Thanks, Carroll

Carroll Rogers served as commissioner of Dist. 1 in LeFlore County for several years and was most recently chairman of the commissioners.

He was defeated by Derwin Gist in the 2010 election, but made sure to give the county a gift before leaving office.

Rogers ordered supplies from various venders in his last year, even though the purchases were not approved by the commissioners, as they should have been, and went way over his budget.

He made purchases of some $400,000 from the businesses. When the invoices were presented for payment, county officials quickly figured out these purchases had never been approved.

That left the three current commissioners in a bind. The purchases were not approved in any meeting, plus the funds were not available. Initially, the requests for money were turned down by the commissioners since, of course, the purchases had never been approved.

This wasn’t fair for the various businesses, of course, since they were out a lot of money in filling orders from the county, or to be accurate, a county commissioner.

Some of these orders were rather large and would put the businesses in a bind. So the businesses filed a “friendly lawsuit” against LeFlore County, seeking the money owed.

Now, the commissioners along with other county leaders are deciding what to do. Unfortunately, it looks like the invoices will be paid as the county will have to take care of it or a judgment could be entered against the county.

Actually, it is not technically the county which will have to pay these debts. It will be the tax payers of LeFlore County.

Our taxes will be raised to pay these bills, even though most of the county did not benefit.

This is not right, of course, but apparently is the only option available. Whether anything can be done to Rogers either in a criminal or civil manner is unknown, not that it would bail out the tax payers.

So thanks, Carroll.