That is what the county’s DSS investigation has come down to at this point. It is also pretty obvious that Brady and county audit director Cornita Spears were essentially pitted against each other by County Manager Harry Jones. Jones is emerging as a very manipulative figure in this sorry episode.
Brady’s account of the disputed spending was kept from Spears, the very person the county charged with finding out what happened to the money. On top of that, Jones then suspended Spears for not knowing about the $33,000 restitution/repayment that someone still unknown — the only logical candidate is Brady — made to the county.
At this point I believe Jones and probably DSS head Mary Wilson knew full well about the $33K mystery money and threw Spears under a bus to further confuse matters. The important point is that Spears now says that over $100,000 cannot be accounted for from the Giving Tree program. And for her part, Brady credibly alleges that the county never really cared how the money was spent or documented.
Meanwhile, the county continues to hide behind personnel laws in an effort to keep facts away from the public. In fact, I think Jones suspended Spears precisely in an attempt to shroud her audit and the facts around it behind the “personnel matters” dodge.
In any event, the time is long past for Roberts and her fellow commissioners to demand answers from Jones. Not join him in a further whitewashing of this matter. State law gives the commission the power to waive — in order to preserve public confidence in the operation of county government — any confidentiality shields that otherwise might be in place. The time has come for our elected leaders to take that step.
Or we go get new elected leaders next year.
