'CLOUD' HINDERING COMBAT COUNTY AUDIT

The credibility of Jackson County's audit of its anti-drug tax could
be tainted unless officials resolve questions over the destruction of
records and auditors' access to documents.

Auditor David Cochran of Cochran, Head & Co. told county legislators
Monday that if the issues were not cleared up, at best he would issue
an audit covering 1999 through 2003 with a disclaimer that some
records were not available for review.

"There's a cloud hanging over the records, and we need to get that
resolved," Cochran said.

"Whenever an accounting firm, auditing firm is given information, even
as unfounded allegations, that records have been withheld from them
deliberately for the purpose of prohibiting them from completing their
engagement, (it) causes a great deal of concern."

Ken Evans, spokesman for County Executive Katheryn Shields, said a
recent inventory of the anti-drug tax records by Prestia, Vick &
Associates LLC revealed no evidence of records tampering.

"I'm not an auditor, but I can't understand why an anonymous
allegation would create issues with 1999 through 2003," Evans said in
an interview.

Shields said in a written statement that the inventory helped remove
"the cloud of rumor" from the records.

Shields said in her statement that documentation showed that some
records for 1996-1998 were properly destroyed in the fall of 2003,
long before audit discussions began.

Prosecutor Mike Sanders would neither confirm nor deny for legislators
whether there was a criminal investigation of the allegations or which
law enforcement agencies might be probing the matter.

Legislator Henry Rizzo blamed Shields' administration for the
uncertainty of the records.

"No matter what the end of this audit brings or doesn't bring the
administration is mucking it up so bad that we're going to have the
worst pe rception the public ever had," Rizzo said during a heated
legislative discussion about the audit.

The Community-Backed Anti-Drug Tax is a quarter-cent sales tax for law
enforcement, drug treatment and drug prevention. Voters approved it in
1989 and renewed it in 1995 and in 2003. Questions about how COMBAT
was spent led to an independent audit of the tax.

The recent round of controversy erupted last week when Rizzo and
Legislator Ron Finley said Cochran and the internal legislative
auditor had been denied access to COMBAT financial records locked away
by Prestia, Vick & Associates. Shields said she hired the second firm
to secure and inventory the documents after an anonymous allegation
late last Monday that some papers recently were destroyed. She said
Cochran still would have access to the records.

On Monday, Cochran again complained about being denied access to
records late Friday. He said Prestia Vick officials said they would
have to unlock the conference room containing the records and would
have to accompany Cochran as he looked through more than 80 boxes of
documents.

"We aren't willing to do that," Cochran said. "We need unrestricted
access to these records."

However, Finance Director Troy Thomas said Cochran should have asked
him, not Prestia Vick, for access to the files.