Audits ongoing into County Budget Board and Sheriff finances

Feb. 23—The Cleveland County Budget Board and Cleveland County Sheriff's Office have each requested audits looking into each other's finances.

The dispute came to a head Feb. 12 during a regularly scheduled Budget Board meeting when the Sheriff's Office claimed they have not received the full fiscal year funding they were approved in September.

During a presentation given by the Sheriff Office's Chief Financial Officer, Frank Magness, he stated that CCSO has only received about $11 million out of the $18.36 million that was promised. CCSO is asking for about $7 million to fulfill that budget allocation for payroll and expenses.

CCSO also had originally requested a $23 million allocation before the $18.36 million was approved in September.

Board members refuted these statements by saying this information is relatively new to them and should have been brought to their attention months ago. Members also mentioned that the Sheriff's Office was not present during the September meeting.

Things became heated when a verbal argument between Treasurer Jim Reynolds and Sheriff Chris Amason ensued, to the extent of Reynold's calling Magness a "low level employee" and Amason accusing the county of mismanagement of public funds.

Reynolds did make a motion to approve a $2 million loan that would be given to CCSO while the issue was being resolved, however Amason voted against the proposal in a 5-1 board vote. County Commissioners Rod Cleveland and Rusty Grissom were absent from the meeting.

"It became apparent to me that that budget board meeting was going to be nothing, but a platform for political gain ... I heard about their plan before I went in there and I chose not to participate. It was not a disregard of my duties. I want to be clear on that. It was more of a principled stance against the divisive politics that they've been playing in. I was not going to be a part of," Amason told The Transcript.

The result of the meeting was the budget board requesting an audit of the Sheriff's Office's finances and required CCSO to submit information within seven days of the meeting.

This includes documents showing how much the office has received and their expenditures, Reynolds said in his own interview.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 20, this information has yet to be received, Reynolds said.

He added that, according to numbers calculated by his office, CCSO has received about $17.06 million from all income sources as of Wednesday and were on track to receive the $18.36 million by the end of the fiscal year.

"With such a difference between our numbers I had to quadruple check. I'll stand on 17.06 and believe we are on track to see at least 18.36 make it into his coffers before FY 23-24 ends, which is his budget. This additional money will come from the cash receipts over the next 4 1/4 months," he said over email.

Reynolds explained that while the audit is ongoing funding will come from other areas of taxpayer money to supplement the Sheriff's Office.

The amount of funds that will be used remains to be determined.

"It's gonna take two or three months for that (audit) and the county's gonna bleed dollars a little bit until, you know, we get answers," he said.

"If you're blowing past those numbers, then you start attacking people and saying everything you can say, but let's just get back to the numbers because they're again the numbers of taxpayer dollars," he said.

Magness said the Sheriff's Office in turn submitted their own audit "that shows the financial clarity of what's available to us and how it can be used."

"That is the essence of why the budget board's there. That's literally Title 19, section 1410 (Oklahoma statute), that they're required to provide the fund balance for every account, and expenses and revenue for that," he added.

He said that the office has been given $2 million in Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) from the Justice Authority, $3 million from the Budget Board approved in ad valorem taxes and the rest is generated from operations.

"We were the only office asked to generate their budget from operations from their cash operations. So that's interesting. But basically, it was stated that should the revenue fail, then the Justice Authority would be made available to open up the PSST to cover that shortfall. The interesting thing as well is that plan has already been approved. So we don't know why they're trying to deviate from that plan," he said.

Magness also said later over email that CCSO had sent a request to the Justice Authority that would have approved funds to supply the remainder of the requested allocation and was denied.

"While this is frustrating, it is not surprising. We have submitted several items to the Justice Authority which are subsequently denied access by the Commissioners," Magness said.

Amason said the office has made efforts before the latest Budget Board meeting to discuss the situation, however, the process has been "like a 'Groundhog Day.'"

"It's the same thing over and over and we're not getting anywhere. So that's where I talked about this political gamesmanship and these bicep politics that they know and they knew well before yesterday's meeting and to have them say that otherwise is offensive honestly," he said.

In an email exchange between Magness and Grissom, provided by CCSO, discussions about Sheriff's office needs are dated as early as Jan. 26.

In a statement sent by Cleveland, he said, "It recently came to our attention that, at current funding and spending levels, the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office may soon run out of cash on hand to make expected payments. This is a serious situation requiring a timely response, as the Sheriff's Office provides critical services to our community."

"To address the situation and determine options for additional funding, the Cleveland County Budget Board requested additional information from the Sheriff's Office to understand its financial position. Once we have an accurate picture, the Budget Board and Board of County Commissioners will work with the Sheriff's Office to determine a remedy best suited to the needs and county residents. As a board, we are committed to ensuring law enforcement and other public safety organizations are adequately funded to protect property and people in our communities," he said.

A special Budget Board meeting will be held in relation to the ongoing issue on Monday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. at the Cleveland County Office Building, 201 S. Jones Ave., Suite 200.