County Money Being Paid to City Of Defuniak

I'll post all the documents tomorrow !

Been paying them for 99 years - total paid for the last 5 years was $ 277,000

It sure was a bomb Misty, glad you picked up on it. Chapman is on the audio asking "what was that all about" after Imfeld shut down Bob Hudson for going any further.

For over 100 years, tax payers have been financing DFS (City), without any actual agreement. Sounds about as Good Ole' Boy as it gets.

I think we can both agree that the $800k and now this, almost $300k is the tip of the ice burg and the Walton County Titanic is taking on some serious water.

Notice how Imfeld rushed to stop Bob Hudson from going into any other discussion about the 1914?

Wonder why?

I try to look for similarities in things and one glaring similarity is that Commissioner Imfeld WAS Finance Director Imfeld for years, all while this money mismanagement was taking place... Oh, that's just a coincidence...wink wink

What's the difference between paying Defuniak and forgiving debt to Freeport?

What's the difference between paying Defuniak and forgiving debt to Freeport?

Nothing! The same lawyer is involved.

Nothing! The same lawyer is involved.

Well if it's been since 1914 then I'm assuming this is another dead lawyer?

Well if it's been since 1914 then I'm assuming this is another dead lawyer?

Nah just one but I digress...this was allegedly and agreement between the City and County that originated by BCC approval back in 1914 that the BCC doesn't know anything about.

Here is the "Cliff Notes" version.

1. In 1914 the City of DFS asked the commission to provide some funding from the ad valorem portion of the taxes collected in Walton County.

2. Discussion of this is documented in the minutes of several city council meetings.

3. Searches for some parallel discussion at a BCC meeting only reveal a "one time payment". There are no inter local agreements providing for continued sharing.

4. Annually a manual calculation has been made at the Tax Collectors office and a distribution directly made to DFS.

5. The tax collectors office has been implementing new software and included the calculation on the actual tax bill.

6. I was asked to review the new statement and commented to Cory Godwin asking "what the hell is this line item showing a disbursement to DFS on my new bill. He responded "been done for ever manually but only shown as a total on the tax bill".

7. I asked why are were doing that ? He directed me to Mark Davis.

8. I contacted Mark Davis and Larry Jones what this was. Larry responded he had no idea but would check into it and get back to me.

9. Mark finally responded with a series of documents and stated there was no inter local agreement and after 10-1-2015 the distribution would no longer be made.

10. I sent an inquiry to the tax collectors office asking what the distribution amounts were for the past 5 years. And in a response they gave me the following:

Below find the amount of money erroneously distributed to the City of DeFuniak Springs in the last 5 years by year.

$ 277,758.77 in the last 5 years alone.

These distributions have occurred since 1915. There was no agreement to make these payments, no contract, no inter local agreement

Bob,

Are you able to ascertain the total amount paid over 99 years?

P.S. Will there be any attempt to recover money?

The Tax Collectors Office was able to give me the total for 5 years.

After the meeting Commissioner Imfeld and I had a very "heated discussion" concerning efforts to recover some or all of the money. I got no definitive answer.

I know that County Administrator Jones has known of this since July of 2014. I have a letter from Rhonda Skipper notifying him of the issue.

2. I have a copy of the 2014 Distribution Reconciliation Report sent to the Office of Management & Budget showing the distribution to the City of DFS so I know they were aware.

3. A simple reconciliation at the OMB on the "budgeted" vs "Distributions received" would have shown the difference and questions asked of the Tax Collector SHOULD have discovered this annually by the Director in place at that time including then OMB director Imfeld.

I'm posting this on my phone a it won't allow me to upload all of the documents. I will do that from my computer later.

I guess the most telling part of this is what the "manual calculation" was.

While I understand the need for people to immediately go to Illuminati style meetings in the woods surrounding Defuniak I'm betting it had something to do with simplifying tax collection back when they used abacuses and actual beans.

The Tax Collectors Office was able to give me the total for 5 years.

After the meeting Commissioner Imfeld and I had a very "heated discussion" concerning efforts to recover some or all of the money. I got no definitive answer.

I know that County Administrator Jones has known of this since July of 2014. I have a letter from Rhonda Skipper notifying him of the issue.

2. I have a copy of the 2014 Distribution Reconciliation Report sent to the Office of Management & Budget showing the distribution to the City of DFS so I know they were aware.

3. A simple reconciliation at the OMB on the "budgeted" vs "Distributions received" would have shown the difference and questions asked of the Tax Collector SHOULD have discovered this annually by the Director in place at that time including then OMB director Imfeld.

I'm posting this on my phone a it won't allow me to upload all of the documents. I will do that from my computer later.

Why am I not surprised that Jones knew? Hmmm, maybe because I think he knows allot more than he's telling. Why am I also not surprised that Imfeld's reaction suggests he also knew? Again, its one of those things where he was in charge of fiance and should have known but didn't.

1914 was 101 years ago and not many years after Southwest Washington County became South Walton.

What does the City of DeFuniak say??

1914 was 101 years ago and not many years after Southwest Washington County became South Walton.

What does the City of DeFuniak say??

I don't think the actual payment was made until 1915 but not going to quibble over a year. I doubt the City Attorney will say much but watch what happens when the County doesn't pay it. I smell another frivolous lawsuit in the making.

I bet DFS cannot account for the money and where it went. Any takers?

Email after discussion from Mark Davis ! Notice its sent to the head of OMB, County Administrator and Cory Godwin !

And they say they didn't know ????????

Mark Davis
Sep 29



to me, Cory, Larry, Melissa


Dear Bob:

This is where I think we are on this issue. There is no Interlocal Agreement and absent one, Melissa will not be distributing fund and the Tax Collector will not be collecting funds. By copy of this to Cory and Melissa, I ask that they let me know if my understanding is incorrect.

Mark

Mark D. Davis
County Attorney
Office Of The County Attorney

161 East Sloss Avenue
DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433
Telephone (850) 892-8110

This letter was sent to Larry Jones on July 13th - Guess he doesn't read his mail - Don't tell me they didn't know !!!!
Facsimile (850) 892-8471


By now you would think they KNOW I'm not going to just sit on something like this ! Fair warning was given !

1914 was 101 years ago and not many years after Southwest Washington County became South Walton.

What does the City of DeFuniak say??

The City was unaware until this morning !!!!

The City was unaware until this morning !!!!

Those who actually sit in City offices and do their job may not have known but how much would you like to bet Clayton Adkinson absolutely knew?

I'm having a hard time believing someone in the City didn't know...how do you reconcile book keeping practices if you don't know where the money comes from to reconcile them??

I wonder if the money was "budgeted" for receipt in the City budget.

Need to get a copy of their budget.

DFS has been budgeting the revenue.

Budgeted $30,000 for this year

DFS has been budgeting the revenue.

Budgeted $30,000 for this year

Was the money paid to the City in Oct.? According to the letter you posted the money wouldn't be paid as of Oct 1, 2015. You can't budget with money you don't have.

Ah, more money that is unaccounted for.

Who's the DFS City Attorney?

Through the budget process and even up until today the City of DeFuniak Springs would have estimated what the anticipated revenue would be based on the historical trend that had occurred for 101 years.

They knew they had received it in the past and due to the fact that the County appears to have not shared the letter from the Tax collector (Mailed July 13th) with the City.

Wonder why ?

Judging from Chapman's reaction last night I doubt he knew anything about it. And I talked to someone from "back in the day" who had never heard of it. So it will be interesting to find out who knew what and when.

Bob, while many people probably don't realize the extent of the work and diligence done on your part, I would like to say THANK YOU!! If we want to fix this, a state audit is the first step in the right direction.. the 2nd step should be to VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS!! Thanks Bob!!

Judging from Chapman's reaction last night I doubt he knew anything about it. And I talked to someone from "back in the day" who had never heard of it. So it will be interesting to find out who knew what and when.

Judging from the reactions I saw last night they all played STUPID. I have a really hard time believing that Mark Davis would receive a letter from the WCTC and wouldn't share that information with his bosses. Mark is paid by the County to keep them out of deep do do, not help them step in it like they did last night by playing dumb.