Commission split on county leadership
Effingham County Commission Chairman Wendall Kessler issued a statement this afternoon calling for “cooler heads” to prevail while an audit of the county’s finances is completed.
Kessler said in the one-page statement that he has asked the auditor, Donald Caines of Rincon, to provide his findings to management no later than tomorrow.
“We do not have an audit, we do not have all of the information and I remain committed to the staff until such time as information and facts dictate otherwise,” Kessler said.
Several commissioners have said to reporters that they think the audit finds serious fault with County Administrator David Crawley and his wife, Patrice Crawley, the county clerk.
“I would caution the public and employees of the county against making any presumptions in this matter until the information is presented and the facts are known,” Kessler said.
“I have been troubled by the way in which this situation has been handled and I am concerned for the county’s best interest, however I cannot stand idly while accusations are being leveled without due process,” Kessler said.
“I remain in hopes that cooler heads will prevail and this necessary process can be concluded,” he said.
Three commissioners say they’re very concerned about what they learned in meetings with the auditor. Two others say the findings are minor things that don’t rise to the level of firing anyone.
Another says he hasn’t seen the audit results yet but still supports the Crawleys.
Commissioners Vera Jones, Forrest Floyd and Phil Kieffer say the audit’s findings are very troubling.
Jones said the audit raises many serious issues about how the county is being run. She said the county is in limbo and won’t be able to operate until those issues are addressed.
She listed nine items she remembered out of 27 things that will be mentioned in the audit, including questions about a conflict of interest, misappropriation of county funds, failure to follow policies and internal controls and misinformation given during public meetings.
She and Commissioner Kieffer are calling for a special called meeting as soon as possible to deal with the issues.
Floyd said as soon as the audit report is available, he would like the county commission to call a special meeting to deal with the results.
“At this point, I’ve lost confidence” in the Crawleys, Floyd said. “That may change.”
“There are definitely some financial and economic internal control issues that are very concerning,” Kieffer said.
Kessler and Commissioner Steve Mason say they met with the auditor and the report will show problems that would not be fireable offenses.
Commissioner Reggie Loper said he hasn’t seen the audit findings and he can’t comment on something he hasn’t seen. In the meantime, Loper said he has full confidence in the Crawleys.
Mason said today he talked with the auditor and that the 27 items can be explained.
Mason says some of the items are repetitive and others are “very little things” that might result in a “slap on the wrist” for staff not following procedures.
One item, for example, cited the clerk for not having the minutes stored in a binder when they were loose in a box because she had been making copies.
He said one of the items concerns how money that was directed to Keep Effingham Beautiful was spent. He says a separate audit of those funds will be done and if anyone did anything criminal, charges will be filed, just as charges were filed against Ruthie Michelle Newland.
Newland was the county purchasing director. She was arrested in May 2011 and accused of using a county credit card for personal purchases and then modifying billing statements to make them appear valid.
She pleaded guilty in June 2012 to felony charges of theft by taking and forgery. She was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay $12,600 in restitution.
Kieffer said the questions about Keep Effingham Beautiful regard $80,000 to $90,000 that “may have been directed to a private account.”
He said the issues found in the audit are “big, very big.”
Mason said the county administrator hasn’t been given the audit results yet and can’t reply to charges he hasn’t seen.
David and Patrice Crawley were at work today, but they could not be reached for comment.
Mason said he hasn’t been given any reason to lose faith in the Crawleys.
Kessler has said he has confidence in the Crawleys.
“There are some concerns that have been brought up and we have been working through those,” he said earlier this week. When asked what the concerns were about, Kessler said budget and financial issues, “a lot of different issues” that come up at this time of year.
“I can’t say any of them would rise up to the level of someone being fired or resigning,” Kessler said. “I have all of the confidence in the world in both of the individuals.”
Kessler, who only votes in case of a tie, said he thinks the Crawleys should be able to address any concerns in a public forum.
Jones, Floyd and Kieffer said they expected to be considering the resignations of the Crawleys during the commission’s regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.
The meeting was canceled at the last minute for lack of a quorum.
The Crawleys asked Mason and Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie to accompany them as they took some personal belongings from their county offices last weekend. Mason said the Crawleys wanted him and the sheriff there so they could document that they were not taking any county property.