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Forsyth asking for federal probe
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June 29, 2009
CUMMING – The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted to ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate findings of an internal control audit that suggests the county's elections director, Gary Smith, may have been paid by the county for the same hours he worked as a consultant for ESI.
Smith denies being paid twice for working the same hours.
"First of all, I have never collected any fees while being paid by the county," Smith said a day after the commissioners took their vote after hearing the conclusions of the audit by Sawyer and Company.
Chief Financial Officer Bill Thomas read his own four-page summation of the audit, its findings and recommendations at the June 23 work session. He concluded his summary with recommendations for the commissioners. The only action commissioners took at the meeting dealt with the Elections Office.
Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse read a two-page motion about the audit, adopting Sawyer and Company's suggestion that "further fact finding and review is recommended." He cited the board's efforts to make county government transparent to its citizens.
"I move that county staff and the county attorney promptly draft correspondence to the United States Justice Department requesting that they review and investigate the findings and recommendations of the Internal Control Audit as they relate to the Election's Office," Laughinghouse said.
He said the Justice Department should be invited to conduct any additional fact finding, given full cooperation and take any follow-up action they deem necessary, reviewing all other portions of the audit or any other county department or agency.
No other comment was made by any commissioner during the meeting on this topic, and Laughinghouse's motion passed unanimously, with Commissioners Patrick Bell, Jim Harrell, Jim Boff and Brian Tam voting in support.
A day later Smith refuted the accusations and said commissioners and the county Finance Department knew exactly what he was doing as a consultant on his own time.
"Have I collected consulting fees for people like Cherokee County? The answer is yes. I've done it when I've been on my own time," he said.
Smith said the allegations seem to be a personal vendetta against him.
It's the third time the county has investigated him. He said his expenses and time were checked and approved by the county Finance Department at the time, and commissioners were aware he was in Cherokee County.
"Every trip that I took, every penny that I spent, has had to go through final approval by the Finance Department. We don't have our own bank account," he said.
Smith said he and his staff always followed the rules that were in place at the time. Audit suggestions that the office do things differently have been addressed.
"We made changes as was required and requested by the Board of Commissioners and the Finance Department," Smith said.
Nothing says he can't do outside consulting, Smith said.
The county has spent probably in excess of $100,000 on these audits, he said.
"They need to review their own books," Smith said.
Smith thinks the attacks against him stem from the six years he served as chairman of the Forsyth Republic Party.
"There are a lot of personal issues that are riding over from that. And I think this is one way certain people in our county have wanted to attack the election office and me personally with the innuendos and outright lies," Smith said.
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Tags: Forsyth County, Forsyth Voter Registrar
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