Joy Hampton
The Norman Transcript, Okla.
CUSTER COUNTY, Okla. — Another county sheriff recently said he will not sue county commissioners to garner more jail funding.
The decision comes as a direct result of the recent retirement of former Cleveland County Sheriff Joe Lester, Custer County Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell said.
In June, Tidwell announced his intention to file suit against the Custer County Board of County Commissioners and the county excise board over jail funding and the use of cash funds in the budgeting process. That action would have been similar to the lawsuit filed by Lester in March.
Tidwell also had hired Lester’s attorney, Michael Denton, as outside counsel.
“There were several factors involved with this decision [to drop the case],” Tidwell said in the release. “One was the retirement of Cleveland County Sheriff Joe Lester and his subsequent dismissal of his lawsuit based on similar circumstances that I felt were occurring here in Custer County.”
Lester filed suit against the Cleveland County commissioners and the county budget board, alleging they had failed to fully fund the county jail as required by law.
Tidwell said that he and Denton had been “relatively certain that the decision in that case would be made in Sheriff Lester’s favor.”
“It was never my intention to ‘sue’ the county,” Tidwell said. “Unfortunately, that was the one term in the contract letter with Mr. Denton that the media picked to describe my effort.”
Tidwell was counting on Lester’s case to set the precedent his case could follow.
Without the Cleveland County decision, Tidwell said he was no longer “willing to invest the time or the amount of taxpayer money it would take to start over on a similar lawsuit in order to create recent case law.”
Tidwell hopes to hire an accounting firm, RSM and Associates of Clinton, “to conduct a financial analysis of the sheriff’s office budget,” according to the release.
“He has papers for an agreement, but it will be on the agenda on Monday for the commissioners to approve or disapprove,” Custer County Clerk Melissa Parker said.
“Hopefully this analysis will either give confidence to the commissioners and excise board that we are being fiscally responsible with the taxpayers’ money or it will identify areas of improvement that we need to adjust,” Tidwell said.
In Cleveland County, Lester’s financial worries prompted the budget board, of which he was a member, to call for an audit by the state auditor and inspector’s office. That audit identified possible mismanagement, over-expenditure of public funds, noncompliance with state law and multiple findings of “inadequate internal controls” in a variety of areas.
Additionally, the audit found 48 vehicles — representing a $993,829 investment of public dollars — were in use without insurance coverage, and 37 vehicles that had been disposed of by the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office were still insured because the fleet inventory had not been kept current.
Other issues included inmate head counts, overpayment for inmate medical services, un-billed revenue from housing Department of Corrections inmates and community sentencing, un-budgeted payments of compensatory time, delayed transfer of commissary funds and inaccuracies of the Inmate Trust Fund checking account balance.
The audit covered the period between July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2016. Of note was a summary statement that put funding issues squarely on Lester’s administration of the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office.
“Of considerable concern is the appearance that any possible funding shortfall is the direct result of the action or inaction by CCSO in its management, operation, record keeping and accounting systems,” the audit read.
Lester’s retirement came two days before the civil suit against the county commissioners and county budget board was set to be heard.
“This letter is to inform you that effective immediately, I am retiring from the position of sheriff of Cleveland County,” Lester wrote in a letter to commissioners Oct. 2.
The former sheriff gave no reason for his retirement.
Following Lester’s retirement, county commissioners appointed former Norman Police officer Todd Gibson to fill the interim until an election in 2018. One of Gibson’s first official acts was to hire an experienced accountant to help him bring the department into compliance with state law and sound accounting practices.
The most recent attorney invoice of $145,702 from Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens is on Monday’s board agenda for approval.
Custer County’s sheriff and county detention center have made headlines before.
In 2009, Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess was found guilty of 13 felony charges for sexual misconduct for kidnapping, forcible oral sodomy and rape.
In March, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents arrested a Custer County detention officer for allegedly having sexual contact with two female inmates.
Parker said the current Custer County Sheriff had recently gone through an audit following the retirement of former sheriff Bruce Peoples. Tidwell ran unopposed and took office Jan. 3.
“We audit counties, and part of that audit includes the sheriff’s department,” State Auditor Gary Jones said. “They have a right to hire somebody to go through and help them with financial issues. It’s a good tool to use, even if you don’t suspect anything is wrong. It’s a good way to identify best practices and improve operations.”
Gibson said the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office is currently going through a change of officer audit, as well.
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©2017 The Norman Transcript (Norman, Okla.)