No More Rubber Stamps

From:
The Florida Times-Union

August 30, 2007

Official won't sign sheriff's report

By Paul Pinkham, The Times-Union

KINGSLAND - For years, Camden County officials have rubber-stamped an annual summary they and the sheriff are required to submit to federal authorities concerning the use of confiscated drug money returned to the county. -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

Not this year.
Commission Chairman Preston Rhodes refused to sign the annual certification report Tuesday without a full accounting of how Sheriff Bill Smith spent the money last year. Rhodes said in a letter to Smith he wants dates, amounts, who was paid and what it was for before certifying the document.
The form requires his and the sheriff's signatures and is due Friday.
Rhodes also declined to sign a form requesting shared assets money this year.
Other commissioners said they back his decision.
Rhodes said the ramifications of not submitting the certification form are unclear. A U.S. Treasury Department spokesman said Wednesday afternoon he was still trying to get an answer to that question.
Lt. William Terrell, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said the report was never questioned and was always signed in years past.
But this year, the seized assets account is the subject of a lawsuit by county commissioners against the sheriff. Commissioners are seeking to wrest control of the account from Smith, and they have asked a judge to prohibit him from spending any money from the account until the matter is resolved. The lawsuit calls his spending from the account "unlawful."
Treasury Department guidelines say asset forfeiture money returned to local police is to be used for law enforcement purposes, such as jails, training and drug education.
Spending questioned
The commissioners' Aug. 10 lawsuit followed Times-Union reports that showed Smith spent thousands of dollars from the federal seized assets account to pay criminals, including a convicted methamphetamine manufacturer, and to support his favorite charities. They include a nonprofit spinal cord center in Atlanta and his college alma mater in South Carolina. Other payments from the accounts have gone to Smith's lawyer and to reimburse a department employee for getting a nursing license, according to auditing documents the newspaper received under Georgia's Open Records Act.
Smith has refused a Times-Union request to review checks and books for the accounts. A lawyer representing him in the commissioners' lawsuit didn't return calls Wednesday to his Brunswick office.
The sheriff has called questions about his spending politically motivated. His department is being probed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
No explanation for expenses
On Monday, Smith's chief deputy, Charlie Easterling, faxed the shared asset forms to county offices with a note to sign and date them. The handwritten certification form showed the Sheriff's Office received about $740,000 back from the federal government and spent about $475,000, more than 80 percent in the catch-all category of "other law enforcement expenses."
According to Treasury Department instructions for completing the form, the Sheriff's Office was supposed to attach an explanation of what those expenses were. There was no attachment.
"There was not a clear indication to me of what was actually there," Rhodes said Wednesday. He said the sheriff hasn't responded to his letter requesting additional information about how the money was spent.
Commissioner David Rainer, who preceded Rhodes as chairman, said he always signed the forms as a matter of routine under the advice of County Attorney Brent Green because there were no concerns about how the money was being spent. But Rainer said in light of the lawsuit and questions raised about the account, Rhodes did the right thing by demanding more accountability.
"I might take the same step now," Rainer said.
Commissioner Katherine Zell said she also supported Rhodes' decision.
"Preston is trying very hard to do the right thing for the people of Camden County," Zell said. "He doesn't want to do anything without having all the information."

Times-Union writer Gordon Jackson contributed to this report.
paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4107
This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/083007/geo_195652319.shtml