On Wednesday, the Burnet County Commissioners Court received the result of an extensive audit conducted over several previous months by the Baker Tilly private firm related to an investigation of the Burnet County Sheriff's Office payroll records.
During the regular meeting Aug. 13, County Judge James Oakley, Pct. 1 Commissioner Jim Luther Jr., Pct, 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle, Pct. 3 Commissioner Billy Wall, Pct. 4 Joe Don Dockery reviewed parts of the report issued by the firm, hired by the commis sioners to examine the sher- iff's office payroll records last September.
“It is a lot to digest in a moment’s notice,” Oakley said.
Beierle expressed reservations about the report.
“This needs to go to another commissioner’s court,” Beierle said of tabling the matter. “I’m not taking any action on this.”
Too, Dockery sounded hesitant.
“We are behind the curve now,” Dockery said. “It is the first time we have seen this report.”
Sheriff Calvin Boyd advised the commissioners to “quit wasting time and money on this.”
After further discussion, the commissioners voted 5-0 to table the matter until Aug. 27 during the next court meeting.
“I take no joy in this,” Oakley said. “I cannot stress enough – there is nothing personal about this. But I have an obligation to see it through without an expected outcome. If it is against the law, it is against the law.”
More than one year ago, information or remarks from an unnamed “whistleblower” forwarded to County Auditor Karen Smith and former Human Resources Director Sara Ann Luther alleged the Sheriff’s payroll records contained potential irregularities which could be judged as criminal action.
Both Smith and Luther found the allegations had “merit” and they were forwarded to County Attorney Eddie Arredondo, who forwarded them to District Attorney Wiley A. “Sonny” McAfee of the 33rd and 424th Judicial District and the Texas Rangers.
In turn, McAfee told Arredondo the Rangers did not recommend further inquiry. Rather, the presumed payroll irregularities were only “mislabeling” and not perceived as a criminal matter.
Yet doubts remained, and last September, the commission- ers hired the Baker Tilly firm to scrutinize the Sheriff’s payroll records for 20 to 25 department employees' field or communica tions training through January 2020 through January 2023.
According to the Baker-Tilly report over 15 pages released by the commissioners Tuesday, its auditors found 957 payroll timesheet entries labeled with either field training or commu nication training labels, as well as several entries of sheriff’s funds expended without word- ing to indicate field or commu - nications training.
On page 11 of the report, the auditors declared, “Currently, there is no line item in the (sher- iff's) budget specifically for (accounting codes related to) field training or communication training.”
However, within its lengthy list of recommendations, the firm did not suggest criminal prosecution.
“It was extremely inappropriate for Judge Oakley to lay out a criminal case in open commissioner’s court,” Boyd told the Bulletin. “The district attorney investigated it fully and found there was nothing criminal. If Oakley is successful getting an additional investigation, it will simply be a duplicate of the district attorney’s investigation.”
