County Money Being Paid to City Of Defuniak
- Thread starter Misty
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I'll post all the documents tomorrow !
Been paying them for 99 years - total paid for the last 5 years was $ 277,000
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
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
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
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
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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.
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.
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