TONTITOWN (KFSM) – A legislative audit of the City of Tontitown, which was recently presented to Mayor Paul Colvin, revealed several issues within the city’s government.
The Tontitown Police Department was one of the entities which were cited in the audit.
The legislative audit showed citations issued by the Tontitown Police Department in 2013 were not properly stored, according to state law.
“The audit did not just involve the police department,” said Joey McCormick, Tontitown’s current Chief of Police. “It was a complete audit of the entire city.”
State law says “as each uniform traffic ticket book is completed, it shall immediately be filed with the court clerk and made available for inspection.” According to the audit, in 2013, the police department was keeping the citation books within their city office.
McCormick, who was appointed as chief in October of 2015, said the issue with the citations occurred during former police chief Denny Upton’s first stint in office.
“The audit just showed that the City of Springdale, which is where our court is housed and who takes care of our citations, should be the keeper of our used citation books,” McCormick said. “And, they should not be stored at the Tontitown Police Department.”
McCormick said that issue was resolved, and citation books are now properly held in Springdale.
“The citation issue was just one of the problems located with the city,” McCormick said. “That was located in 2013, and was corrected near the end of 2014.”
McCormick said the mishandling of the citation books, from his understanding, was a mistake.
“It was just a simple oversight,” McCormick said.
Kris Arthur, Upton’s predecessor, was not available to 5NEWS for comment.
McCormick was not a member of the Tontitown Police Department in 2013.
Both Arthur, and McCormick, were not identified in the audit as having a role in the mishandling of the citation books.
