Smiley council discusses missing COVID funds

The Smiley City Council met for its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday, Sept. 18 at Smiley City Hall.

One of the biggest topics from the meeting was the status of the Coronavirus State & Local Fiscal Recovery Funds the city had received.

City Secretary Scott Jewett told the council the city received an email two months ago from the Texas Department of Emergency Management and the Department of Treasury about the city’s failure to submit $70,000 in receipts and questioning where the money was spent on that grant.

“When this first came out under the Texas Department of Emergency Management and they use funds for salary,” Jewett said. “That person submitted the marshal for work for these many hours. This is what he was paying. ‘I worked this many hours.’ The utility, they broke it down on how that money was spent to pay the employees who were working that time to accomplish that. That was not done for the Department of Treasury portion.”

Jewett said he has been watching training videos from the Treasury Department to comprehend what the funds were supposed to be spent on. He added some of the funds were used to cover the Republic Services trash bills for the residents for Smiley during that time of COVID, but he pointed to unknown factors that weren’t supposed to be paid with the funds.

Jewett found two Wells Fargo credit cards that were paid off using COVID funds and he added that those funds specifically cannot be used to pay off debts.

“I would have to do digging and go back to find credit card statements that were used during the coronavirus time to see if anything purchased that time falls within the parameters of allowable purchases,” Jewett said.

The remaining $44,000 in funds were transferred to the city’s general fund balance when they closed its grant account. Councilwoman Melva Childress asked if they were able to track where the $44,000 went.

“All I can honestly do, Councilwoman is, once again, I've got to go through the old files from the time to money I've transferred into the general fund to see if we purchased anything that will fall within that,” Jewett said.

The city could be held responsible for repaying as much as $60,000 back to the federal government for COVID funds if it cannot prove the money was spent on allowable uses, Jewett added. The city could also have its ability to apply for future grants suspended or denied altogether.

In other business the council approved the following agenda items:

– Approved selling approximately 1.2 Acres to Gonzales County Emergency Services District 2

– approved the Proposed Tax Rate of $.2810 per $100 valuation.

– approved a 3% rate increase for all revenue with the exception of trash.

– approved a proposal to Gonzales County Emergency Services District 2.