As Rogers County’s fiscal year comes to a close, continuing problems with irregular purchase order procedures and a lack of remaining budget dollars are keeping county commissioners on their toes.

District 3 Commissioner Kirt Thacker failed to encumber over $1 million in laid asphalt and plans to use part of next year’s budget to pay off his debt. With more than $100,000 left in his one-cent tax account and still owing approximately $600,000, he said last week he would need the full $666,666 held in a certificate of deposit by the County Treasurer.

As of May 8, commissioners had the following dollars in the proportioned one-cent tax accounts: D1 $1,164,895; D2 $106,868; D3 $37,660.

Assistant District Attorney Barry Farbro said he is looking into the legality of cashing that CD holding sales tax paid by Latshaw Drilling last year. But Board action on Monday approved releasing those funds.

District 2 Commissioner Mike Helm maintains that money belongs to the county commissioners and should have been distributed last year.

Helm also has purchasing order irregularities in his district that he said are a result of a change in company practices by asphalt vendors.

Helm signed purchase order 807152 to Bellco Materials, Inc. on April 23 in the amount of $167,308, for asphalt laid in February. The purchase order is stamped, “Proper purchasing procedures not followed” by the County Clerk’s office.

The money is for asphalt laid at Cedar Bluff, Ranch Acres, Scissortail additions and Port and EW 39 & NS 409, according to the receiving report accompanying that PO. The money was not prior encumbered.

According to notations on the PO, the amount was an “overage from P.O. 804276,” also to Bellco. That purchase order encumbered $721,080 on Dec. 31, well before asphalt was laid.

Last year, APAC-Oklahoma, Inc. purchased Bellco. That change is responsible for the billing confusion according to Helm.

The total bill from Bellco Materials, now listed as a branch of APAC-Oklahoma, Inc., is for $883,460. Of that total, the amounts are divided between the two purchase orders.

“Bellco did an estimate, but it went over when the company was purchased by APAC,” said Helm. “We pick out the roads we’re going to lay asphalt on. Bellco always sent a representative, usually Mike Bell or Mike Shore. They would ride the roads with us. After that, they would tell us, ‘This is the amount of tonnage to overlay these roads and at our cost this is what the PO needs to be.’ Sometimes it’s a minus, sometimes it’s a plus. That’s the way it’s always been on their estimate.”

APAC honored Bellco’s contract, but there were changes in procedure between the two companies. Bellco’s method was to send tickets directly to the D2 warehouse as asphalt was laid allowing Helm to track the amounts. APAC sends tickets to the Tulsa office first, then sends D2 a bill. That change caused an unexpected overage that had to be covered by a second PO.

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