The Courthouse leader makes a bold argument in this Friday statement and sends word to County lawyers questioning their work and tactics.
To wit . . .
JACKSON COUNTY EXEC FRANK WHITE FINDS FAULT WITH THE RECENT REPORT CRITICAL COMBAT ANTI-CRIME TAX MANAGEMENT AND CHALLENGES THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS RELEASED!!!
There's also an interesting passage wherein Exec White notes that the report wasn't supposed to be shared as he references the Prosecutor.
Here's the official word FIRST on TKC . . .
Jackson County Executive requests retraction of COMBAT report
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. has sent a letter today requesting BKD, LLP to immediately issue a public statement retracting their report regarding the County’s public safety sales tax, commonly known as COMBAT.
The letter comes after a meeting this morning between County staff and BKD representatives about the numerous inaccuracies, omissions and misleading statements within the published report.
During this morning’s meeting, County staff pointed out dozens of errors included in the report that could have been avoided had BKD simply consulted and involved the Executive’s Office in the process. County staff were informed today that the report released earlier this week was actually the fourth draft provided to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, with the first being provided in May. BKD stated that they had assumed the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was sharing those earlier drafts with the appropriate people to ensure the information was accurate. In addition, BKD acknowledged errors in the report, including their failure to accurately update revenue numbers that were included in the County’s annual audit, which notably, was also performed by BKD.
“While I appreciate BKD’s acknowledgment of some of the serious errors in their report, that alone will not undo the damage that the public release of this misinformation has done.” White said. “The people of Jackson County should be able to rely on the facts contained in reports like this, but unfortunately, politics always seems to trump the facts in Jackson County.”
Numerous times in the report it states that the COMBAT administration was not consulted about the decisions being made, but shockingly, the COMBAT administration during that time period was never contacted by BKD to ask if that was true.
County staff were also alarmed to hear that despite the report’s very first page stating that the report was not to be released nor referenced without both BKD’s review and approval, including the posting of the report on any website, that the Prosecuting Attorney had failed to do so prior to her releasing the report.
County staff continue to review the report for additional errors and are committed to working with BKD, and others, to ensure that all inaccurate information is corrected. Until that time, the County Executive says the community should not rely upon the contents of the report.
A copy of the letter to BKD is attached.
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Update and more context:
Prosecutor and COMBAT's statement on BKD audit
Developing . . .
Actually, he's got a point about the draft versions. Jean might have miscalculated in putting it out there.
ReplyDelete^^^ Sharing anything with Mike Hendricks is always a bad decision.
DeleteBwhahahahahahahhahahahahahaha!
The county is always at war with itself. But this is the worst we've seen it in awhile. Frank firing back is a good sign that he's not going anywhere any time soon. I think a lot of people want him to quit and that doesn't look like it's going to happen.
DeleteBottom line, regardless of any report, when is Foney Frank gonna admit that he’s in way over his head and has been since day one. Only JaCoMo voters are dumb enough to vote for someone based on his athletic past. Would you hire George Brett to perform surgery on you? Frank, be a man and reign with some dignity.
ReplyDeleteThis would be the same Frank White and crew that tried to redact all the embarrassing shit in a couple of reports about the jail. The same team that has told so many lies about the assessment process they can't keep track of them all.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell is advising this guy?
ReplyDeleteBaker and Galvin seem to have really screwed up this time.
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge setback in their attempt to seize control of the County Government.
Frank may actually be right, Petersucker is as dumb as he is! Hahahahaha!
ReplyDeleteThis is all a big mistake. Frank meant to send this letter to the county assessor and tell her to retract all the bogus reassessments due to so many inaccuracies, blunders and screw ups.
ReplyDeleteThe Truman Courthouse gets renovated for tourism. That makes it under Parks and Rec doesn't it. Seems like there's several rabbit holes in county government? Who paid for the City Market in Independence that a prop to try to sell those condo's across the street?
ReplyDeleteFrank and his staff are too busy to do interviews because they're supposedly helping taxpayers with their assessments, but they had the time to write this BS?
ReplyDeleteTell Frank that I need a retraction on my assessment .
ReplyDeleteTell Frank that I need a retraction on my assessment .
ReplyDeleteThe original "Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight"!
ReplyDeleteHow many hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in the county budget?
And it's being "managed" by a bunch of incompetent dishonest clowns.
Now fighting among themselves like a little clique in elementary school.
No wonder the governor wants nothing to do with this side of the state.
Amateur night on the plains.
Good grief! Hasn't Frank White resigned yet?
ReplyDeleteLocal politics at its ugliest.
ReplyDeleteFrank White has ruined my childhood. He was my second favorite Royal growing up, behind only Brett. Now all those memories are being ruined watching this pathetic crap. He's just a second-rate crook.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this firm would want to ruin its whole reputation to do what Frank's asking for in this nutty letter, just to help him cover his ass.
ReplyDeleteFrank White was a baseball star who signed autographs to get votes. Did he ever stop to wonder why they chose him to walk into a job where the last guy went to Federal Prison for election fraud? What part of "fraud" did Frank White understand. I'm sure Frank remembers what happened to Pete Rose doesn't he?
ReplyDeleteI don't see anything in all this denying the county executive used this money to get his boy Caleb his toy truck. If they were willing to steal a little, I'm betting they were willing to steal a lot.
ReplyDeleteSo Frank White is telling this auditing firm that they royally screwed the pooch and he's demanding a retraction, but he'd be glad to keep working with them "collectively" in the future? Does that make any sense?
ReplyDeleteFrank is so stupid he thinks they’ll retract the evidence, sounds like he's desperate to stay out of jail, just like the rest of the demmocrims!
ReplyDeleteAs usual blame the White guy.
ReplyDelete@ 8:01 Exactly. I've never heard of a CPA firm retracting an audit. This would call into doubt all work they have ever done.
ReplyDelete@ 8:14 I missed that when I skimmed through the letter the first time. That doesn't make sense.
The last honest person working in the county finance dept was fired by Frank and his cohorts. Because the guy would not do their bidding and break the law. If the CPAs got the numbers for their audit from what's left in county finance dept then I wouldn't trust them.
ReplyDeleteHeard Frank reads this.
ReplyDeleteLet’s be nice!
No need to upset him and give him advance notice he could be headed to the slammer.
He might fix the jail up and but I a nice suite right before he gets there.
Some admired him for his “double plays” when he was younger.
Who knew he would continue “double plays” well past his prime?
Let’s raise money for Frank- he only makes $145k a year plus baseball pension... so he can continue to make timely house payments on his bungalow lean to.
While no one can reach Frank- surely money raised will stop “White Flight”... so he can answer questions any prosecutor might have.
RECALL FRANK WHITE!!!
ReplyDelete