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Bartlett Schedules 1st Audit in Years
by Paul A. Romer
The click able links below have been added by web miss tress Lana Hill and are not part of the original Telegram article
Emails from previous Bartlett Auditor Preston Singleton
Published: January 1, 2010
BARTLETT - Nearly four years after former Bartlett mayor Bobby Hill was sentenced to 20 days in jail for improperly spending city funds, the city is still struggling to overcome financial issues.
The city has not been audited in four years because its financial records were in such disarray it would take an auditor days or weeks to gather the information necessary to conduct one, current Mayor Arthur J. White said.
DOCUMENTS THAT SHOW WE PAID CPA BARBARA SAGE $18,000 iN 2009 TO DO BARTLETT CITY BOOKS
In an open letter published in late October, White pledged to rectify the situation and have audits conducted again soon beginning with the most recent fiscal year and working backwards to other years.
Mattie Ingram, a Bartlett city official said the books are now organized enough for an audit. She said she called a firm this week to schedule one.
In addition the mayor said a tax issue with the Internal Revenue Service has been cleared up.
Ingram said that the issue dated back to 2005 when the City withheld several quarters of payroll taxes from the federal government that it had collected from employees.
Repeated queries by the IRS were ignored by the city until June when an IRS agent visited Bartlett on a "compliance check."
In July, the Bartlet City Council fired the city secretary, Diane Evans, Ingram has been working int he city since July in an interim capacity.
During Evans tenure, the city ignored IRS letters and accrued interest penalties Ingram said.
The Telegram was not able to confirm how much back taxes the city owed but the penalty amassed was about $38,000, according to a letter from the mayor.
White said that within the past two months the city paid its overdue taxes and the IRS had "forgiven" the penalties.
In his letter, White said income and expenditure information was unavailable for the city and many records are missing.
"Last year's budget was not maintained whatsoever," White wrote.
In his letter White wrote that residents have consistently told him the city secretary job was too much for one employee and that another position needed to be created.
He indicated this was something he agreed with but wrote that each time he approached Evans about the subject she "strongly rejected" it.
"Looking at the state of the files and financial records of the city (unpaid payroll taxes, undocumented financial transaction, no maintained filing system). it does not make sense to me that she would reject help," he wrote.
One resident say the city secretary position has been a revolving door over the past several years. The newest secretary is Jana Henderson, former Bell County Elections clerk. She was hired about a month ago.
In December 2005, Kathy Jones, then city secretary, and Denise Baker, city clerk, were fired by the City Council. At the time, interim mayor Tommy Hill, the brother of Bobby Hill, said that Jones was let go for lack of confidences; Baker for withholding information in connection with a credit card incident.
In January 2006, a judge ruled Hill abused his powers of office by writing personal checks for cash to the city and ordering the secretary to not deposit them until he gave word, which he never did. In addition, he used city fund to pay for his personal utility bill.
The click able links below have been added by web miss tress Lana Hill and are not part of the original Telegram article
Emails from previous Bartlett Auditor Preston Singleton
Published: January 1, 2010
BARTLETT - Nearly four years after former Bartlett mayor Bobby Hill was sentenced to 20 days in jail for improperly spending city funds, the city is still struggling to overcome financial issues.
The city has not been audited in four years because its financial records were in such disarray it would take an auditor days or weeks to gather the information necessary to conduct one, current Mayor Arthur J. White said.
DOCUMENTS THAT SHOW WE PAID CPA BARBARA SAGE $18,000 iN 2009 TO DO BARTLETT CITY BOOKS
In an open letter published in late October, White pledged to rectify the situation and have audits conducted again soon beginning with the most recent fiscal year and working backwards to other years.
Mattie Ingram, a Bartlett city official said the books are now organized enough for an audit. She said she called a firm this week to schedule one.
In addition the mayor said a tax issue with the Internal Revenue Service has been cleared up.
Ingram said that the issue dated back to 2005 when the City withheld several quarters of payroll taxes from the federal government that it had collected from employees.
Repeated queries by the IRS were ignored by the city until June when an IRS agent visited Bartlett on a "compliance check."
In July, the Bartlet City Council fired the city secretary, Diane Evans, Ingram has been working int he city since July in an interim capacity.
During Evans tenure, the city ignored IRS letters and accrued interest penalties Ingram said.
The Telegram was not able to confirm how much back taxes the city owed but the penalty amassed was about $38,000, according to a letter from the mayor.
White said that within the past two months the city paid its overdue taxes and the IRS had "forgiven" the penalties.
In his letter, White said income and expenditure information was unavailable for the city and many records are missing.
"Last year's budget was not maintained whatsoever," White wrote.
In his letter White wrote that residents have consistently told him the city secretary job was too much for one employee and that another position needed to be created.
He indicated this was something he agreed with but wrote that each time he approached Evans about the subject she "strongly rejected" it.
"Looking at the state of the files and financial records of the city (unpaid payroll taxes, undocumented financial transaction, no maintained filing system). it does not make sense to me that she would reject help," he wrote.
One resident say the city secretary position has been a revolving door over the past several years. The newest secretary is Jana Henderson, former Bell County Elections clerk. She was hired about a month ago.
In December 2005, Kathy Jones, then city secretary, and Denise Baker, city clerk, were fired by the City Council. At the time, interim mayor Tommy Hill, the brother of Bobby Hill, said that Jones was let go for lack of confidences; Baker for withholding information in connection with a credit card incident.
In January 2006, a judge ruled Hill abused his powers of office by writing personal checks for cash to the city and ordering the secretary to not deposit them until he gave word, which he never did. In addition, he used city fund to pay for his personal utility bill.
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