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Harrison offers his side on IRS fiasco
To the editor:
To help clear up all the unanswered questions about the city's unpaid taxes, I urge the City of Blytheville to immediately authorize an independent audit of the city's finances during the time period of 2006-2010. Further, I agree with your editor that it is time to bring all parties together to answer questions under oath. I would be happy to be the first person to speak in this process.
Many accusations and rumors have surrounded the matter of the city's current IRS debt and almost all have implicated that I have caused the current situation either negligently or criminally.
Here are the facts concerning the matter as I know them.
1. At no time did I authorize any policy of non-payment of payroll taxes to the IRS.
2. At no time was I aware that the city payroll taxes were not being paid.
3. I never received notification from the IRS, written or verbal, that the city's taxes were not paid.
4. I know of no one that was ever provided with information that the payroll taxes, or any other taxes for that matter, had not been paid. That list would include the city treasurer, the city attorney, the city clerk, my personal secretary, city department heads and members of the Blytheville City Council. None of us were ever provided with any financial report that listed such a liability.
5. I was mayor for 12 years. There were 312 payrolls during my time as mayor. There was never a single time that I was required to do anything to cause the payroll taxes to be paid. I didn't have to make a payroll tax deposit, I didn't have to sign a check, I didn't have to log on to a computer, enter a code, dial a phone number, sign an authorization or grant permission to anyone else, so they could do what was necessary, to be sure the payroll taxes were paid. The payroll tax deposit was never a function of the mayor's office. Not before or after I became mayor.
6. The Legislative Audit, a division of the State of Arkansas whose responsibility it is to annually review our city's finances, never cited evidence that payroll taxes for years 2006-2009 were unpaid. Only after it was pointed out by the IRS did Legislative Audit amend their report to reflect the question of unpaid taxes, but, Legislative Audit can still neither confirm or deny the liability.
7. As I said in April, we are fortunate the IRS showed up when they did. Otherwise the debt might still be accumulating. Payroll taxes remained unpaid in 2011 until the IRS made a personal appearance in late March of this year. I say this not to criticize, but to point out that the new administration was obviously being provided the same financial information as the previous administration was. Otherwise, Mayor Sanders, our Council Members or the new city treasurer would not have allowed this to continue to go on.
As in the case of any financial catastrophe, the first question people want answered is "What happened to the money?" Personally I don't believe a nickel has been stolen. It is my belief that after a proper audit is done we will find that the money was used on streets, sewers, water systems, trash pickup, police and fire protection, parks and, unfortunately, to pay jail fees. Once an audit is complete, it will be much easier for all of us to be on the same page and move our city forward in a positive direction. As part of the process, I have offered, and continue to offer, my full cooperation to the city and its attorneys. I have pledged to work with them in any capacity.
I have been asked what's the City Council's responsibility is in all this. It is their responsibility to review the financial reports. State law gives the city council both management and control of the finances. One of reasons all this happened is because I had such comfort in the group of people who were responsible for watching over it. We had and still have a wonderful group of dedicated people running our city. I've looked back at the names of Council members that served on the City Council Finance Committee from 2006 to 2010. All of them were and still are people the entire community has great confidence in. For example, Monte Hodges, who served in 2009 and 2010, has a strong financial background. As a matter of fact, his financial experience was part of his campaign when he ran for City Council. He is a person I respect and one that I depended on as a member of the council. James Sanders served on the Finance Committee in 2007. They, along with the other Council members were provided with the same information that I was. Again, I say this not to criticize, but to point out that this was not a problem that was as easy to spot as the public might think. We all know that neither of these two gentlemen would have allowed this problem to go on had they been given information that reflected we had one.
I understand people being upset by these events. Some needing to vent their frustration, or even thinking they have something to say or a letter to write that others might find value or comfort in. But I would like to ask that you please be careful. For 12 years my family and I had to put up with criticism, things being misquoted and even events being falsely represented by those with differing opinions. I understood all that came with holding public office. But I refuse to sit back and let people accuse me of breaking the law, and I believe it is very irresponsible of this paper to print unfounded accusations. In the future, I intend to seek all legal remedies available to me for defamation and slander.
Again, I hope the city will move ahead and authorize an independent audit. Not just so the people can be satisfied that the money was not stolen but because your mayor and City Council have all they can say grace over without this distraction. Soon the mayor and council will be presenting their plan on how to solve the problem, and I hope we will all support their plan, solve the problem and move on. As much as I regret this crisis, the only way I can help with its resolution is to offer complete transparency.