Greenville, Mo., may need to file for municipal bankruptcy

GREENVILLE, Mo. — The Greenville Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to replace its city police chief and said the town may need to file for municipal bankruptcy.

Aldermen voted to not pay the town’s monthly bills, saying the money left in the city coffers would not cover balances owed to community businesses and others.

An additional $25,000 may be owed to the state and federal employee withholding taxes the board says have not been paid for two years or more.

“I’ve never seen such a mess in my life,” said Mayor Carroll Rainwater, who took office in April amid controversy involving an alleged physical encounter with then-city clerk Pam Birmingham. “I don’t know how it got this way.”

Finances are so grim, according to documents presented to about 30 residents, a $500 donation from a local civic organization means Greenville now has more money to pay for the Fourth of July fireworks than in its police department account.

“We are down to $6,000. I just want you people to know where we’re at,” Rainwater said. “I’m sure there’s not 10 people in the whole town that know this, but it has to come out sometime.”

The account summary provided by the city shows about $2,800 in the water and sewer account, $3,100 in the general fund, $2,400 in the summer ball account, less than $400 in the police fund, $260 in the cemetery account and $180 in capital improvement money.

A letter from the Missouri Department of Revenue shows nearly $14,200 in withholding taxes owed dating to February 2015.

Rainwater promised aldermen would have more information and a proposal to solve the problem at the next meeting.

“It’s kind of a depressing situation,” he said. “We’re going to find out before the next meeting what the solution is going to be. We may have to restructure.”

The city is making its payroll, the aldermen said. It employs two full-time police officers, two maintenance workers, a part-time water and sewer department worker and a city attorney.

The board has voted since April to replace the city clerk, city attorney and the police chief, Danny Jaco, who had served the city since 2003.

Assistant chief Donny Robinson was named Tuesday as the new chief of police, when aldermen also voted to name Judy Osburn as the clerk. Osburn is working on a temporary basis and volunteering her time, officials said.

“Nobody’s been fired,” said alderman Mack Lawrence, one of two elected city officials remaining who served before the April election. “All that you hear is malarkey. No one has ever been fired. I told them I will not fire anybody.”

The alderman said the clerk and police chief are positions that are supposed to be appointed each year.

Jaco said he was not told why he would not be reappointed. Jaco worked part-time, overseeing the city’s two full-time officers.

He’s been upset to see more than 13 years of service to the city end in the midst of this controversy. Jaco was also an elected marshal for the city from 1995 to 1999, before city ordinances were changed to make it an appointed position.

“There’s been no bloodshed (in the city) since I’ve been here,” Jaco said.

The controversy of the last month began brewing before the election, and the board of aldermen has been divided for months, Jaco said.

“There’s been no ground gained over the last year,” he said, adding meetings would be canceled or end in members walking out. “It’s hard for me to say whose fault it is.”

Jaco and Birmingham say there are several reasons for the city’s financial situation.

The aldermen voted to provide fully paid health insurance for the two full-time police officers, Jaco said. It was something that was good for the officers, but the $600 a month also was an expense the city was not required to take on and could not afford, he said.

Aldermen never provided him with a copy of the budget for the police department, Jaco said, adding police expenses have been reduced from $70,000 annually to about $50,000 in recent years. The department has applied for grants to replace equipment, he said.

The city had $128,970.45 in total funds in March 2007, when he served as mayor, according to Rainwater, who provided a copy of the board’s meeting minutes for that night.

Rainwater said he does not understand how the accounts could be so depleted.

The city’s former clerk, who has ongoing court cases against Rainwater and new alderman Larry Burchard, said the financial situation is explained in city documents.

The city owed back taxes to the state for employee withholdings when Rainwater left office, Birmingham said.

Rainwater also had committed the city to costly projects, including a walking-trail grant that required a final commitment from the city of nearly $50,000, she said.

The city underreported the police department’s salary expenses during that time and recently had to pay $4,000 in back worker’s compensation taxes, according to Birmingham.

The flood of 2011 cost the city $60,000, some of which was returned by the federal government, but not all, she said.

The city had a balance of $11,000 by the time former mayor Don Scowden left office in 2014, Birmingham said.

Despite this, the city still should have money coming in, she said. Residents pay about $7,000 a month in water and sewer bills. A payment also is received from the school district for the school-resource officer’s salary, and other city sales taxes are received, Birmingham said.

When contacted Wednesday, Scowden declined to comment on the city’s financial situation.

Lawrence and alderman Jarred Costephens, the only officials remaining from before the April election, declined to comment.

Pertinent address:

Greenville, Mo.