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The City of Cumby sign
Previous auditor had violations, council finds
City Government
CUMBY — The city of Cumby discussed impacts of their recent water shortage, mail delivery and choosing a company for a forensic audit at Tuesday’s city council.
The meeting opened at 6:30 p.m. and after an invocation and pledge of allegiance, the council heard reports from police, maintenance and fire departments.
According to Cumby PD Chief Paul Robertson, the department had 382 calls for service and 128 emergency calls, six crash reports and one offense report for unlawful carrying of a weapon.
Mayor Doug Simmerman delivered the maintenance report, which stated the maintenance department in November had done work on well No. 3, completed 17 work orders and replaced four street signs.
Volunteer firefighter David Weather-bee gave the fire department report. For November, the department had 29 calls for service, fought a half acre grass fire and three structure fires and went on six medical calls.
Weatherbee stated outdoor burning was “getting to a critical state” and urged citizens to be careful while burning trash and keep a water source on hand.
“We’ve seen an increase [in grass fires], and we’ll see an increase through February some time,” Weatherbee said.
He said if citizens are concerned about starting a grass fire while they burn outdoors, they can call the VFD to be on hand.
The council then unanimously approved the consent agenda for the Nov. 12 regular meeting, Nov. 18 election canvassing and the Nov. 30 financial balance sheets.
The public comments portion of the meeting drew only one speaker, citizen Ryan Horne.
Horne thanked the council for their prompt response to the November water outages, which he called “much better with communications compared to previous times.”
Horne asked that should future water outages arise, the council update citizens “a little more often, although I know that’s a little bit out of y’all’s hands.”
“If nothing’s happening in the morning or the evening, just let us know, ‘Hey, we’re exactly where we still are,’ so they [citizens] don’t think you’ve forgotten about them,” he said. “We know you haven’t, but people like to gripe.”
Horne proposed taking a look at Gafford Chapel community’s water supply in the hopes their supply could be hooked to Cumby’s in case of an emergency outage.
The council then examined removing Chris Turner as the authorized party to complete a financial audit. Turner, of Mount Pleasant, was chosen at the November council meeting and had completed the previous year’s audit, the council clarified.
According to the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy (TSBPA), an investigation was opened against Turner from July 2012 to May 2014, which issued a limited scope reprimand for violations relating to accounting principles, other professional standards, competence and a violation of a rule of professional conduct adopted by the board. Turner’s license will expire at the end of December this year.
“While I was doing some research about it, a friend of ours who had done the Greenville forensic audit, … he looked at our financial audit, and I didn’t realize there was a Texas State Board of Public Accountancy,” Simmer-man said. “This is in the past, but I feel like this isn’t somebody we want to use, just because he had been reprimanded.”
The board unanimously rescinded Turner’s appointment and appointed instead Mike Ward Accounting and Financial of Point.
“We just want a good firm that has a good reputation,” Simmerman said. “Then we’re going to feel confident they’re going to do a satisfactory job.”
The company provided the council with a cost estimate of $6,000 for a financial audit. The company has no outstanding violations and a license valid through April 2020, according to the TSBPA. Simmerman and city secretary Codi Reynolds noted they had not checked on Ward prior through TSBPA but would authorize the measure and convene a special session “if there were any red flags.”
The council further chose Sandy Alexander of CA Forensics in Dallas to conduct a forensic financial audit.
“I was impressed that he took the initiative and give me the heads up on the firm we had,” Simmer-man said.
The group then heard a presentation from Kasey Tomasek of SMPLSGNL Communications about the efficacy of computer safety measures at Cumby PD and city hall. (See related story in Thursday, Dec. 12 edition.)
The council unanimously approved their votes for Barbara Stewart to the Hopkins County Appraisal district. City of Cumby is one of the entities able to nominate candidates to the Hopkins County Appraisal District. They cast all their votes for Stewart.
The council then unanimously approved a special election for May 2, 2020 for the purpose of filling open alderman spots for the remainder of the term until November 2020.
The council set the time for their holiday social, making sure the social left time for council member Betty McCarter to coordinate schedules with her five children and Simmer-man to spend time with his father. Simmerman said he “will commit to a brisket.” McCarter and Isham Morris told him they would have a ham, and he reiterated he would still bring brisket.
The council and citizen audience then engaged in a discussion about redoing addresses for those Cumby citizens who live on the north and south service roads of Interstate 30.
“I-30 service road has about five different names, depending on where you’re at,” acting Postmaster Nita Cross said. “If it doesn’t have the directional, your mail may end up wherever.”
Citizen Kyle Pettit agreed: As a resident of the southeast portion of the service road, he has had trouble getting packages.
“I was reading an article and I looked into the directions, so if you wanted to name it Cole Road ... and have one side odd numbers only and one side even numbers only, even if you forget to put the north or the south ... it’ll be easier to find whoever’s calling in.”
Cross’s suggestion of Cole for the name of the service road comes from the founder of Cumby, Wash Cole.
“I talked to the lady at 911, and she said if you give it a name, it’s better,” Cross said.
She noted that service roads in Sulphur Springs are named Shannon Road and Industrial Drive, respectively.
Weatherbee stated that something to consider when renaming a road is that businesses located along the road may have costs associated with changing their address.
Cross stated the businesses would have a year in which the old address would still be valid, and anyone could receive mail at either address.
Weatherbee mentioned, however, that changing signs and re-printing business cards are still an additional cost if not factoring in mail delivery.
The council resolved to discuss more about reformulating addresses later, as it was labeled as a discussion item and no action was needed.
The council then entered into executive session to discuss the employment of attorney Rachel Flatt from 7:03 p.m. to 7:39 p.m. After convening back into open session, the council unanimously voted to terminate Flatt’s employment.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 p.m.