FARMINGTON — The Farmington District Court now issues a monthly report detailing the money it handles in light of a state audit that found $1.5 million missing over the past eight years.
The Arkansas Legislative Audit report, released to the public Oct. 13, also found another $44,000 in revenue was not deposited into the city’s general fund over the same period, January 2009 to Dec. 6, 2016. The missing money was from items such as dog or cat city tags and permits for yard sales.
The audit accuses former city Finance Director Jimmy Story with misappropriating the money by receiving it, but not depositing it in appropriate places. Story also was the district court clerk. He resigned Dec. 5, 2016. City employees in early 2017 found the discrepancies. They gave the information to the county prosecuting attorney’s office and then the FBI and Legislative Audit.
Story is under investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office, said Dusty Breedlove, a staff auditor for Arkansas Legislative Audit, said in October when he presented his findings in Little Rock to the legislative audit committee. No charges have been filed.
After the committee’s meeting, Story’s attorney, Kim Weber of Rogers, said “we disagree with the amount” attributed by auditors to Story. Asked whether Story or somebody else took the money, Weber said, “I cannot comment on that.”
Story began work for the city in 1995. He was the sole person responsible for receiving and depositing revenue, reconciling bank statements and entering and editing information in the court system, Breedlove said.
Farmington was audited by Legislative Audit until 2007. Then it switched to a private accounting firm from 2007-15 and received a “clean” opinion from the firm, Breed-love said.
The audit accuses former city Finance Director Jimmy Story with misappropriating the money by receiving it, but not depositing it in appropriate places.
City Council members will receive the new court report in their agenda packets monthly.
The worksheet provides checks and balances on court revenue and more accountability to the district judge, said Farmington Mayor Ernie Penn.
The October worksheet shows Farmington District Court Clerk Kim Bentley distributed $22,415 for the month. Bentley, Penn and District Judge Graham Nations signed off on the disbursements.
Bentley said the form is one she used while district court clerk for the city of Barling. She said the monthly summary of disbursements in Barling was helpful for legislative auditors and for city management to see activities of district court.
“I’m doing things differently than what was done here before. I’m using procedures that I was trained on. They are the same procedures I’ve used over the years,” Bentley said.
She served as district court clerk for Barling for three years and also has worked as a paralegal. Bentley has been Farmington’s district court clerk for almost one year.
Not all of the money collected is dispersed each month because in some cases the defendant’s charges have not been adjudicated, she said.