Cash-strapped Earle dips into savings to pay bills

Cash-strapped Earle dips into savings to pay bills

City cashes in CD to cover shortfall

news@theeveningtimes.com

Faced with $19,000 in bills and only $4,500 in its general account, Earle has had to dip into a certificate of deposit to pay its bills and meet payroll.

The city council met during a special meeting on Monday and authorized withdrawing $50,000 from a CD.

City Treasurer Cynthia Conner informed officials that the city has $19,127 in bills that it can not pay.

“The General Fund account only has $4,510.43 in the bank,” Conner wrote in a memo to Mayor Carolyn Jones and the city council. “That is not enough money to meet payroll next week.”

According to the financial report, the city will receive $34,225 giving the city $38,735 in the general fund. But with $19,127 in bills that need to be paid and $12,500 for payroll, that will leave the city with $7,108 for payroll for the rest of the month.

“It saddens me to say that we will need to make a withdrawal again from the CD to cover the city’s expenses,” Conner wrote.

Conner has repeatedly warned the council about excessive spending for months but officials have continued to spend money the city doesn’t have.

Each month the Mayor and council members receive a copy of the bank register listing the city’s bills and fund balance.

“I have been informing you about the excess spending but the problem is still unresolved,” Conner wrote. “”I’m never asked if we have funds available to make purchases prior to the monies being spent.”

Conner said she has tried her best to keep the city from having to withdraw more money from its CD accounts.

“I love this city and do not want to see us go broke,” Conner wrote. “It is our duty as elected officials to do what is best for this city. We are not doing that by having to keep getting money from a CD and not trying to fix our spending problem.”

This is the second time under Mayor Carolyn Jones that the city has had to withdraw money from one of its CDs.

The city was forced to withdraw $50,000 last year to pay bills and had to cut $36,000 in order to balance the 2016 budget.

Conner said the city has PAY BILLS

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brought in $426,113 but has spent $461,651 — a deficit of $35,538.

Revenue from a two cent city sales tax and county sales and use tax is also down $20,006 in 2016 compared to the same time last year.

“We do not have the revenue coming in like we used to,” Conner wrote.

Conner also noted that the city has paid out $11,527 in overtime to the Police Department.

“We can hire another part-time officer for that salary,” Conner wrote.

Earle currently has seven part-time office and two full-time officers.

The city also got a $733 electric bill from Entergy for its community center.

The July bill was only $174.

“We are not making any money from the community center but we are increasing the expenditure,” Conner wrote. “We can not make it like this.”

The city recently spent $2,200 for labor and repairs

to make the building

available for rent.

Conner said she was also informed by the Arkansas Municipal League that its fees for Legal Defense for 2017 will jump to $14,500 — an increase of $6,051.

The increase is a result of several lawsuits filed against Mayor Jones, the most recent one by former police chief Tyrone Smith, who was fired by Jones and is suing the city for $50,000. The city was also sued after Jones fired two white police officers upon taking office, and is being sued by an inmate who claims he sustained injuries after the police car he was being transported in rear-ended a car. The city also had to defend itself in court when resident Frederick Pitchford filed a lawsuit claiming the 2016 budget was passed illegally.

Jones has refused to accept any of the blame for the city’s overspending and has pushed it off on the city council.

Councilman Charlie Young, who voted against withdrawing funds from the CD the first time but went along with it this time, said the reason for the overspending is because of recent unforeseen expenses.

“We’re spending too much,” Young agreed.

“We had a lot of things come up like the motor and the overtime with the police. Hopefully next month will be better.”

The city spent $7,470 for a new motor for a 2014 Dodge Charge police car which blew an engine rod due to low oil. The city previously spent $1,100 on a used 2004 motor which proved to be incompatible in an effort to try to save money.

The city also spent $13,096 on a car for Mayor Jones which has since been parked at City Hall, $30,586 on a new truck for the water department, and thousands on repairs on city equipment.

Earle also can not account for $3,000 in missing court fees which were collected but never deposited.

Councilman Kenneth Cross said he was also dismayed by having to withdraw money from the CD, but that the city had no choice.

“Any time you have to cash in a CD to pay your bills isn’t a good thing,” Cross said. “But we had to do it.”

Cross said in addition to the unexpected bills, the city also had a lot of unauthorized spending by Mayor Jones.

“We had a lot of spending by the mayor that was not authorized by the council where the mayor OK’d city workers to go ahead and do,” Cross said. “She didn’t come to the council.”

The mayor is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the city.

Cross said Jones has been in charge of scheduling at the police department but has told the council that she would take care of it.

“We probably do need to hire two or three more part-time officers,” Cross said.

The council has also agreed to meet the first week of every month to go over the budget so as to avoid future budget problems.

“I think that will help out a lot,” Cross said.

By Mark Randall