Paris Tracking Down Tax Dollars
“Obviously there are some issues with the city in terms of financial circumstances,” said interim city manager Carl Holder. Five weeks ago, he returned to city hall, and after hitting the books, he found money not adding up. “The idea the city would have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars come in and not deposited that day is completely and totally unacceptable.” Even though many people targeted former city manager Jack Turkington for missing funds, Holder said this is not the case. “As far as the investigation and whom is directly responsible, Ms. Rowlett is the only person the investigation points a finger at.” Former city recorder Lisa Rowlett was fired by Jack Turkington in mid-January, but by the end of the same month, Turkington resigned himself. “Being in charge of all that money how did he not know all that was missing, maybe he had something to do with it on his own,” asked Torrance Atkins, a city employee. City lawyers said it was Rowlett who is to blame for what they call malfeasance and misappropriation of city money. “I wont draw conclusions about theft because what i will do is take the information collected and turn into the district attorney,” said Holder.
