LITTLE ROCK — Some Helena-West Helena aldermen are upset that Mayor James Valley and 15 other city workers attended the Arkansas Municipal League conference this month without prior approval from the council.
The City Council passed an ordinance Sept. 22 saying the mayor and other city officials are not allowed to make overnight reservations or be reimbursed for out-of-town trips without the council’s approval.
Valley said he never signed the ordinance, which stemmed from a state Division of Legislative Audit report criticizing the mayor and others for travel reimbursements that did not have proper documentation.
Valley also noted that another ordinance specifically encourages city officials to attend Arkansas Municipal League conferences.
The conference Valley and other city officials attended was June 16-18 in Hot Springs. Valley said registration for everyone was about $2,400. Those who attended got a $100 per diem, which would total $4,800 for the 16 officials for the three days.
The city also paid for hotel rooms for the attendees.
Valley said the council passed a travel budget and that he has made sure the city has stayed within that budget.
“I don’t even know why this is an issue,” Valley said. “It’s basically a pissing match between the mayor and the council.”
But Alderman Bruce Hudson said he is concerned the mayor is not following laws set by the City Council.
“My concern is I see a mayor whose town is over $1.8 million in the negative taking an illegal trip with all the city officials and department heads to Hot Springs for a gala,” Hudson said.
“The mayor and the department heads were engaged in this partying against the rules and against the law of this city regarding overnight travel without the explicit consent of the council.”
Valley called Hudson’s comments “a joke.” He said the city has a surplus of about $200,000 and is not $1.8 million in the red.
“The Arkansas Municipal League conference is a very conservative event,” Valley said. “I’ve gone to things far more extravagant. We eat tacos when we go over there. It’s not a gala.”
On Thursday, Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long of Forrest City filed a motion in Phillips County Circuit Court seeking close to $18,500 in unauthorized expenditures from 19 former and current city officials from 2007 to 2009.
Also Thursday, Long filed criminal division court papers seeking the removal of Helena-West Helena Treasurer Michael Boone for not maintaining receipts, cash-receipt journals, cash-disbursement journals and for not providing the council with bank reconciliations. Boone has said he maintains everything required by law.
Prosecutors also said in the filing that Valley owes the city $7,066.
Alderman Joe St. Columbia said the mayor and other city officials tend to take business trips to places where they can have a good time rather than keeping it cheap and staying in state.
For example, St. Columbia said Valley and his brother Andre Valley, the city attorney, took a trip to Las Vegas in September 2008 for the International Municipal Lawyers Association conference.
City documents show the mayor and his brother were each paid $2,146.37 for the trip, including $1,826.37 each for mileage. St. Columbia said they took a much cheaper flight and pocketed the rest of the money.
“This is a perfect example of what the auditors found,” St. Columbia said. “This is just a taste of what crap we have to put up with.”
The mayor said Friday that he and his brother reimbursed the city for the entire amount of the trip.
“Every penny,” Valley said.
The state audit in September covered January 2007 through June 2009, said June Barron, deputy legislative auditor for counties and municipalities.
In that audit, auditors found that Valley accepted $19,907 in improper disbursements, and city employees accepted a total of $57,879 in improper disbursements.
The money owed by city officials was decreased to about $18,500 - and decreased to $7,066 for Valley - after the mayor and others were able to document some of the disbursements to prosecutors, Valley said.
However, Valley said every purchase or travel expense outlined in the audit was authorized and for legitimate city business.
“The trips that were taken, the expenses that were incurred were authorized by somebody with the authority to authorize them,” Valley said.
“The documentation that supported the purchases was simply not in the place where the auditors looked. I don’t maintain the documentation, nor do I ... cast any aspersions on the people who do.”
Arkansas, Pages 17 on 06/27/2010