Hennessey town trustees unanimously voted to approve Treasurer Kelley Vaverka’s $934.36 claim for her expenses at the Oklahoma Municipal League’s annual conference held in September in Oklahoma City.

That was during the board’s Thursday, Nov. 13, meeting when Mayor Randy Bohnstedt questioned the difference between Vaverka’s hotel expenses for her one room versus a $905.47 purchase order for three rooms by Town Administrator Tiffany Rowen for six town employees during the state conference.

The difference: Vaverka was booked into the Omni hotel and town staffers had reservations at the Marriott.

Rowen told trustees that The Omni was “the choice hotel,” but when she checked “they didn’t have any special rates.”

So, Rowen said she found another hotel that offered “a government rate because the government rate is always cheaper.”

“Yes, I stayed at the Omni,” Vaverka told the board. “Two years ago when we went down there, they all stayed at the Omni and I stayed down at the Holiday Inn. I did not know that they weren’t staying at the Omni (this year). Whenever they booked their rooms, they didn’t ask me if, you know, to get me a room with them.

“I assumed everybody was going to be staying at the Omni. So yes, I booked my room at the Omni because that’s where the conference was taking place.”

Vaverka took office as the town’s treasurer July 1 after being elected in April. She had been elected to a fouryear term as town clerk in 2021, then stepped down as clerk when she was sworn in as treasurer.

Town Hall Office Manager Shelley Burch, the former town treasurer, was then appointed as town clerk by the board.

Names of staff attending that meeting were not mentioned, but apparently included all Town Hall staff because that office was scheduled to be closed at noon on Tuesday that week then reopen Friday morning.

Not Mentioning Names

Before Vaverka said the Omni bill was hers, Bohnstedt said: “for legal reasons he wasn’t mentioning names,” then he passed two sheets of paper around the table to the three other board members during the meeting.

One sheet may have been Rowen’s Sept. 29 “purchase order” claim of $605.47 because she had used her personal credit card to book the employee rooms and was reimbursed.

The other may have been a copy of Vaverka’s Omni room and valet parking bill for $934.36, which was also emailed to the Times & Free Press by the town.

Or, it may have been her reimbursement request for $1,048.48.

After the meeting, Vaverka told the KT&FP her claim had also included some mileage.

“Itapparentlyalsoincluded “coffee shop charges,’” she said during the meeting.

During the meeting she told the board: “If anybody would have come to me before last month, I would have said those weren’t supposed to be on there. The gentleman at the front desk told me he was going to take those (coffee shop charges) off and I guess that didn’t happen. So when I filled out my claim, I just added my stuff together.”

After the meeting she said, “That coffee shop charge was $9.39 for a blueberry muffin and a bottle of water.”

During the meeting she told the mayor, “I’m fine with taking that (coffee shop) charge off.”

Town ‘Under a Microscope’

“Well, that’s fine,” said the mayor. “But I also feel like we’re under a microscope for every charge and everything we’re charged to do right now.”

When contacted after the meeting, Bohnstedt said he made that comment because of the audit, rumors around town and that he wanted to be as transparent as possible about the situation.

During the meeting, Bohnstedt said, “So I wanted to make it clear: this is the only place that I can inform everybody else on the board of this because I can’t call each on them on the phone (because of the law).”

“Well, that’s fine,” said Vaverka, “but I’m upset because Tiffany’s already been reimbursed for her charges, but mine are still sitting out there. It’s two months that’s been sitting on my credit card. And now if I’m not going to be reimbursed until next month when the checks are cut, that’s three months. So I’m accruing interest charges.”

Travel Policy Needed

Trustee Bert Gritz said next month they needed an agenda item “setting a policy about travel on town business, and to talk about payment. Because I don’t expect town employees to have to put $1,000 worth of bills on their personal credit card, if there is a way we can get around that.”

Others agreed with Gritz and there was also discussion about adding a policy to the employee handbook and having the town administrator in charge of all travel arrangements.

None of the town trustees attended the OML conference this year and some were due to local events that week.

Land is Deeded to County

After working with Kingfisher County Commissioner Mike Sparks of Hennessey for about a year, the town board approved a quit claim deed for $10 to the county for “8.23 acres more or less.”

That property is next and near to the “county barn” located at 120 S. Arapaho.

Administrator’s Report

Rowen told the board they were working for the third week on water issues.

She said one was the night of Nov. 10 4th and Oak streets in which the water was turned off and employees worked to get it fixed for about five hours.

On the next days, she said a leak was found at Cimarron and Iowa streets and also had to turn off the water during that evening.

“They couldn’t even find the line without turning the water off,” Rowen said. “They did get that fixed and water came back on at about 9:30 p.m.”

On the morning of Thursday, Nov. 13 there was a leak found at the Methodist church.

“And they just located the line about 4 p.m. today,” Rowen said. “And so they’re working on it. We tried to isolate it. We cut it off, and we plugged it because we didn’t think it went anywhere, but the only line that it serviced is the parsonage for the Methodist church.

“So they’re having to go in there and put that line back together and cut it out.”

Rowen also reported on the swimming pool and said they went into the red this year about $1,700.

“But without the concessions, we would have lost quite a bit more because we doubled our money in concessions,” Rowen told trustees. “Not only that, but we’re down a little bit in visits. That’s because we had problems and opened a week later, then closed two weeks earlier.”