A line of credit for the Montgomery Whitewater Park and Maxwell Crossing caused more rough waters at the Montgomery County Commission.
At an information meeting March 3, Commissioner Isiah Sankey repeated his complaints that White Water has not provided the commission with financial statements explaining how they have spent funds on a $7.5 million line of credit the county provided to White Water.
“I don’t know why it’s so difficult to get something in place, because we’ve given Whitewater $2 million plus out of that $7.5 million,” he said. “How do we do that with nothing in place? Not one bit of criteria in place?”
He added that none of the commissioners have approved any Whitewater expenditures.
“(The expenditures) were approved by somebody, and it’s just not the way we do business,” Sanky said. “It really is quite disturbing, and it just seems like we’re mishandling money here at Montgomery County Commission, particularly when it comes to Whitewater.”
He accused spending money without the commission’s approval is a “backdoor attempt to circumvent generally acceptable accounting practices.”
Commission Chairman Doug Singleton said that Whitewater has provided information on where funds go to the commission, citing payroll as an example of one of their most significant expenditures.
“(Payroll) is where the money has been allocated,” he told Sankey. “This agreement that I’m looking at now is very similar to what we do every time we do an economic development project with the chambers involved.”
Finance Director Wanda Jackson said that everything that is paid goes to Deputy Administrator Kindell Anderson and Singleton.
Commissioner Carmen Moore-Ziegler urged that payments should be stopped until the commission creates rules for oversight. Anderson suggested that the commission meet to create the regulations.
It was agreed to table the agreement for a future meeting.
As a sidebar, Sankey suggested that Anderson being the chair of the Montgomery County Community Cooperative District created a conflict.
“With all due respect, you might want to consider stepping aside from that position because it might appear that there’s some undue influence as it relates to appropriating money to Whitewater,” he told Anderson.
Anderson said he has never used influence to direct funds without approval, and he said that he would be willing to step back from the chair of the district if it created conflict.
The Montgomery County Commission meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 101 South Lawrence Street. Information sessions begin at 10 a.m. followed by the formal meeting.
Livestreamed meetings can be seen on the commission’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
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