Posted on 10/30/2002 4:49:17 AM PST by GailA
Lawyer assail stactics used in Jones lunch policy probe Ex-mayor Rout maintains he is unaware of criteria employed in county audit
By Michael Erskine erskine@gomemphis.com October 30, 2002
Attorney Robert Spence says his client is getting kicked while he is down.
How else to explain why county auditors invented policies to apply to former mayoral aide Tom Jones that even former mayor Jim Rout has never heard of, Spence argues.
He said a glaring example is Jones is being asked to repay more than $16,000 charged to his county credit card for meals when Rout was not present.
Those business lunches, as explained by Jones, are some of the charges being disputed as Mayor A C Wharton begins a review of an internal county audit of Jones's spending.
"I think that probably in some areas there is some misunderstanding," said Rout.
Rout said he was not aware of any policy stating he needed to attend business lunches that Jones charged to the county.
"If it was an appropriate function as it relates to some business . . . I would suspect that would be allowable," Rout said.
The audit, completed earlier this month, claimed Jones "misdirected" more than $125,000 for his personal benefit. It concluded that Jones, who has reimbursed the county for some of that debt, still owes about $87,500 in personal charges, including the lunches.
Jones remains the subject of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation surrounding his personal use of his county credit card.
In a letter to County Atty. Donnie Wilson, auditors wrote that, based on "direction we received," Jones should "repay any local dining charges without the mayor in attendance."
Auditors identified 289 charges for meals out of 832 disputed charges, noting "mayor not present" on most meals in question.
Despite that notation, Wilson said Rout's presence at lunch meetings was not the principal standard for whether those charges were allowable.
Auditors, Wilson said, looked for documentation to show that a county purpose was served by the lunches.
Bobby Lanier, executive assistant under Rout and Wharton, has come to Jones's defense.
Jones was either representing the mayor or doing business as the county representative on civic boards during those lunches, Lanier said.
"I don't care what the auditors said, I don't agree with it," Lanier said.
Lanier himself dined without the mayor on at least 48 occasions, his credit card records show, racking up $2,000 in charges over a three-year span.
To Spence, the audit was an example of officials piling on Jones.
"There were personal charges (on the card) and . . . Tom was very tardy in reimbursing the county. There's no dispute about that," Spence said. "But I just don't see the need of individuals to take that known fact and attempt to exacerbate it by applying a standard that didn't exist."
Spence is questioning the meals, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs, books, concert tickets and groceries he says were purchased for county purposes.
Wharton said a review process is under way to verify the audit's findings and to determine if the standards, including that used for lunches, were fair.
"If there's any question to the acceptability as to how that standard was determined, then I'll see that those amounts are not attributed to Mr. Jones," Wharton said.
- Michael Erskine:
529-5857
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.