DA to seek Webbers Falls audit

By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer

June 22, 2009 10:57 pm

— A letter was being written Monday to the state auditor requesting an investigative audit of the town of Webbers Falls.
Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore said his investigator has been going over Webbers Falls town financial and government records for several weeks.
“We need an audit to determine the distribution of money that has come into the town of Webbers Falls since about 1991,” Moore said.
“We want to know where the proceeds of all grants went and sales tax money went, all salaries and bonuses paid to the mayor and trustees and where money collected in traffic fines went — who has received that money.”
Moore said the town’s elected officials can’t give themselves a raise while in office, that it is against the law.
There are questions on the mayor and trustees compensation through those years, including “bonuses and expenses,” Moore said.
Webbers Falls Mayor Jewell Horne said earlier she doesn’t know how far back the mayor’s salary of $1,100 per month and $1,500 per month for being the town’s manager goes. She also receives $700 per month for being on the East Central Gas Authority Board, which services Webbers Falls and Gore.
Police officers have said they have used town Fuelman credit cards to put gas in Horne’s vehicle and the vehicles of some former trustees. Horne said recently that practice would be stopped.
A petition signed by Webbers Falls citizens seeking Horne’s ouster was filed recently with Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office.
Horne has walked out of recent town trustee meetings just before a vote was to be taken on electing a new mayor. She said the people want her in office, so she left, leaving the board without a quorum to conduct the vote.
Moore said he has repeatedly advised Horne not to do so, that she could be abandoning her duty.