Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Phone Bill Under Wilbun Questioned - Juvenile Court Clerk Seeks Internal Audit

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 15:53:02 -0400

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=33847231&ID=cnniw&scategory=Business+and+Finance&

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Phone Bill Under Wilbun Questioned - Juvenile Court Clerk Seeks Internal Audit

Source: The Commercial Appeal

Publication date: 2002-10-23

Arrival time: 2002-10-24

Juvenile Court Clerk Steve Stamson said Tuesday he wants auditors
to review an $8,500 cell phone bill incurred under his predecessor,
Shep Wilbun.

In a letter to county Mayor A C Wharton, Stamson said he's
"requesting an internal audit of this bill to determine the validity
of the claim."

In response, Wharton said he'll ask the state Comptroller's
Office to consider auditing the phone bills. The comptroller already
is planning an audit of county travel and credit card practices, and
Wharton said approval would be needed to expand that audit.

The development came as Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill
Gibbons announced Tuesday that state investigators will join a
federal probe of the county and as Wharton said he'll unveil new
ethical standards for county employees later this week.

The clerk's office has received a letter from Nextel
Communications demanding payment of $8,557 in charges made over a
year's period on about 15 radio-cell phones.

While most of those phones were assigned to process servers
delivering court documents, Stamson said the bulk of the unpaid
charges involve a "high usage" of calls on three phones between May
and August. The county party primary elections were May 7 and the
general election Aug. 1.

Stamson said he suspects those phones were used by workers no
longer employed in the clerk's office.

Wilbun, the Democratic incumbent, lost a re-election bid to
Republican challenger Stamson in the August general election.
Stamson took office Sept. 1.

"I don't have time to sort this all out. I want the (county's)
internal auditors to go through this," Stamson said. "If they feel
there was some wrongdoing, they can do what they want."

Stamson declined to release copies of the phone bills, saying he
needs clearance first from county lawyers.

Reached at home, Wilbun declined comment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already is looking into the
Juvenile Court Clerk's operations under Wilbun as well as county
credit card usage by Tom Jones, a former top-ranking aide to Mayor
Jim Rout.

The district attorney general said Tuesday he's asked the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to join the FBI probes.

A federal grand jury has explored a number of actions under
Wilbun, including credit card usage by former aide Darrell Catron
and alleged cash payments to a female employee who complained of
improper advances from Catron.

Wharton said he plans to release within 48 hours a code of
ethics, with tighter conflict-of-interest provisions, for county
employees. The mayor said he plans to post the code on the county's
Internet Web site for public dissemination.

"It's their government," he said. "I want them to see it."

Stamson said he's received 900 pages of bills from Nextel, much
of it covering a period from May to August.

According to Stamson, Wilbun assigned the combination phone and
two-way radios to process servers, who used them primarily as radios
to communicate with the clerk's office. Process servers need radios
in the field to get directions and as backup in case of trouble,
Stamson said.

Since taking office, Stamson said he's discontinued the Nextel
phones, which carry an $80-a-month service charge, in favor of the
hand-held Motorola radios used under former Clerk C. R. 'Bob'
Martin.

The Nextel phone-radios cost $9,600 a year for 10 process
servers, while the cost for the Motorola radios involves about
$1,000 a year for rechargeable batteries, Stamson said.

"As long as it gets the job done, why do you need to spend more
money?" he asked.

- Marc Perrusquia: 529-2545

Publication date: 2002-10-23

© 2002, YellowBrix, Inc.

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