The probe was launched by city officials with the assis-tance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in November. Police Chief Larry Harris stepped aside as the investigation was going on and Assistant Chief John Adams has been over-seeing police operations.
The GBI’s report was turned over to District Attorney Don Wilson in December. City officials reached an agreement this week on the disposition of the case.
According to a press release issued by city officials Satur-day:
“The City of Rockmart has completed its investigation con-cerning poor record keeping, lack of accounting controls and failure to report all uses of monies by a “petty cash account” of the Rockmart Police Department. The city became aware that this fund had apparently been in existence for years where monies were deposited, withdrawn and/or used by the Chief of Police, the Deputy Chief and, at certain times, other employees without proper record keeping.
At the outset, the City wishes to stress none of these mon-ies were misused by the police department, but simply were not properly accounted for. There is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, nor of any intent on the part of any employee of the police department to use any of the monies for personal gain.
The petty cash fund was controlled and administered prin-cipally by the Chief of Police. He has taken full responsibility for the problems associated with a lack of proper accounting of the account. Chief Harris has been reprimanded for his involvement and will resume his duties as police chief on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008.
The practice of use of these monies by the police depart-ment has been stopped.”
The press release goes on to state that Harris and assistant chief Adams have pledged to cooperate fully in “positively moving the police department forward and continuing the success the department has enjoyed under their leadership.”
According to the statement, “all parties regret that the problems existed, are glad that the matter is resolved and trust that there will be no further issues to arise.”
City Manager Jeff Ellis said that he appreciated everyone’s cooperation during this review of the problems and their agreement to fix it, and he expects the department “to con-tinue to make significant progress in the future.”
Rounding out the official statement, Mayor Curtis Lewis and councilmembers stated that they “pledge (our) commit-ment to the continuation of excellent police and public safety protection that the community expects and deserves.”
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