Commissioners Should Ask Justice Dept. For A Complete Audit

From:
The Florida Times-Union
August 21, 2007

New Camden sheriff questions

By Gordon Jackson, The Times-Union

KINGSLAND - An audit of confiscated drug money expenditures in 2006 questioned Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith's $5,000 donation to a nonprofit spinal cord center in Atlanta. -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Now, two earlier donations Smith made to the Shepherd Center are being questioned by elected officials.
County records provided to the Times-Union under the Georgia Open Records Act show Smith made two donations from the confiscated drug money account on May 7, 2003, to the spinal clinic totaling $12,400.
Lt. William Terrell, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said he and Smith cannot comment about the donations because of an ongoing investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Larry Bowie, a spokesman for the Shepherd Center, said Smith donated a $10,000 check and a $2,400 check to the spinal clinic's family housing fund. The housing fund allows family members of patients to stay free in accommodations near the Shepherd Center during treatment.
Smith's paralyzed son, Blake Smith, has been treated at the Shepherd Center, Bowie said, but none of the drug money was used to pay for medical expenses. Bowie could not explain why Smith wrote two checks to the center on the same day and for the same purpose.
Commissioner Katherine Zell questioned if the donation was legal under federal guidelines and whether the money could have been spent in other ways to benefit Camden County residents.
"Without a doubt, we need to look at this carefully," she said.
Commission Chairman Preston Rhodes said he was still trying to determine whether Smith used some of the drug money for purposes not authorized by federal law. The money is returned by federal authorities to counties where cash seizures are made and is intended for law enforcement purposes such as investigations and equipment.
Rhodes said it would be "inappropriate" for him to comment about the way the sheriff spends the money until all the facts are known.
"You can draw your own conclusions to the implications," Rhodes said. "We're still investigating to determine which direction we ought to be moving [in response to the way the money is spent]."
Commissioner David Rainer said he hasn't heard about the donations and couldn't comment until he had more information.
Commissioner Steve Berry, however, questioned whether the donations to the Shepherd Center, as well as other ways the money has been spent, are allowed under federal guidelines.
"You have to question every payment to the Shepherd Center," he said. "He was taking his son there for treatment. This is the reason why the County Commission should take control of this account back over."
Smith refused to turn the account over to commissioners by the Aug. 10 deadline they had imposed two weeks ago. Commissioners responded by suing Smith and asking the court to issue an order to stop the sheriff from spending any more money from the accounts and ordering him to turn over the checkbook and records until the matter is resolved.
During Smith's re-election campaign in 2004, his opponent criticized the sheriff for giving money from the fund to local civic organizations and $250,000 for a scholarship at The Citadel, Smith's alma mater in South Carolina. The sheriff called those legitimate expenditures at the time.
An audit last year said the Sheriff's Office didn't provide documentation for three transactions totaling $16,133 and spent $7,500 on "what appears to be unallowed purposes," including the $5,000 donation to the Shepherd Center.
Berry said the donations to the Shepherd Center were for a "worthy cause" but Smith was not legally allowed to spend the money to help the clinic.
"I'm sure it benefited Bill Smith greatly, but it did nothing for the taxpayers of Camden County," he said. "It's just another example of gross misuse."

gordon.jackson@jacksonville.com,
(912) 729-3672

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/082107/geo_193024657.shtml.

TRSP Review: The only way we will really know whether or not this spending is legal is to ask the Justice Dept. to do a full audit. As everyone know we were told that the Justice Dept audits these every year, Of course that was a lie. It is only audited by an independent auditor, who admitted that standard accounting procedures were not used. And we all know if it is sent to the Justice Dept. it is thrown in a box and put away until needed.

So I ask our Commissioners to draw up a resolution to ask the justice Dept to do a full audit of the drug fund.