Oak Park Receipts Show Feminine Product, Pharmaceutical & Honeybun Purchases

This story is Part Three of a series on the financial investigation in the City of Oak Park. More information will be published as it becomes available and Open Records Requests are fulfilled. You can read Part One here and Part Two here. Make sure to follow the AllOnGeorgia – Emanuel Facebook page for updates and other Emanuel County news, as well as regional and statewide articles.

Documents provided by the City of Oak Park on Wednesday finally shed light on the long-questioned Wal-Mart purchases on the city debit card. One problem remains: The amount provided in the receipts was less than the amount in receipts omitted from the Open Records Request.

The information was obtained by AllOnGeorgia under the Georgia Open Records Act which allows individuals and media outlets to obtain documents pertaining to city finances and operations. A second open records request was filed on March 20th and promptly fulfilled by City Clerk Monica Slater.

Slater told AllOnGeorgia Wednesday that she is not the only person with access or permission to use to the city debit card tied to the General Fund. The City Police Chief, Deputy Police Chief, Mayor Larry Wilson, Mayor Pro-Tem Royce Dismuke, and the Public Works Director all have the ability to use the debit card at their discretion, as long as receipts are provided. Due to that fact, it is unclear who used the city debit card on each occasion outlined below – except when explicitly stated.

The Oak Park financial policy allows department heads – or their designees – to purchase up to $2,500 without Council approval. [See Article V – Sec 2-354(5) of Oak Park City Charter.] 

The receipts provided by the City of Oak park encompass a few from 2015, many from 2016 and 2017 and a handful from 2018, Slater told AllOnGeorgia that some missing receipts were kept with other files and could be provided upon request, though AllOnGeorgia did request ALL receipts from the time period in the March 20th ORR request.

Coordinating the WalMart charges to the bank statments to the receipts provided on April 4, AllOnGeorgia was able to determine that at least 30 receipts in 2017 were missing from the folder provided for the Open Records Request and will be sought in an additional request.

Additionally, the receipts provided showed receipts from four different credit card accounts, but all were provided as ‘city documents.’

Missing receipts include transactions from:

• 01.02.18 – $53.27
• 01.04.18 – $59.01
• 12.11.17 – $14.52
• 12.11.17 – $78.00
• 12.18.17 – $233.07
• 12.29.17 – $12.57
• 11.6.17 – $129.30
• 11.20.17 – $301.93
• 11.30.17 $400.27 (Sam’s Club Pooler)
•   ** correction ** this receipt is accounted for.
• 09.07.17 – $353.71
• 09.07.17 – $525.58
• 09.29.17 – $271.23
• 08.02.17 – $77.50
• 07.19.17 – $38.54
• 07.26.17 – $510.36
• 07.27.17 – $17.98
• 06.02.17 –  $62.31
• 06.15.17 – $166.23 (Sam’s Club Pooler)
• 06.29.17 – $52.92
• 06.30.17 – $268.56
• 05.01.17 – $59.64
• 04.03.17 – $17.60
• 03.07.17 – $325.95
• 03.24.17 – $34.68
• 03.27.17 – $10.67
• 02.01.17 – $76.40
• 02.06.17 – $19.11
• 01.03.17 – $42.83
• 01.18.17 – $28.72
• 01.18.17 – $678
• 01.27.17 – $28.81

The total of the numbers above brings the omitted receipts to $4,531.67 for 2017 alone.

AllOnGeorgia was able to use the barcodes with the Walmart.com phone app to pull up the itemized receipts that were provided to confirm actual item purchases. Some of the items are itemized below. 

The photos below depicts the use of city funds to purchase tampons and pantiliners. (Click on the photo to enlarge for readability)

Atkins bars and IcyHot cream:

Exfoliating scrubs and washcloths:

Hair brushes, hair ties, hair clips, nail polish, nail polish remover, 2-pack of bras, bikini, tank tops, lice shampoo, spoons and more:
Note: This receipt indicates a different card number ending than some of the others, but was provided as part of the Open Records Request. 

The full PDF of the receipts is available below (the file is large – please be patient while it loads) :