Posted on 07/03/2005 5:40:41 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s
Democrats Say No Money Is Missing Audit also revealed no intentional tax fraud for the party.
By Joe Follick Ledger Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE -- With a hopeful tone that it finally had hit bottom, the Florida Democratic Party said Thursday that an audit showed no money missing and also showed no intentional fraud in the nonpayment of federal taxes in 2003. The audit also said former party chairman Scott Maddox had no knowledge of the myriad accounting woes that happened on his watch.
However, the audit concluded that his hiring of a woman he worked with while mayor of Tallahassee was a mistake that led to last week's run-in with the Internal Revenue Service over unpaid taxes.
"It is clear that the problems occurred because of a poor hiring decision, a lack of internal controls and a lack of strong oversight," said Melanie Hines, the former statewide prosecutor who oversaw the weeklong audit.
Party chairwoman Karen Thurman, on the job for less than two months, said Thursday she has spent most of her time cleaning up what she called "a mess" left by Maddox. Maddox resigned his post in May to run for governor after more than two years in the job.
"By now, I thought and expected that most of my time would have been focused on the future," Thurman said at a press conference in the party's headquarters Thursday. "It is clear we have to do things differently, and so we shall. This begins a new day for the Florida Democratic Party."
Thurman launched the audit by outside experts last week after the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien on the party's holdings, saying it was owed nearly $200,000 in unpaid taxes from late 2003 when Maddox headed the party.
Thurman used the $98,000 the party had on hand and secured a loan from the national Democratic Party to pay the taxes and penalties.
Hines' audit echoed Maddox's contention that the mistakes were largely caused and hidden by Debbie Griffin-Bruton, the party's comptroller whom Maddox hired.
In a letter earlier this week, Griffin-Bruton said the demands of the job were more than she expected and that she concealed the problems from Maddox. The former city of Tallahassee worker resigned her job as party comptroller on Thursday.
Hines said Thursday that Griffin-Bruton was "in over her head" and possessed only "rudimentary" skills for the job.
Maddox said he thought Griffin-Bruton could handle the work and hired other outside accountants to help her. Asked at a separate press conference why the problems lingered after GriffinBruton expressed a need for help, Maddox said "I was only at the party for two years.
"Had I had knowledge of it, I would have fixed it," Maddox said.
Hines' audit also reconciled discrepancies that led to the appearance that $900,000 was missing from the party. She said dataentry errors made by party workers led to the mistake and that no money was missing.
Hines and Thurman said numerous interviews with current and former employees showed Maddox had no knowledge of the problems, though an outside audit last year of the party's finances cited "significant deficiencies" in the party's system.
While Thurman, a former U.S. congresswoman from Dunnellon, was careful to avoid any direct criticism of Maddox, the message of the day was that a muchneeded change was coming to a party largely crippled in recent years.
"To quote a great Democrat, Harry Truman, from this point on, `The buck stops here,' " Thurman said, promising to hire "competent professionals" to prevent money-related woes in the future.
Maddox struck a defensive and vindicated tone Thursday, blaming his Democratic opponents for a "political chess game that insiders are playing" to discredit his candidacy.
Maddox didn't name his Democratic opponents -- U.S. Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa and state Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua. He did rip Gov. Jeb Bush, who called the state Democratic Party's condition "pathetic" last week.
"For a week now, the Democratic party and I have been subjected to a multitude of false reports and sometimes personal attacks from Jeb Bush and others which today have proven false, inaccurate or overblown," Maddox said.
Thurman's promise for a "new day" is dawning under ominously dark clouds, however.
Thursday, she said the party had about $80,000 on hand. That's less than 2 percent of the $7 million-plus raised by the Republican Party of Florida this year.
Republicans dominate the Florida House and Senate by 2-to-1 margins and hold the four statewide elected seats, including governor.
The dark clouds also are hovering over Maddox. Long considered the party's shining star for the future, Democrats have wondered aloud whether he should drop out of the race because of the likely vicious attacks from Republicans if he should win the Democratic nomination next year.
Note that not one reporter calls them on this baloney.
They withhold $200,000 in taxes from paychecks & then do not send it to the IRS; they spend it. Can anyone in liberal never-never land explain how that can happen without fraud?
Two weeks ago $900,000 is missing. Now, amazingly it's not? Excuse me while I leap off the back of a turnip truck.
This thereore makes them eminently qualified to run the state government...
Depends on what the definition of "missing" is.
Great post. Another shining example of the anti-freedom, Democratic Crime Syndicate at work in The United States of America.
Oh yeah, and I should have aked, what exactly does "no intentional fraud" mean? There is such a thing as unintentional fraud?
They found the missing money on Hillary Clinton's desk
From her thin, cold lips, I know now that if I ever get in deep doo-doo with the IRS, I just have to declare it a "new day", state good intentions for the future, and move on.
Please forward any freepmails to me at the Tallahassee Federal Graybar Hotel.
Wow If Maddox did this in only two years for the Florida RAT Party just think just think what he could do in two years to the whole state as its Governor! Another great highly qualified candidate for sure---not.
>>an audit showed no money missing
I'm thinking that one of the Big Four CPA firms did *NOT* sign off on that one.
Notice there is no mention of who did the audit, other than "the audit by outside experts". Oh, well, that pins it right down. "Outside experts". Great.
Where's the pdf of the audit results letter with all the footnotes, signed by a CPA?
Someone should tell Karen there are no more bucks to stop with her. Only IOUs. Wonder how
They are in debt thaks to this crooked operation.
I assume Ms. Over-Her-Head Hyphenated was hired by Maddox for some other purpose than her administrative skills. Wonder how much money Tallehasse lost when these people were in charge of the money.
If this were a private sector business owner the Dems would be crying to Sarbanes-Oxley him off to some hard time. Somebody needs to go to jail.
If this is true, then the Dems are in deep trouble. Dems depend heavily on "walking around money" to grease the palms of their "activist" base, to pay for buses to bring people to the polls, etc, etc. No money = no turnout.
The vulnerability of the Dems is that they need to have the ability to flow govt money to their base, and to do "favors" for their contributors. If they are sufficiently out of power that they're unable to do anything for their base and their contributors, then they will go into a steep downward spiral
They withhold $200,000 in taxes from paychecks & then do not send it to the IRS; they spend it. Can anyone in liberal never-never land explain how that can happen without fraud?
My understand of the law is that failure to turn in withholdings from paychecks subjects the principals in the organization to personal liability. This is statutory fraud as I understand it, whether "intentional" or not. I wonder (not really) whether media coverage would have been somewhat more substantial had this been a republican organization. Is anyone else surprised that Dan Rather has not come out of retirement to chase this story? /sarcasm
Ah, I see it now ... applied welfare was the culprit, patronage for a crony. Promote a clerk to CFO and then spend the party's money to cover up for the favor. Of course Maddox is yelling smear campaign ... what else is a RAT to do when caught red-handed. It could have been a payoff (what did that woman know and when did she know it?), a shining example of Maddox's decision-making ability (and a clear example of what would happen as gov), or payback for sexual favors (no proof but such a promotion of a female does call the question). All Maddox can do now is try to kill the messengers. He knows the MSM will protect him from real scrutiny.
No money was missing.
Sincerely,
Rev. Al Sharpton, CPA
Here's a prime example of "that" overload. Read this column, eliminating every "that", (except one I think, in the second paragraph), and you'll discover how aggravating these goober writers are. It reads so much better without "that" clutter. I don't know if this qualifies as "verbal acne", but it's driving me up the proverbial wall.
Exactly. 900 G's missing, two days later it's not. They withold 200 grand from paychecks, send nothing to IRS, have 90 grand on hand. But, there's nothing missing? New math? Or just people that know the press will not call them on whatever BS they throw out?
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