Little Rock, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – July 15, 2024 – A Jonesboro based non-profit organization allegedly spent funds for improper reasons and approved a small business loan to a company that was never repaid.
According to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette legislative auditors conducted a review of the East Arkansas Planning and Development District, which investigated the non-profit’s financials from January 2021 to December 2022. The report found the district’s former executive director was responsible for many of the issues auditors found, including $94,885 in “undocumented,” credit card charges. Melissa Rivers was the EAPDD executive director until September 2022. Rivers has since relocated and is now Airport Grants Manager for the San Antonio, TX International Airport, a position she has held since January 2023 according to her LinkedIn profile. James Morgan is the current EAPDD executive director.
East Arkansas Planning & Development District (EAPDD) is one of the state’s eight economic development districts, authorized by Congress and created by Arkansas Act 118 of 1969 under then Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. EAPDD is governed and led by the chief elected officials from an area covering 12 counties and including 116 municipalities in eastern Arkansas, according to its website.
The Democrat-Gazette’s story says the audit report was presented Friday to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee. The story also says the report has been referred to the 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney and the Arkansas Attorney General. Morgan told the committee “These (allegations in the report) should’ve never happened and will not happen under me.”
The district had $94,885 in undocumented charges from 14 credit cards, according to legislative auditors who reviewed statements from June 2021 to June 2023. Those charges included $11,123 for Christmas parties in 2021 and 2022, which included $8,245 in gift cards that were used as bonuses for staff and were not included on the Internal Revenue Services’ W-2 form. The district also spent $2,163 for food and alcohol, $1,123 for birthday parties and $715 for a catered barbecue dinner, according to the Democrat-Gazette’s story. Morgan told the committee the district now has three credit cards rather than the 14 that auditors found in the report.
The Democrat-Gazette said the report also found the district’s board approved a $250,000 small business loan to Radiate Comfort Systems, Inc. that was never repaid. At the time the district issued the loan, owners of Radiate Comfort Systems Inc. had been the subject of a lawsuit that accused the business of fraud, violation of duty of loyalty, and violations of the Arkansas Trade Secrets act among other things, according to legislative auditors. The report said the district’s board and executive director at the time knew of the lawsuit against Radiate Comfort Systems at the time the board approved the loan.