Two Town of Hennessey employees responded to suggested financial and unprofessional actions by a former employee during last Thursday’s meeting of the board of trustees.

The report being questioned was written by Starla Fuksa, hired July 27 as interim town administrator and fired at a special meeting Aug. 29 when Tiffany Tillman was rehired to that role.

Fuksa handed copies of her final report to trustees shortly before that special meeting was called to order. Her report was distributed to audience members that night and was posted on Facebook almost as soon as the meeting had adjourned.

Responding to Fuksa’s allegations and questions were Tillman, town administrator, and David Treanor, pool and splash pad operator, parks and cemetery superintendent and former acting town administrator from mid-February through July 27.

Missing Debit Card – Tillman said she used the debit card to book seven staff and board member hotel rooms for the state Oklahoma Municipal League convention last September. She took the card back to InterBank and they shredded it, Tillman told trustees.

Credit Cards and Charge Accounts – There are no credit cards or charge accounts at Northern Tool, Lowe’s, Sam’s, Amazon and Walmart. They are treated as open accounts, Tillman said.

Bank Deposits by Pool Staff Not Legal – Only persons legally allowed to make deposits, or pick them up from the bank, are: elected treasurer Shelly Burch and clerk Kelley Vaverka, as well as appointed deputy treasurer Keith Meek (former town board member) and deputy clerk Kati Walters (former clerk). All are bonded (insured by the town).

The annual report on the pool “will be delayed,” Tillman wrote in her monthly board report. That’s because deposits made by pool staff (including credit card payments) weren’t entered into the town’s accounting system.

“We are having to go back and do a daily rec on each day when the pool was open in August,” she said.

Swimming Pool – “There was an umbrella for lifeguards working at the pool,” said Treanor. “Saying that lifeguards had no umbrellas was erroneous at best,” said Treanor from the audience.

That was his response to Fuksa’s Aug. 10 board report that lifeguards had “been without umbrellas this summer ..This is a huge health risk and unaccusable (sic) in my eyes. They (lifeguards) did have concerns about the way the unprofessional treatment of town management.”

“I was nothing but professional in my job at the pool,” said Treanor, a 10year town employee who’d continued his job as pool and splash pad operator and parks and cemetery superintendent after he was hired for the administrator job.

“It was inferred I was doing a bad job,” Treanor told the board. “I don’t think it was appropriately handled,” he said, and also mentioned newspaper and online reports about Fuksa’s written report to the board.

Unpaid and Delinquent Accounts – This year there were “several new people” at town hall and some payments were not paid, or were sent to the wrong addresses “over and over,” said Treanor.

“That’s why Amazon and Sam’s showed the town’s accounts were delinquent.”

At the Meeting

All board members were at the meeting: Mayor Clif Vogt, Vice Mayor Harold Shaw, Trustees Bert Gritz, David Jones and Randy Bohnstedt. Other elected officers present: Town Clerk Kelley Vaverka and Town Treasurer Shelley Burch.

Burch is also the Town Hall office manager and other staff present were Tillman; Treanor; Bryan Burch, sewer department superintendent; Denise Meloy, accounts receivable clerk; Alyssa Kubat, water department superintendent, and Ruby Rodriguez, childrens’ librarian.

Also attending was NODA Grant Specialist Jennifer Firgard.

( Ed. note: See upcoming issues for board actions during the meeting.)