How soon we forget

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Debra Hale-Shelton's recap of the spending woes at the sheriff's office sparked comments from JP Marvin Kelley. Kelley, a reserve deputy and member of the jail task force, spoke in defense of the sheriff's office even though the sheriff and his staff declined comment.

You may remember Kelley was one of the JPs who voted against the legislative audit that uncovered egregious incidents of theft and fraud saying, "I think it's a sad day in Faulkner County when our elected officials are beating each other up in the newspaper." He added, "I don't know how it should have been handled," he said. "If I were one JP with questions, why can't I just go say 'What's the problem?' One (JP) can go directly to a department head. It just appeared to me like it was politically motivated."

It would seem that he would liked to have kept this misspending under wraps and not let the public know where our money is being spent. But that's not what he promised to do in his 2002 campaign for JP. In his run against (D) Jerry Roberts, JP Kelley said, "What I want to do is just be a responsible and accountable representative for the people of the county. We've passed sales tax initiatives for the jail and roads, and we need to see some action," he added he wants to be sure the county isn't "wasting taxpayer money."

Now Kelley speaks out to defend those accused of misspending and wasting taxpayer's money, how soon do we forget. Debra Hale-Shelton writes,

. . . Tabor took aim at reportedly widespread credit-card abuse and evidence of theft by others in the sheriff's office while concluding that no criminal charges against Montgomery were warranted.

"Items from diapers to liquor were purchased using the cards", Tabor said.

Kelly, who is an unpaid reserve deputy, acknowledged the discovery of "a lot of things that were certainly improper or inaccurate" in the sheriff's office. Still he said, "I really don't think it was intentional wrongdoing. All of the people that work for the sheriff I believe to be honest people."

Kelley must think that "improper" actions, "widespread credit-card abuse", "inaccurate" reporting of expenses, and "evidence of theft" are definitions of honesty.

But what is really disturbing is the sheriff and his staff's actions when questioned about this matter, they refused to answer. They are members of our government who have once again misspent our tax dollars and they do not show up to answer questions by the Finance Committee. Furthermore they offer no explanation to the public other than that they are offended by these questions. Do they seriously think that childishly refusing to answer questions about where the money was spent is going to make them look good?

It looks like they still have things to hide and it appears that they have at least one JP that is willing to defend them for it.