County allocates $1.3 million to CCSO amidst ongoing audit

Olivia Mccourry, The Norman Transcript, Okla.
Updated ·3 min read

Feb. 29—EDITOR'S NOTE — This story was updated at 1:54 p.m. to clarify the singular audit

The Cleveland County Budget Board approved $1.3 million to be allocated to the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office on Monday.

"We are here to make sure his [Sheriff Chris Amason] employees get paid," said County Treasurer Jim Reynolds, during a special Budget Board meeting.

The decision, which was passed unanimously, came after the sheriff requested the Board of County Commissioners to call for an audit into his finances earlier this month. The audit was requested by the BOCC to the state auditor's office on the sheriff's behalf to clarify the budget needs of the sheriff's office.

The only objection came from CCSO Sherriff stating he preferred the funds should be allocated through Public Safety Sales Tax funding.

County Clerk Tammy Bellinson was absent during the meeting.

Reynolds had previously told The Transcript that the Sheriff's Office will receive funding through other taxpayer funds as the audits are ongoing, which will take about two to three months.

The dispute came to a head Feb. 12 during a regularly scheduled Budget Board meeting when the Sheriff's Office claimed they have not received the full fiscal year funding of $18.36 million they were approved in September.

During a presentation given by the Sheriff Office's Chief Financial Officer, Frank Magness, he stated that CCSO has only received about $11 million out of the $18.36 million that was promised. CCSO is asking for about $7 million to fulfill that budget allocation for payroll and expenses.

During Monday's meeting, County Treasurer Jim Reynolds gave his own presentation stating the amount of money the Sheriff's Office has received and expended, based on numbers he calculated with his office.

From his findings, he gathered that CCSO has spent about $15 million and the current cash balance showed to be almost $2 million as of Feb. 21, which totals to about $17 million that the office received.

He then explained the different areas of funding, such as ad valorem, reimbursements and other areas coming into CCSO and how those numbers matched the amount spent.

He added that according to his numbers, this is about a 32% increase from when Amason took office three years ago.

"That is the number ($17 million), it is not $11 million," he said. "I don't know what to say, I'm dumbfounded that there's a suggestion otherwise."

Marilyn Williams, the court clerk, and County Commissioner Rod Cleveland corroborated his statement with their own findings that presented around the same number.

"What concerns me is the rate of spending and where we're at right now trying to get to the end of the year," Cleveland said.

Amason pushed back on what was presented saying there were major discrepancies and expressed concerns about the Public Safety Sales Tax balance, which he said he does not have access to.

PSST funds are monitored by the Justice Authority which is a separate entity from the Budget Board.

Frank Magness, the chief financial officer at CCSO, said in his own response that inflation has had an impact on the funding resources the office needs.

"Things have changed. The market has changed...you're trying to spin a narrative without understanding what's driving those numbers," he said.

The next County Budget Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 11, at the Cleveland County Office Building, 201 S. Jones Ave., Suite 200.