OTTAWA — Two top county officials faced off over accounting procedures by one of them. At Monday’s county commission meeting, County Clerk Shari Perry took aim at some of Sheriff Jeff Curry’s special jail funds and how they’re being handled by the sheriff’s department. Money from a variety of fees and reimbursements go into the inmate account and work-release account but an audit shows no record of the expenditures, she said. “You guys don’t know what’s being spent and how it’s being spent,” Perry told commissioners. Perry also said that as certain reimbursements going into the work-release account should go to the county general fund instead, she said. Curry defended his handling of the funds, saying they are being handled strictly according to state law. “Those funds are subject to any open-records request and ..you guys can see those anytime,” he told commissioners. Curry said he’s checked how other counties handled their work-release accounts and some opt to put them in the general fund and others put them in a special sheriff’s department account, he said. Sheriff Rex Bowling set up the present fund many years ago, and Curry said he and Sheriff Craig Davis have seen fit to change it. County Treasurer Debbie Hough told commissioners she saw the receipts into the funds but not expenditures. County administrator Lisa Johnson told commissioners she had discussed the funds with the county’s auditor and huddled with Hough and Curry after the meeting to explain what she learned.
Tuesday, Nov. 27, 4 p.m.
