OEM details

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2011

The

Daily Citizen

TheDailyCitizen.com

Serving Searcy and White County, Ark., since 1854

KENSETT ELEMENTARY EARNS HIGH HONOR FIRST ROUND OF PLAYOFFS IN THE BOOKS A national organization has listed Kensett Elementary as one of the higher performing schools. — PAGE 3A

Turn to sports to see how our local high school teams fared in playoff action Friday. — PAGE 1B

Report reveals OEM details Coordinator says she charged county accounts accidentally

theft investigation claims that a Lowe’s card for which she applied to purchase personal home improvement items was put in the county’s name by a Jenkins Lowe’s employee and not her.

BY JACOB BROWER jbrower@thedailyctizen.com

A county department director who was the subject of a criminal

Tamara Jenkins, coordinator of the White County Office of Emergency Management (OEM), told the Arkansas State Police during questioning on Sept. 26 that she had applied for a personal Lowe’s card in late 2009 or early 2010 for home improvements, but a store employee instead reactivated the county’s account that had been dormant since March 29, 2009.

Jenkins said that she did not realize what had happened, but the

billing address had been changed from the OEM office at 411 North Spruce St. to Jenkins’ home address in north Searcy during the monthly billing cycle that ended April 2, 2010. State police say their investigation did not produce any credit applications through Lowe’s using Jenkins’ Social Security number.

Information contained in the Please see JENKINS | 2A

MCRAE ELEMENTARY HONORS VETS

Drug seizure When: Friday Where: Towed vehicles What: Nine pounds of marijuana, nine ounces of cocaine, 2.5 pounds of suspected methamphetamine

Drugs discovered in seized vehicles

BY MOLLY M. FLEMING On Friday morning, traffic was blocked on Spring Street for about an hour in order for the county to pause and remember those who served their country.

The annual Veterans Day Ceremony was held during the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year. A crowd of nearly 50 people gathered on the east side of the White County Courthouse, with many of those attending sporting hats that told what branch they once served with.

Larry Robinson of the White County Veterans Office was the Please see CEREMONY | 3A

Surprise dedication honors HU senior VP

Please see DRUGS | 3A

State schools don't meet achievement requirements

Event was presented on behalf of David, Donnie House

Associated Press

Marisa Lytle/mlytle@thedailycitzen.com

Addison Coker, a kindergartner at McRae Elementary School, hugs her father, 1st Sgt. Troy Coker of the C&C 2nd 153rd Infantry Addison escorted her father during the school's Veterans Day parade on Friday.

the parade,” Stafford said.

“We believe our students need to know about the sacrifices these veterans have made.”

In preparation for the event, teachers sent home notes with the students informing parents that their children could

A dedication ceremony was held at Harding University this week to for the newly refurbished J.E. and L.E. Mabee business building and the Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration.

A surprise dedication was presented Thursday on behalf of David and Donnie House, who gave a pace-setting gift towards the Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration. Their gift went to honor Floyd Daniel, senior vice presi-

Please see MCRAE | 2A

Please see DEDICATION | 2A

Students, veterans parade around the school

BY MARISA LYTLE mlytle@thedailycitizen.com

Children, parents, teachers and visitors waved flags and cheered as local veterans walked along the sidewalks of the McRae Elementary in Searcy Friday, each accompanied by the student who invited him or her to participate in the festivities.

WEATHER Today: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy.

Lows in the lower 50s. South winds 15 to 20 mph Vol. 157, No. 272 ©2011 The Daily Citizen

White County honors veterans mfleming@thedailycitizen.com

The Central Arkansas Drug Task Force and the White County Sheriff’s Department found more than $140,000 worth of drugs in two seized vehicles on Friday; yet no arrests have been made.

The CADTF and the sheriff’s office executed a search warrant on two vehicles that had been towed due to a property owner’s request, according to a press release from the task force. CADTF Investigators were familiar

Please see TESTS | 2A

The White County Veterans Office hosted its annual Veterans Day Ceremony on Friday on the east side of the courthouse.

White County Judge Michael Lincoln was the guest speaker.

An estimated 50 people attended the ceremony.

Singer brings veterans to their feet during medley

More than $140,000 worth of drugs found

LITTLE ROCK — Nearly 45 percent of Arkansas' 1,071 public schools haven't met minimum achievement requirements on state exams for at least two years, a new report finds.

According to the report released by the Arkansas Department of Education on Thursday, 480 schools must take steps to raise student scores, including providing tutors, offering school transfers and changing faculties, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in Friday's editions.

Sixty fewer schools didn't meet the requirements last year.

The total includes 35 of the Lit-

Veterans Ceremony

According to McRae first grade teacher Kristin Stafford, the parade came at the end of a week spent teaching students who veterans are and why it is important to honor them.

“We spent the week before the parade talking about veterans, reading books, doing projects and making flags for

INDEX NATION & STATE, 2A OPINIONS, 4A LIFESTYLES, 5A CALENDAR/OBITUARIES, 6A SPORTS, 1B CLASSIFIEDS, 5B

“

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU 18th Century French philospher and writer

Contact us: 3000 E. Race, Searcy, AR 72143, (Phone) 501-268-8621, (Fax) 501-268-6277

”

The Daily Citizen

Page 2A • Saturday, November 12, 2011

From Page One MCRAE: Students escort veterans in parade CONTINUED FROM 1A

invite family members or friends who are veterans to participate in the Veterans Day parade. In addition, any child who brought a veteran to the event would be allowed to walk alongside him or her during the parade.

“We’ve had this parade for a few years now,” Stafford said, “All of our teachers, and all of the students in kindergarten through third grade participate. My whole family also comes to the event.”

Before the parade, the veterans attended a reception in their honor.

Afterwards, attendees and participants gathered outside the school to cheer on the veterans and student escorts as a parade complete with music and waving flags ensued.

Students formed lines around the school and cheered with such phrases as “Thank you, captains!” as their classmates and veterans walked by.

Jeff Montgomery/Special to The Daily Citizen

Senior Vice President of University Advancement Floyd Daniel stands Nov. 10 with his wife Juanita in front of the plaque that was placed outside the classroom dedicated to him in the J.E. and L.E. Mabee business building.

DEDICATION: Daniel's influence honored CONTINUED FROM 1A

Marisa Lytle/mlytle@thedailycitzen.com

McRae Elementary students wave flags and cheer as fellow students and veterans pass by during the schools Veterans Day parade. Students invited family and friends who are veterans to participate in the event.

dent for university advancement.

Classroom 111 of the building was dedicated to Daniel. According to Dr. Bryan Burks, dean of the Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration, this multipurpose classroom seats

100 students and can be transformed to hold 200 people for events.

David and Donnie House graduated from Harding in 1974 and they reside in Tulsa, Okla. A plaque recognizing Daniel was placed outside the classroom to display the purpose behind the Houses’ giving.

Dr. Michael Williams, the vice president of university advancement, had the wrote the copy for the plaque. The final statement reads that the Houses’ “generosity recognizes Floyd’s powerful influence on their lives and the lives of others that he has touched.”

TESTS: Arkansas tests and labels students and districts to comply with No Child Left Behind Act CONTINUED FROM 1A

tle Rock School District's 45 schools, and 20 of the 36 schools in the Pulaski County Special School District. Sixteen of 19 schools in the North Little Rock district and 13 of 26 schools in the Fort Smith

District also were included in the total.

Independently run public charter schools such as The Dreamland Academy in Little Rock and Little Rock Preparatory Academy also missed the state minimum requirements for two or more years, the

report found.

Arkansas tests students and labels schools and school districts to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which calls for students to score at their grade level on state math and literacy tests by the 2013-2014

school year. Schools and districts were judged academically troubled on the basis of results from state Benchmark and End-ofCourse exams given last spring.

The Education Department places a school in the state's improvement

program when the student body or one or more subgroups of students fail to meet the state's annual minimum achievement requirements in two consecutive years. Subgroups include white, black, Hispanic, poor, disabled or non-native English speak-

ing students.

Eight of Little Rock's 35 labeled schools did meet achievement requirements last spring, and if they can repeat the feat, they will be removed from the state's needingimprovement list next year.

JENKINS: Criminal charges will not be filed against White County Emergency Management director CONTINUED FROM 1A

state police’s 79-page case file, which was obtained

by The Daily Citizen on Wednesday following a Freedom of Information Act request, shows that the balance on the account had reached as high as $6,052.48 in June 2010. A case summary dated Oct. 17 and submitted to Chris Raff, 17th Judicial District prosecuting attorney, shows that the balance was $4,385.31 as of Sept. 2.

The state police’s investigation concluded that Jenkins, not the county, had been paying the bills on the account. Raff on Monday announced his decision not to file charges against Jenkins, saying in a statement that “The county has sustained no financial loss as a result of these ... matters.

The results of this investigation do not warrant the filing of any criminal charges.

All decisions related to personnel at the OEM will be made by the White County Judge.”

According to a timeline included in the case file, the investigation was prompted on June 27 when Bill Haynie, owner of Haynie Construction in Searcy and current White County judge candidate, provided information to state police agent Gary Gray from Courtney Teague, former OEM administrative assistant. Raff requested a police investigation on July 6, and the investigation began on July 20.

Haynie served on the county’s 911 Administrative Board intermittently from its formation in 2003 until he was replaced in January 2010 due to term limits.

Haynie was board chairman at the time of his departure,

and he said it was in this capacity that he knew Teague, who did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Teague’s employment with the county was terminated on June 21 after Teague told County Judge Michael Lincoln she could no longer work with Jenkins due to a personality conflict.

Lincoln offered Teague a job as a county dispatcher instead, but Teague rejected the offer because her work schedule would be 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Teague stated that those hours would not be conducive to tending to her child, according to the minutes of a county grievance hearing held on July 8.

Teague stated that she was pregnant but had no children at the time of her termination, claiming that she believed she was fired due to her pregnancy. The panel, consisting of Quorum Court members Kenneth Horton, Jimmy House and Mike Cleveland, voted unanimously to confirm Lincoln’s decision to uphold Teague’s termination.

Haynie told police he was informed of Teague’s firing by Bob Parish, former county judge, on the morning of June 25, which Parish confirmed to The Citizen Friday. Haynie said he called Teague and asked about her termination and Teague requested a meeting with Haynie later that afternoon. During the afternoon meeting, Teague relayed to Haynie the four allegations that would later become the focus of the police’s investigation.

One allegation regarded two personal purchases by Jenkins on a county Visa card the day before and the day of Thanksgiving, Nov. 24-25, 2010. Jenkins spent

$11.11 at Sexton Foods and $20.79 at Walmart on items for her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Jenkins admitted to making the purchases but said she reimbursed the county.

Reimbursement for the $20.79 was made on Sept.

29, three days after the interview with police in which Jenkins said she had already paid back the money.

Reimbursement for the $11.11 was made on July 8, two days after state police met with Raff.

Jenkins told police that she believed she had used her personal credit card to make the purchases.

“I have the (sic) Visa and the county had a Visa and they were both in my wallet and I just grabbed the wrong one,” Jenkins told police.

The second allegation involves the purchase of an air conditioning heat pump on April 20, 2010. The unit was purchased for $150 by Jenkins at Arkansas Federal Surplus and paid for by the county. Teague stated that the unit was seen behind Jenkins’ residence and that Jenkins had asked Teague’s friend, David Mullen, to hook the unit up to her home.

Jenkins told police that the unit was purchased for a volunteer fire department, but department officials later decided they did not want it. The specific fire department was not mentioned in the police report, and Jenkins refused to specify to which fire department she was referring when contacted by a reporter from The

Salute to Veterans

Citizen Thursday evening.

She told police that the unit was not purchased for personal use, but was stored at her home because she had nowhere else to store it.

Jenkins denied asking anyone to hook the unit to her home, but did admit to asking if the unit was the size needed for her home.

The final allegation regarded the purchase of two FEMA camper trailers from OEM, Division of Federal Surplus property on May 26 for $500 each. Haynie told police that he drove to Jenkins’ residence the morning of June 26 and saw one of the trailers parked next to Jenkins’ home and took a photograph of it. Haynie provided the image to police. By the time of Haynie’s interview with police on July 20, the trailer had been moved near the OEM office.

Jenkins admitted to police that she did have one of the trailers at her home, but only for a short period of time while cleaning it up.

Haynie told The Citizen that he believes Jenkins’ employment with the county should be terminated.

“I never did think she should be prosecuted, but I definitely thought she should be let go,” he said. “I

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can assure you, if any other county employee had done it, they wouldn’t be working there.”

Haynie said he went to authorities because he felt it was his obligation.

“If someone came to you and told you of some illegal activity, I would hope you or anyone else would go to the authorities, and that’s all I did,” he said. “I turned it over to the authorities. I told them that I’m just the messenger, and call this [Teague’s] number, and that’s how it came about.”

Lincoln told The Citizen on Friday that he was not surprised that criminal charges were not filed, adding that he will not make any changes within the Office of Emergency Management.

“I knew they wouldn’t find anything worthy of criminal investigation, and they didn’t,” he said. “Tamara Jenkins has done a great job for the county. She didn’t do anything intentionally wrong. We have taken steps to make sure everyone, not just her, understands the responsibility they have regarding county cards.”

Lincoln said that he believes political ambition played a factor in the investigation. He also confirmed that he “definitely” plans to seek re-election next year.

“I truly believe this investigation was politically motivated,” he said. “I have confidence in Tamara to do her job.”

Lincoln told The Citizen that he was interviewed by Gray at the county courthouse last month, but that he did not recall the exact day. Records of this interview were not included in the case file the state police released this week. Bill Sadler, Arkansas State Police public information officer, told The Citizen Friday afternoon that he did not know why the records were excluded, but that he would look into it.

Jenkins declined to comment on the findings of the investigation when contacted by a reporter from The Citizen Thursday evening, but stated that she does not plan to resign from office.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

Corrections The Daily Citizen corrects factual errors promptly and courteously. If you have a correction or clarification, please call Editor Jacob Brower at (501) 2688621 or e-mail him at jbrower@thedailycitizen.com.