Hoping most had a happy and “safe” Fourth of July this year. My heart goes out to the people injured in a fire as they prepared fireworks for the show. Some injuries were very serious. Please keep them in your prayers. We all enjoy a good fireworks show, but we often overlook the inherent dangers in handling these explosives.
The McAlester City audit findings were released a couple of weeks ago. I believe the original intent of the audit was to look into accusations of open records and freedom-of-information violations. The auditors cited a couple of incidences when perhaps some records were not released as quickly as they could have been. But then a statement was made about some public school monies not being properly accounted for. I’ve had several requests to verify this. My understanding is that the school would request bond money from the city council for various purchases. Apparently, during this process there was some misunderstanding over who recorded what. I have been in contact with the state auditor and state attorney general, and both offices verify that there is “no missing money,” there is “no misspent money.” Their explanations become technical quickly, and I’m not sure I’m explaining this properly, but in my mind there are no misdeeds here, simply some miscoding of some expenses and some documentation issues. Going forward, I certainly hope the city and the school district follow their agreed-upon procedures to assure funds get spent as specified and allowed.
Once again, our own state park restaurants are making the news as apparently the agreement for state payments are not being met. This seems to be the same song, second verse, as the agreements with the original vender are still not settled. Sometimes, we just need a reset button and just start all over. I do have full confidence that our state tourism director will get a handle on this and find a path forward.
As always, thank You for allowing me to serve you. I can be reached at (405) 557-7381 or by email at jim.grego@okhouse.gov.
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