Broyles to leave Audit Committee

Amy Broyles

The Knox County Audit Committee on Monday voted to replace member Amy Broyles, who has missed a number of meetings because of health-related matters.

Broyles, who is also a county commissioner in her final months of her current term, told WBIR 10News by phone that she had planned to step down from the committee.

She said upcoming surgery would force her to miss more meetings.

“Everything has been going really well on the audit committee and there hasn’t been much going on, so I wasn’t too concerned,” said Broyles, who was not at Monday's Audit Committee meeting. “Plus, we have really good people on the committee.”

The board, in a 4-0 vote, agreed to replace her. Member said they were having trouble getting a quorum during their bi-monthly meetings.

The panel, which makes recommendations to the Knox County Commission, is comprised of three commissioners and two county residents.

Broyles, whose term on the commission ends at the end of August, did not seek re-election.

Three minor issues revealed in annual Knox County audit but good overall

Knox County once again received a clean bill of health from its auditors, but the firm that conducted the annual financial review said officials still have room to improve.

The county’s external auditor, Pugh & Company, noted three significant deficiencies. But, for the first time in a long time, no material weaknesses while reviewing the county’s budget for fiscal year 2015, which concluded last June 30, according to a preliminary draft of a report.

The county’s Audit Committee will talk more about the findings during its meeting Tuesday.

Overall, county financial statements - in addressing an entire organization that includes the county general government, the school system, and the fee offices - have once again received an “unqualified opinion,” the best ranking possible.

The county has earned the ranking each year for more than a decade, and received the "Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting" from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for almost 20 years.

Auditors, however, noted the following, which they listed as significant deficiencies:

• Six school and county invoices that amounted to $1 million should have been paid through the FY 2015 budget, but were instead paid with revenues from the current budget.
• The Criminal Court Clerk’s Office was dinged after auditors discovered that the department reviews daily receipts on a monthly basis rather than each day.
• Auditors also found accounting errors in the school system’s nutrition department that led to financial overstatements of $622,000.

Officials have since put controls in place to fix the problems.

Rest of story RIGHT HERE.

Arnett: $345K collected in taxes

Foster Arnett

Knox County Clerk Foster Arnett Jr. told the county’s Audit Committee on Thursday that his office has collected $345,815 in outstanding hotel and motel taxes that had gone uncollected during the past two years.

He said he has about $130,000 left to go after.

The discussion comes more than six months after an internal audit report said at least a dozen local hotels and motels owed the county an estimated $476,000 from the past two years alone, and that four hotels alone could owe an additional $255,000 "for periods outside the audit scope."

County lodgings are expected to charge a 5 percent occupancy tax that is used to fund tourism-related operations and programs in Knox County.

Arnett’s office is charged with collecting the money.

The county clerk took heavy criticism from other elected leaders, including many on the Knox County Commission, after the audit report was made public. Since then he’s sent letters to hotel and motel owners and also met with them to collect the outstanding taxes.

“There’s just a few left,” he said. “There is one that is fairly huge, but there’s a little here and there (from other motels).”

Arnett said he spoke with one hotel owner on Wednesday and “we made it very clear what their deadlines are.”

“We are following the law and working very closely with the law department to send out notifications,” he said. “We’re on the right track, I think.”

State law prevents the county from releasing the names of those who owe money, although state leaders are looking into changing that.

Carcello resigns from audit board

Long-time Knox County Audit Committee Chairman Joe Carcello, who led the panel as it looked into a series of financial scandals, has resigned.

In a letter sent to Knox County commissioners on Tuesday, Carcello said the committee “has made a contribution to improving financial reporting and controls over the seven years it has been in existence, and it has been my pleasure to work with you and other Audit Committee members during that time.”

Carcello, who served as chairman of the 5-member committee since its inception, said his resignation is effective immediately.

The County Commission, on Monday, will talk about replacing him during its monthly work session.

“He has been a valuable asset for Knox County,” said commission Chairman Dave Wright. “He’s been a driving force in keeping us in line – bringing us the information so we know what the rules of the road are.”

Wright said Carcello “will be tough to replace.”

“He’s done an exceptionally focused job, helping us to make sure we can do things as best we can,” he added.

Carcello, an accounting professor at the University of Tennessee since 1992, became the department head, Ernst & Young, and business alumni professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Management, Haslam College of Business at UT in January 2014.

He also serves as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investor advisory committee.

In his resignation letter, he said those duties "coupled with all of my other faculty responsibilities, has me working 6-7 days every week and late into the evening on most nights."

He added: “This situation has become increasingly untenable, so I have begun the process of identifying activities that I can exit.  Unfortunately, chairing the Knox County audit committee is more peripheral to my day-to-day responsibilities at UT than my other activities.”

Rest of story RIGHT HERE.

Annual audit gives Knox County high marks, despite 2014 school problems

Auditor Larry Elmore

Knox County's external auditor dinged the county on a number of financial matters – almost all of them tied to well-publicized school problems that officials say they are in the process of fixing.

Overall, however, the county financial statements taken as an entire organization, which includes its general government, the school system, and the fee offices, have once again received a clean bill of health.

Auditors with Knoxville-based Pugh & Company on Monday presented a preliminary copy of the county's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR, to the county's Audit Committee.

The report covered fiscal year 2014, which ended last June 30, when the overall county budget stood at $734.5 million.

"They have a great accounting and finance staff at the county and they do a great job," said Larry Elmore, vice president of Pugh & Co.

He added: "We have never once gotten the feeling that people didn't want to cooperate or answer questions. We've always gotten the impression that everyone in the county wants to improve what they're doing. That's what we found up and down countywide government."

During Monday's meeting, officials said they discovered three significant deficiencies and one material weaknesses in the county's financial statements.

Auditors said they found problems with the school system's use of credit cards; how the school system accounts for some facility upgrades; and a lease agreement the school system entered into to get computers.

In addition, auditors took issue with a bank account set up by the Knox County Criminal Court Clerk's Office.

Significant deficiencies typically keep management or employees from preventing, detecting or correcting misstatements in a timely manner. They are less severe than a material weakness, but important enough to merit the attention of those in charge, according to auditors.

A material weakness is often a combination of deficiencies such that there is a reasonable possibility that a misstatement won't be prevented.

For the rest of the story and a snapshot of the findings, click RIGHT SMACK HERE.

KCS wants nutrition dept. audit

You might recall back in mid-September when we broke the story that the state is investigating Knox County Schools Executive Director of School Nutrition Jon Dickl for allegations connected to the misuse of funds.

We were told at the time that the probe is tied to the use of two $500 gift cards that were given to food services and into ties that a school vendor has to a car dealership that possibly sold Dickl a deeply discount vehicle.

(Dude makes more than $100K annually by the way. He's currently on paid administrative leave.)

Anyhoo, the school system today issued a release, saying that it is requesting that the county's internal auditing department conduct an audit and an independent risk review of the KCS School Nutrition Department.

According to the release:

Internal Auditor Andrea Addis has been apprised of the school district’s request that her office conduct a financial audit of the school system’s nutrition department as well as providing an independent risk review of that department’s financial operations. Any work conducted by the Internal Auditor would need to be authorized by the Knox County Commission.

“This is a needed step to ensure that the school system’s food service department has a sound financial operation,” said Mike McMillan, Chair of the Knox County Board of Education. “While the department receives an annual financial audit, this review would examine the daily financial management of the department. Pending the Commission’s approval, I look forward to receiving the auditor’s report and to sharing it with the Board of Education.”

“I appreciate the Internal Auditor’s willingness to potentially work with us to take a hard look at the financial operation of our School Nutrition Department and identify any weaknesses in the department’s processes and internal controls,” said Superintendent Jim McIntyre. “I think this is a prudent and necessary action in light of the ongoing investigation into allegations that have been made about the KCS food service director. If the Commission agrees, we will work with Ms. Addis in the coming days to develop a complete project scope of services, and I look forward to initiating the work as soon as possible.”

The Knox County Schools School Nutrition Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 is $27.5 million. The department receives no local or state funding but operates on revenues received from the sale of meals as well as reimbursements from the federal government for meals provided to students of limited economic means. By statute, the food service budget and fiscal management are separate from the school system’s general operating budget that provides for the daily operation of the school system.

Internal audit: Knox County schools PPU fund needs better accounting

A Knox County audit that looked into the school system's physical plant upgrades account – one some officials dubbed a "slush fund" – recommends that officials do a better job tracking how the money assigned to it is spent and improve the overall accounting process to ensure that the money is spent how it was intended.

"I know it's not the most exciting thing, but it's an area that's really important," said the county's internal auditor, Andrea Addis. "To know when we spend money, when we're spending our money, that we know we're spending it in the right places. That's really what it comes down to."

The audit did not identify any areas officials found "criminal in nature," nor did it discover any "acts of fraud, waste (or) abuse," but none were expected, either.

Instead, auditors were tasked to conduct a "performance audit," something that looks at how the accounting process works and whether officials followed the rules.

Addis said "there's areas to improve," but noted: "There's nothing that jumps out that says 'hey, this is a really bad thing,' or 'there's something going on here," but it's just about building a stronger structure."

She said more controls in place would give officials the "tools to monitor their performance and hold them accountable for their performance."

The entire story, RIGHT HERE.

The audit, RIGHT HERE.

County releases school's PPU audit

Knox County's internal audit department this afternoon released the audit of the school system's Physical Plant Upgrades account.

I skimmed over the 23 or so pages, but that's about it. (I had today off.)

Here's what the department noted:

We found three areas for improvement in the Physical Plant Upgrade (PPU) accounting process, with one of these areas considered significant according the audit definition of significance. Specifically, we found needed improvements related to:

• Capital project accounting,
• Application of capitalization rules to PPU transactions, and
• Documentation of process for accounting for PPU transactions.

We did not identify any issues that would be considered criminal in nature and no acts of fraud, waste, abuse, or noncompliance with laws or regulations came to our attention during testing.

Here's a story we did back in March about the account, RIGHT SMACK HERE.

And, you can find the audit, RIGHT SMACK HERE.

I suspect we'll have a story on this at 11 tonight on WBIR 10News. (I hope to be asleep by then, though. Heh.)

UPDATE: Superintendent Jim McIntyre in a statement said: 

“The Physical Plant Upgrades (PPU) audit report makes some helpful recommendations regarding improving accounting procedures, and our finance personnel largely agree with these suggestions. The audit report makes clear that there was no fraud, waste, abuse, nor violations of law or regulations found with regard to the PPU account. The Internal Auditor’s fair and comprehensive report will help our school system do an even better job of transparently accounting for taxpayer resources that support maintaining high quality learning environments for our children.”

Does the Knox County superintendent practice what he preaches? Or . .

“Silence is always the worst kind of reporting” – Rikki Hall

Is it ironic or hypocritical that Superintendent Jim McIntyre would tell the Knox County Commission during its March work session that if members had a problem with something the school system does, then go ahead and call him first?

“If you have questions about how we do our business . . .  how we account for things . . .  please give me a call. I think you have my phone numbers,” he said. “Rather than going straight to an audit committee and bringing some fairly salacious allegations, it would be a nice professional courtesy if myself or the school board heard from county commissioners that had concerns or issues to bring to the floor.”

He also later said: “If you have questions . . .  certainly would appreciate a call to me.”

Well, over the years, he’s had plenty of problems with reporters, particularly those who aren’t afraid to ask him tough questions, and report on the findings. He doesn’t like it.

To him it’s “divisive” or it’s just not news.

When he disagrees with a tweet, a blog post or a news report, McIntyre doesn’t call the reporter. He goes over their heads.

Funny. That’s just what he told commissioners NOT do if they have a problem. Remember? “Professional courtesy.”

Yeah, right.

Anyhoo, it is what it is.

Still, it’s worth noting that it’s not the reporter's fault that the school system had serious security issues that went undisclosed until KNS reporter Jamie Satterfield broke the story. It's not a reporter's fault that there are enough questions surrounding a school system account - one that many officials think is a slush fund - to warrant an audit. It’s not a reporter’s fault that the superintendent has less than one year of real classroom experience. It’s not a reporter's fault the superintendent feels heneeds to seek advice from local players in the PR community when he has a $900,000 communications department. It’s not a reporter's fault he can’t give a straight answer when asked about the school system’s physical plant upgrades account. And, it’s not a reporter's fault that he and Knox County Commissioner Jeff Ownby aren’t on the same page.

Nope. Not a reporter's fault at all.

However, myself and at least one other reporter in this community do report about the issues. Because it’s news. It’s something people want to read.

And if the superintendent has a problem and wants to sit down and talk, then maybe he should practice what he preaches.

Commissioner Ownby's battle with school officials over public records

Commissioner Ownby

Here’s a little bit of inside baseball that was partially discussed in public last night, but didn’t really make the main story, which you can find right smack here.

Anyhoo, the Knox County Commission during its Monday work session agreed to audit the school system’s Physical Plan Upgrades account, something that a number of commissioners say is nothing more than a "slush fund."

The move was actually spearheaded by Commissioner Jeff Ownby, who had to wait roughly 17 days for the school system to compile an open records request that he submitted regarding the account.

During Monday’s meeting, Superintendent Jim McIntyre took exception to the “salacious” allegations that the account was a slush fund and noted that “this is the first time I’ve head of some of the complaints.”

He also said if Ownby had a problem or question, then he should have called.

Well, Ownby isn’t too happy that the superintendent claims he wasn’t exactly kept in the loop. So, he sent me over some emails, detailing the records request.

You can find the emails right smack here.

Now, you’ll note, according to these emails, that Ownby on Feb. 24 asked for the records connected to three years’ worth of spending tied to the PPU account.  He submitted the request to schools finance director Rob McPherson.

Superintendent McIntyre

On Feb. 28, McPherson replied back to Ownby, noting that they were “coordinating” and “segregating” and doing all sorts of stuff to get him that information. Note, that McIntyre is copied on this email.

Ownby says McIntyre was well aware of what was going on.

Now, here’s where it gets ridiculous, and this is where the commissioner got upset.

Ownby didn’t receive his records until March 12 or 13. And, man, if you’ve seen what the school system gave him, you’d cry. Or laugh. Ownby called them “barely legible.” He’s being nice.

Thanks to mild mannered reporter, the good Gerald Witt (whose blog you can find right here), for providing copies of those documents.

You can find ‘em right smack here. (Bring a magnifying glass.)

If you can read them, you probably won’t be able to find any information about Northshore Elementary School. I’m told – and I’m not risking my eyesight to find out – that Northshore isn’t on there. Funny. That’s the info Ownby truly wanted.

So, I hear about all this, and kind of chuckle. Because, on Friday, March 14, I asked the county’s finance department for the exact same information, except I asked for it going back eight years – not just three. Do you know how long it took the county’s finance people to compile it?

Less than an hour.

I kid you not. They sent me over more than 400 pages of records, which included information on Northshore, and you can actually read them.

Heh.

Looking at proposed 'slush fund' audit, accompanying Web interview

Superintendent McIntyre

The Knox County Commission will ask auditors to investigate Knox County Schools' more than $15 million so-called “slush fund.” Some say the school system dips into the Physical Plant Upgrades account whenever a project goes over budget and they want to conceal the true costs.

You can find the online story as well as our television report right smack here.

Also, there’s a web extra video that runs about 6:45 minutes, which you can find about mid-way through the online story. It's a classic Superintendent Jim McIntyre interview in which he answers nothing, and accepts no blame or responsibility for anything. You should check it out.

Some things to note from the extra: 

• 1:25 minute mark: McIntyre, a former finance director for the Boston School books, reverts back to that whole “safe, healthy, learning environment” motto. Heh. Really, his three public relations private advisers need to give him some new material.
• 1:40 minute mark: He pretty much blames the (alleged) bad accounting on the “county,” meaning the county’s finance people – not the school finance people. Er, no.
• 2:00 minute mark: Reiterates how his people work with the county finance department – “and it’s not just Knox County schools.” Er, no.
• 2:15 minute mark: I ask if “land acquisition” payments should come from the Physical Plant Upgrade account and he again talks about how “the county accounts for those dollars.” Er, no. It’s how the school system accounts for those dollars.
• 2:35 minute mark: My boy Jim Matheny asks McIntyre why he’s blaming the county and he still doesn’t answer the question.
• 3:23 minute mark: You hear me say “this is a school thing,” meaning why are you blaming the county.
• 4:00 minute mark: Now suggests that if there are any problems then they are tied to the “accounting system” that the county and the school system use.
• 6:08 minute mark: McIntyre talks about how the system should have separate accounts for different projects (i.e. security, stadium upgrades, etc.) and how that “would make sense.” Well, on paper, they do, according to the budget that was approved by the county commission and school board. The problem is, they’re all getting paid out of the Physical Plant Upgrades account.
• 6:20 minute mark: Now it’s all on the school board and the county, and those boards set the policy. Uh, no. The boards do not currently micro-manage at that level (although maybe they will start). In fact, McIntyre over the years has repeatedly reminded the County Commission – and rightly so – that once its members allocate the money, they cannot tell the school system how to spend it.

Look, I don't know why there's all this chucking and ducking. I’ve read through a lot of these records, and it doesn’t look like the school system is out buying Ferraris or illegally spending the money. They’re getting things they need. The problem rests in the accounting and in accountability.

The School System talks a big game about its transparency, but few in the public actually buy it. And these kinds of problems don’t help their argument.

In the meantime, the Knox County Commission next Monday will officially sign off on the proposal to audit the Physical Plant Upgrades account. The county’s internal auditor, Andrea Williams, will conduct it.

Williams, a former compliance advisory support senior manager with the Tennessee Valley Authority, recently took over the department, and this will be her first major challenge.

But, make no mistake, she is the real deal.

The audit should be complete in four to six weeks.

Auditors: Quarterly fraud review of Trustee's Office comes back 'clean'

Leuthold

When the Hanover Insurance Group in late July last year agreed to bond interim Knox County Trustee Craig Leuthold for a cool $55,000 (you can thank his predecessors for that one), officials with the company wanted to make sure no funny business was still going on in the tax collections office.

So, the county’s external auditor Pugh & Company since then have conducted a number of fraud interviews with office employees and checked spending accounts for any unusual activity.

Well, so far so good.

Larry Elmore, vice president of Pugh & Co., said during today’s Audit Committee that his folks checked into a number of issues during the final quarter of last year (ending in December) and the results came back “clean.”

Elmore said his operation randomly picked 25 people in the 40-member office and studied their payroll checks, time cards and key card entries into the building. They also met with employees in the Halls, Cedar Bluff and Death Star offices, to ask about potential suspicions of fraud.

That, too, came back clean.

Elmore said they’ll continue looking into the department quarterly through June (that means there should be two more reports), which is when the bond coverage for Leuthold expires.

At that point, it’s not known whether they company will charge $8,000 to $9,000, which is what it typically cost to bond someone, or if they’ll continue to gouge the county. Heh.

For his part, Leuthold, who wasn’t trustee when all sorts of suspected wrongdoings were going on, said: “We all understand the issues that have happened in the past. And we’re trying to  . . .  build the trust every day. We come in and we’re going to do everything right today . . . and if for now we need someone to verify that, then that’s what we’ll do.”

State suggests Audit Committee meet with law department about meetings

In a wordy and somewhat convoluted letter from the Tennessee Open Records Counsel to Knox County Audit Committee Chairman Joe Carcello, officials suggest that the panel might have violated state open meetings act.

Elisha Hodge (the state open records counsel) also suggests that Carcello (he’s singled out only by default because he is the chairman and, hence, the main contact) talk further with the county’s law department.

At issue is whether Carcello and County Commissioner Amy Broyles, a committee member, provided adequately public notice when they met for lunch at 11:15 a.m. on Oct. 24. The county sent issued a public meetings notification on Oct. 22. (It’s feasible that the two gave 48 hours – the generally accepted time – notice, but, there’s no time stamp on when the notice was sent out.)

Also at issue is how, when and whether the panel publicly narrowed down its candidates for internal auditor from roughly 20 applicants to three.

Hodge said her office looked into the matter after receiving a complaint about it.

You can read the entire letter right smack here.

Audit released - some problems found

A combined series of accounting errors between the county trustee’s office and the finance department during 2011 and earlier led the school system to operate under the guise that it had $1 million more in its reserve funds than it actually did during the past couple of years, according to a report made public to the county’s Audit Committee on Tuesday.

No cash, however, actually changed hands and the money was never spent. The mistake occurred on paper only.

Still, auditors dinged the county for the snafu, saying it could eventually have led to more compounded accounting issues, and “resulted in unnecessary complexity in the Trustee’s accounting records.”

Since discovered, though, the mayor’s office and trustee’s office have corrected the matter, using more “stringent recordkeeping procedures” put in place last year at the recommendation of the Audit Committee, according to county Finance Director Chris Caldwell.

“There’s no such thing as a good finding, but this is a good finding in the sense that the procedures worked and for the first time in a long time, there is a great communication between the Trustee’s Office and the finance department that allows us to tie down every account,” Caldwell said.

The county’s Audit Committee spent part of Tuesday discussing the county’s annual report, an in-depth analysis that delves into the fiscal year budget that covered July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.

In it, the external auditor, Knoxville-based Pugh & Co., cited three problems.

External auditors found a $2.4 million discrepancy between the county’s financial books and the Trustee Office’s financial books. They called the difference a “material weakness,” a technical description that describes a misstatement which could take longer to correct or could be missed altogether.

The $2.4 million overstatement stemmed from a series of liability accounts that were never reconciled between the two departments for a number of years.

The mistake led officials to believe that the county’s reserve fund – and the school system’s reserve fund – each appeared to have about a $1 million more in them then they really did. (The school system gets a cut of collected property taxes.)

Caldwell said now both offices have put procedures in place to fix the matter and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Auditors also noted two “significant deficiencies,” mistakes that are slightly less damning than material weaknesses but still keep management from discovering a problem in a timely manner.

Auditors said the county’s accounting systems doesn’t produce reports that allow auditors to easily follow the county’s capital assets, which include any equipment that’s worth more than $5,000, like vehicles or buildings.

The county by the end of the month plans to bring in a consultant to tailor the reporting needs and resolve the matter, Caldwell said. The consultant will probably cost about $5,000.

The audit also said that the county at times didn’t adhere to the Davis-Bacon Act, a federal mandate that requires officials to follow certain rules to ensure that the contractors who oversaw a series of low-income housing projects funded with more than $200,000 in “community development block” grants turned in the proper payroll paperwork.

County officials said turnover in the community development department at the time created a lapse in monitoring. The new employees have been trained in the proper procedures.

Neither Caldwell nor Leuthold were in charge of their respective departments when the mistakes occurred.

Mistakes that aren’t corrected could end up affecting the county’s bond rating, which could lead to higher interest rates when the county takes out loans or issues bonds.

County audit to note a few problems

As I said would happen back in mid-December, the county received a clean bill of health from its auditors in a review tied to its annual report, which covered the entire previous fiscal year.

However, I noted that when the county officially turns over the single audit report (this is kind of the sister report to the comprehensive finance report, or CAFR), that there were going to be some problems.

Well, that report will be made publicly on Tuesday when the Audit Committee accepts it. And, like I predicted, officials will talk about several problems auditors found.

“A government our size is always going to have an audit finding,” said County Finance Director Chris “Money Bags” Caldwell. “We expect a handful of findings. The key to the thing is cleaning up the findings from the previous year.”

However, Caldwell, who didn’t actually take the top finance gig until the middle of last year so you really can't blame him for any of it, said the county has taken care of the problems.

You can read the original story I wrote right smack here.

County audit report to show problems

Knox County is expected to receive a clean bill of health from its auditor, but some departments will have problems that will need to be quickly fixed, officials said Tuesday.

If not, they could jeopardize the county's bond rating.

"There will be some findings," said Knox County Finance Director Chris Caldwell, who declined to elaborate. "A government our size will have some findings, but at least everything from 2012 has been cleared."

As it stands, the county's external auditor, Pugh & Company, should finish the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR, by the end of the week. Auditors will then issue local leaders a management letter that provides more insight into the report and list any deficiencies and weaknesses in the county's overall organization structure for fiscal year 2013, which ended June 30.

The rest of the story, right smack here.

Audit panel picks two to take over

Kington, left, Williams, right

After two hours of interviews, the Knox County Audit Committee on Thursday picked two potential candidates – both work for the Tennessee Valley Authority – to take over the county’s internal auditing department.

The committee selected Andrea Williams, a compliance advisory support senior manager, as the top selection, and Cindy Kington, who serves as the eastern region manager of distributor compliance.

The recommendations will now go to the Knox County Commission later this month for final approval. The committee suggested a salary of $114,100.

Roughly 20 candidates applied for the job, but the committee picked only four to interview publicly on Thursday.

The new internal auditor will oversee a $257,000 a year operation that includes three employees, and routinely looks into and analyzes county finances and various county departments. The auditor reports directly to the County Commission, but also answers to the Audit Committee.

The new auditor will replace Richard Walls who stepped down in August after accepting a severance fee that covered four months of salary.

McCroskey not expect to say too much

Joy McCroskey

Knox County Criminal Court Clerk Joy McCroskey during Monday’s County Commission meeting is expected to address the board to talk about the problems in her office.

Now, there’s a lot of folks out there drooling, just waiting for what she says, expecting some fireworks.

However, if she sticks to script (and I’m not telling you who helped her with it), then she is going to say very little. She will briefly address the board and she will not take questions (there’s liability reasons, and, quite frankly, it’s not in her personal best interest). That’s if she sticks to script.

Do not expect a whole lot of noise from Commissioner Mike Hammond, who has announced his intentions to take on Joy in May’s Republican primary, during the meeting. After it? That’s a different story.

The Audit Committee on Tuesday will more than likely agree to recommend to the commission to audit the department. (Whatever that means.) The News Sentinel will then send out 9 million text alerts treating this “breaking” news like a Mafia hit. Heh.

Keep in mind, if the committee does make the recommendation – it’s just that, a recommendation. The commission will make the final decision and that won’t come until mid-November (since it’s a holiday month). 

It will then take about six months to audit the office. At least.

Quick look at Monday's work session

The Knox County Commission on Monday agreed during its work session to hire an internal auditor.

Officials expect to post the job in the coming weeks.

In other commission news:

The board unanimously recommended Commissioner Mike Brown and Knox County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Carl King to serve as non-voting liaisons to the Knox County Ethics Committee.

In an 8-3 vote approved a resolution expressing support of a national flat fee tax on Internet sales.  The proposal originated from the discussion of the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, which gives states the authorities to streamline sales tax laws and collect taxes directly from online retailers. If approved during next Monday’s meeting, the Knox County Clerk’s office will send a copy of the resolution to U.S. Congressman Jimmy Duncan Jr. Commission Vice Chairman R. Larry Smith and commissioners Amy Broyles and Dave Wright dissented.

Unanimously recommended to transfer just over 391 acres in the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge to the state to use as a state park. More details will be announced on Friday during the Legacy Parks luncheon.

Click right smack here for the entire story.

Looking ahead to commission meeting

Remember that whole Seven Islands thing that some folks wanted to keep secret so Gov. Big Bill (yeah, I called him “Big Bill,” Betty, so get over it) could make the grand announcement? Well, right smack here to download the resolution that the Knox County Commission will discuss during Monday’s work session.

It says the state “has expressed an interest in establishing a state park” there to “further benefit the health and welfare of the” area.

It also notes that the state “plans to make a significant financial investment in the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge to improve its facilities and to make the property even more of a benefit to the health and welfare of the public.”

Anyhoo, what else do we have for Monday’s meeting (which I don’t expect to last all that long)?

Well, looks like Commissioner Mike Hammond has a couple of items toward the end for discussion. 

He wants to talk about why Johnny Haun hasn’t paid any coin “toward his embezzlement of money.” As you might recall, Haun turned himself over to authorities back in April 2012. He’s accused of lifting a bunch of folding paper from the Trustee’s Office a looong time ago. Hammond brings this up periodically, but not sure a whole lot will happen until Haun pleads out, which he is expected to do.

His attorney has told me over the years that he does plan to pay back the county. 

Additionally, Hammond wants to talk about the possible realignment of commission districts. There’s been some talk about increasing the 11-member board or even decreasing it, so that there are no at-large seats.

I doubt this will get far right now. During the last realignment (what, like a year ago?), the commission got everything (nine districts) matched up with its counterparts in the school system. Of course, there has been some talk about maybe increasing the school board from nine to 11 members, so who knows? 

The commission also is expected to rubberstamp a recommendation by the Audit Committee to start the hiring process for a new internal auditor. In the meantime, Tracy Wright, who works in the office, will take over until someone new is brought on board.

I wrote a story the other day about the recommendations. Find that bad boy, right smack here.

(By the way, looks like the commission also will appoint former school board member Cindy Buttry to the Knox County Board of Zoning Appeals. Congrats to her.)

Ah, what else is there? Oh yeah, the commission also will talk about whether to approve a resolution expressing its support of the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, which allows more individual states the authority to streamline sales tax laws and collect the taxes directly from online retailers.

They would send this to U.S. Congressman Jimmy Duncan Jr. 

I got a newsletter from the good Congressman the other day. In it, he noted that he’s not exactly sure where he stands on this one. (Sure he’s not.)

Download that resolution, right smack here.

I’m out.