Of all the things he has discovered since taking office, Supervisor Tommy Sinclair says the most stunning was finding $60,000 in undeposited checks and cash in a former bookkeeper's desk and then learning the county's long distance phone service was about to be terminated for non-payment.

Sinclair was appointed supervisor by Gov. Mark Sanford in October to serve out the unexpired term of former supervisor Donnie Betenbaugh who was suspended by Sanford after being indicted on federal drug and corruption charges.

Since taking office, Sinclair has sought to deal with the fallout of the scandals at the courthouse and restore public confidence in county government by making its activities as transparent as possible. In the process, Sinclair has discovered a number of questionable practices that took place at the courthouse before he took office, practices he has put an end to.

His most recent discovery was that $60,000 in checks - including a $50,000 infrastructure check from AT&T - and cash had not been deposited. Instead, Sinclair said Monday the checks and cash were either in or on the desk of Vicki Nash, a former bookkeeper in the supervisor's office. Sinclair said some of the checks were issued to the county as much as three months ago but had never been turned over by Nash to the Union County Treasurer's Offce for deposit. Instead, Sinclair said Nash, who was responsible for transferring monies received by the supervisor's office to the treasurer, simply kept them in a drawer in her desk.

One of those checks was the infrastructure check presented to Sinclair by an official with AT&T in December. Sinclair said it was because of this check he learned about the contents of Nash's desk. He said on March 5 he was contacted by an AT&T offficial who informed him their check had not cleared and was asked why it had not. That was something Sinclair wanted to know as well and it was when he sought an answer he discovered the check was in a locked drawer in Nash’s desk. A search of the drawer turned up not just the AT&T check but other checks and even cash. Subsequent searches of Nash's desk would turn up additional funds, some of which were simply under some papers on the desktop.

The discovery of the undeposited checks and cash in her desk drawer led to Nash being suspended by Sinclair. Shortly after that Nash tendered her retirement notice, effective March 10.

At a March 16 press conference, Sinclair announced Nash's suspension and resignation but declined to publicly identify her. He also declined to give specifics about the matter beyond saying it had raised questions and concerns about some accounting practices in his office. Sinclair did, however, say he had called SLED in to investigate the matter after consulting with Union County Sheriff David Taylor and Union Public Safety Director Sam White.

Taylor said Monday that SLED is continuing its investigation but the agents involved have told him they hope to have it wrapped up within a week or so.

Sinclair said the checks and cash found in and on Nash's desk are now in the treasurer's office where they will remain until SLED completes its investigation. To prevent this problem from happening again, Sinclair said all checks or other monies his office receives are now turned over to the treasurer's office within a day or two of receipt.

Telephone

Just after learning of the undeposited checks, Sinclair said he got another shock from AT&T which informed him the county was just 48 hours away from having its long distance service cut off because of non-payment. Sinclair said Nash was respnosible for the courthouse's phone system, including arranging payment. He said she failed to issue the appropriate vouchers for paying the county's bill resulting in a situation where it nearly lost a vital communication service.

The bill has since been paid and Sinclair said that from now on it will remain on time.

As for why Nash didn't deposit the checks or sign the pay vouchers, Sinclair refused to speculate saying this was something for SLED to determine.

During his March 16 press conference, Sinclair also revealed the existence of an “honor system” in which county employees were allowed to use county credit cards to make personal purchases and then reimburse the county at their leisure. Sinclair said that in January he learned there were as many as 30 county credit cards in circulation at the courthouse and then later learned of the honor system from federal agents investigating political corruption in county government. In looking into the matter, Sinclair was able to find no written policy authorizing the practice, but in talking with county employees learned it was verbally authorized by Betenbaugh.

Betenbaugh, who was indicted in October 2009 on 40 federal charges involving corruption and drug activity, pleaded guilty in February to one count of extortion as part of an agreement negotiated with the government by his attorneys. The maximum sentence Betenbaugh could receive on the extortion charge is 20 years and a $250,000 fine. If convicted on all 40 charges he could be sentenced to more than six centuries in prison.

Sinclair, the sheriff’s office, SLED and the FBI are attempting to determine who used the cards for personal business and whether or not they reimbursed the county. The effort has been hindered by a lack of receipt books.

To prevent this from happening again, Sinclair is requiring the credit cards be used only by department heads and only for county business. All purchases will now have to be accounted for through invoices and/or sales slips which must be turned in to the accounts payable section of the supervisor’s office. The checks to cover those purchases are hand-signed by Sinclair.

Looking back over the revelations of the past several months and especially the past week, Sinclair expressed a sense of bewilderment that is probably shared by the people of Union County.

"When does it all stop?” he asked. “When do we finally get to the end of all of this?”