WEST SILOAM SPRINGS, Okla. -- The West Siloam Springs board of trustees granted the city's former town manager, Kathy Osbourn, who is facing allegations of mishandling approximately $150,000 of city funds, an extension to appear in front of the board to confront the allegations during its meeting on Monday night.
The announcement was made after about a 50-minute executive session, when City Attorney Jot Hartley began by reading aloud a letter Osbourn sent to Hartley and Mayor Elaine Carr early Monday afternoon. The letter requested that the due process hearing be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances that have resulted in Osbourn's lack of legal representation.
Osbourn's current attorney, Winston Connor, is the subject of a separate criminal case and is being accused of at least 10 felonies, Hartley said. In her letter, Osbourn said she made the request "at no fault of her own" and that she was informed of Connor's inability to attend on Jan. 18 around 4:30 p.m. She went further to say that she was advised not to attend the meeting on her own and has looked for another attorney, but has been unsuccessful.
"I have tried to seek other representation, but with this being a holiday I have not been able to find other representation," the letter states.
Hartley said the request upset him personally, but he made the recommendation to approve the extension because she is still deserving of due process. The board approved the recommendation 3-1, with Board Member Orval Wilkinson being the dissenting vote. There will be a specially-called meeting to discuss the matter at 7 p.m. on Jan. 29 at Town Hall.
The night's agenda also included an item for action following Osbourn's chance to contest any of the allegations, which would have been to submit the findings of the independent audit prepared by Robert St. Pierre to the state auditor as well as the Delaware County District Attorney, Kenny Wright. Due to the extension, the possible submission of the findings will now be delayed until the board votes on whether to do so during next week's meeting.
Following this, the board also approved the appointment of Kerri Loudermilk as the new City Office Manager. She will serve in the position for a 90-day evaluation period, and may or may not remain in the position thereafter, but that will be decided at that time.
"I just believe we all just need some leadership in there, and Kerri is qualified to do that," Vice Mayor Larry Williams said. "I think everybody would stick with her and support her, and we got all of these different things to address and everybody's confused on maybe who the leader is and who the boss is and those kind of things. So if we could get that under control, she would have a better feel for things and she would be able to present herself to the board with better information."
The board also unanimously approved numerous purchase orders that amount to $98,736.08.
Loudermilk said that the purchase orders were primarily used for things like internet, utility or electric bills.
This agenda item was also accompanied by an emergency clause that had to be approved in order for the purchase orders to be approved. Hartley said this has been the way the city's expenditure approval process has been for quite some time.
"The approval of an emergency clause on all expenditure approvals has been West Siloam Springs' standard practice for years, in the event that the approvals are construed as ordinance action rather than resolutions, in which case the former requires an emergency clause approval to be effective immediately rather than 90 days from approval," Hartley said.
In other business, the board took the following actions:
• Unanimously approved a decision to temporarily suspend transfers of funds from the city's general account to the city's parks account.
• Unanimously approved a decision to transfer funds from the city's park account into the city's general fund.
• Voted 3-1 against a decision to hold a vote to hire a custodian for Town Hall.
General News on 01/23/2019