Attorney General's Office - but again, I'm not certain. We are requesting that they audit the entire Camden County government, including our offices (the County Commission) and every other elected official's office and every department and committee in the whole government.

Williams is out due to illness (according to the minutes of the April 18 meeting) and the Facebook post on April 19 blames it on the stress of the position of County Commissioner.

“Talking about stress, I guess it has started to effect me. I'm home with my first ever shingles outbreak this week. Last week, I had flu-like symptoms that kept getting worse all week. Friday night, I asked Karen to look at a place on my back that I thought was just a scrape or something. Turned out to be shingles. I got a shot and medicine from the doctor yesterday and he told me to stay home for the rest of the week, not to go back to the office until Monday. This is the first time in my life that stress has impacted my health, so I guess the stress is even worse than I thought.”

Williams took over the office in January of this year.

The letter sent by the commissioners to Galloway is simple and does not state any specific details on the need for an audit, just that they feel is should be done.

Dear Auditor Galloway,
We are writing collectively on behalf of the Camden County Commission. As a Commission, we have always endeavored to fulfill our obligation to represent the citizens of Camden County with Integrity and transparency. In the interest of those obligations, we are herein requesting an audit of Camden County, Missouri by the Missouri State Auditor. As you may know, Camden County has not had a state audit since it became a first class county in 1998. Accordingly, we are hopeful that an independent audit by your office will help ensure that all elected officials and offices in Camden County perform their duties with integrity and within full compliance of the law.

If there is any additional information that your office needs from the Commission, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,
Gregory Hasty, Presiding Commissioner
Beverly Thomas, 1st District Commissioner

In the place for Don Williams' name, it said “Don was ill his letter placed of record”

If the audit is refused, Pope has apparently started a petition and that will be pursued as the next step, according to the minutes of the April 18 meeting.

“Richard pope went on to say that he can send a letter to show his support and is going to wait to hear from the State auditor before he proceeds, that way if they deny the Commissioner request then the petitions that are being signed will be a second option for the county to receive an audit. Commissioner Hasty agreed.”

The Facebook post by Williams states that he was initially annoyed by the idea of a petition.

“I have to admit, at first I was a little irritated with the petition effort, but only because I felt that people were ignoring the fact that we were already committed to having a county government-wide audit and, for some reason, seemed to feel they had to push the commission into doing the audit. It really bothered me personally because I had promised I would pursue an audit back in the fall and it seemed that no one was noticing that I was keeping my campaign promise. But after speaking with you, Rick Pope and many others involved, I understood your reasoning as to why everyone felt the petition is needed - and I agree. The petition can only help. I think it's important that the state see how widespread the support is for an audit. And now I feel that the petition is, in a way, backing up the commission on this.”

It is unknown how long it will take for Galloway to respond to the request and even if she agreed, completing an audit of a first-class county can take a long time.