Boynton records investigated

By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer

May 21, 2009 12:59 am

— BOYNTON — Clerk/Treasurer Pauline Osburn, under threat of a second arrest, released a handwritten list of past-due water bills, one totaling more than $8,000, another more than $7,000.
Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson said his office has started an investigation into Boynton’s town financial records.
Citizens have complained that their water bills are excessively high and seem to sometimes jump higher for no known reason, Pearson said.
The State Auditor and Inspector’s Office will be called in to help in the investigation, Pearson said.
Osburn, 73, is charged with two violations of the Open Records Act for failing to let town trustees see water department records.
She has pleaded not guilty and will return to court on June 17. She is free on a $1,000 bond.
Osburn contends councilors who wanted to see the records just want to know who is past due on their water bills. She said she doesn’t think people should be allowed to see those records. And she did not make those records available when lawmen told her she must.
Osburn said the sheriff sent deputies to her office Tuesday morning to ensure the records sought and denied earlier were given to town trustees.
“They told me I would have to go to jail or give them the list,” Osburn said.
The list was given to councilors Tuesday and the Phoenix obtained a copy of that list Wednesday.
Roberson said Wednesday he needs a computer-generated list to assure no one was left off the past-due list.
“There appears to have been some favoritism,” said Muskogee County Deputy George Roberson, who Pearson assigned as an investigator on the case.
“A lot of them should have been cut off,” Osburn said of the past due account holders.
The largest past-due bills are $7,870.79 and $8,143.76. There are two people owing more than $2,000 each and five people owing more than $1,000 but less than $2,000.
At least five people owe more than $400, one owes more than $900 and another owes more than $700.
“They (trustees) had a long discussion on it,” Osburn said. “They need to come together and figure out a new policy. They can’t agree.”
She said she had been working as clerk/treasurer at Boynton since 1991 after being appointed and has been re-elected every four years since. But deputies haven’t found records of elections yet, Pearson said.
Boynton resident Lucile Lang, 80, said there are no written ballots in the town elections. People just write their choice for trustee on a little sheet of paper. They usually put them in a hat, she said.
Last month, two people were running for council and they put their little slips of paper in a soup bowl “and they spilled out onto the floor,” Lang said.
The votes were then taken into another room and counted out of sight of voters. About 40 people cast ballots in the last election, Lang said.
Pearson said state auditors will be called in to go over the town records and determine if favoritism is practiced in town government.

Reach Donna Hales at 918-684-2923 or Click Here to Send Email

Photos

Osburn