Finance Director Lonnie Clark explained at Monday’s council meeting that around the 25th of every month, the city gets checks for city sales tax and the Lake Leatherwood tax deposited into the general fund account. He transfers the appropriate funds to the Parks accounts and notifies their office. Clark said that is all his office does regarding the LLCP tax.
Parks Director Justin Huss said Parks gets two checks, one for the ¼-cent tax and one for the LLCP 1/8-cent tax. Each fund is accounted for separately with the in and out of everything clearly logged. The state audit inspects their books every year and so far has found no problems.
Alderman Mickey Schneider asked Clark if he saw any reason he should have further administrative control over the Parks tax revenue, and he responded that not only did he have no problems with what has been happening, the Municipal League also saw no reason to change accounting procedures.
Alderman David Mitchell read the statement from the Municipal League a bit differently, in that he saw council had ultimate control although the tax funds must be spent according to the ballot language, and Parks handled that. He just wanted council to have accurate financial information for monitoring purposes. He said financial reporting from Parks was important to taxpayers.
Schneider said things had been going well, so council should leave things alone, but Mitchell still contended council had a fiduciary duty as he understood it, and he intended for council to perform appropriately.
Schneider moved for things to remain the same as they had been. Vote to approve the motion was 3-0-2, Mitchell and Thomas abstaining. Berry cast the fourth Yes vote, so nothing will change regarding oversight of the LLCP tax funds.