Greenfield officials find unbudgeted accounts
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WEAKLEY COUNTY, Tenn. — An unusual discovery by some West Tennessee city officials found two accounts filled with cash many city leaders didn’t even know existed. A lot of questions were raised in Tuesday night’s Greenfield City Board meeting after aldermen learned of two accounts the city recorder says he was told to keep quiet by previous aldermen. Now board members hope to amend the budget and get all accounts out in the open. “There’s money in accounts that were unknown to Greenfield officials,” Alderman James Roy Pope said. Pope says many of the Greenfield City Board members were never made aware of two reserve accounts currently totaling $270,000. One account holds funds to repaint the city water tower next year, but the second account includes money from a building sold to a local business owner. The aldermen want to set the record straight, saying no money has been hidden but that some of the money paid to the city for the old Kellwood building had been put into reserve accounts some board members did not know about. According to one alderman who did not want to be identified, the city has received payments for this property for the past ten years. Money has also been spent from the account. “It’s about $580,000 then of income of the sale of the building that has come in and never been included in the budget.” Pope said. It’s also unclear how that money has been spent, but city officials are confident it was spent on city projects.The current balance is about $116,000. Pope says he’s appalled at the lack of transparency. “This is a black mark on the city that none of us wanted, and it has not been brought to the attention of anyone. For that purpose we only want to do what’s right.” The aldermen say there was no illegal activity because both accounts were included in state audits. We reached out to the city recorder, but he declined to comment due to the pending internal investigation.
