The Waycross Ethics Board questioned three city officials last week during its second meeting regarding a citizen complaint against City Commissioner Katrena Felder’s expense reports.
During the Thursday, October 31 session in City Hall, City Manager Ulysses “Duke” Rayford, Finance Director Greg Smith and Commissioner Sheinita Bennett testified before the panel. Rayford and Smith were questioned about the process of filing expense reports by city employees. Bennett was asked about the training commissioners receive on submitting expenses and about attendance at events related to the complaint.
The five-person board was seated in September 2024 to study a complaint filed September 3 by citizen Clayton Nelson. It questions the validity of items on an expense report filed by Felder earlier in the year while on city business in Atlanta.
Board member Martin Gray brought up the visit by Felder and other city staffers to the Red Phone Booth Club in Atlanta to Rayford.
The visit to the Red Phone Booth club was part of Nelson’s complaint.
Nelson testified the establishment requires a membership and a pass code for entry, giving it a seedy, sexual connotation. The Red Phone Booth is actually an upscale bar with adjacent restaurant.
Gray said the club was patterned after a 1920s Prohibition-era “speakeasy” and a place he said he’d like to visit with his wife. He said it wasn’t something that should send the complaint off the rails and away from the board’s focus.
He asked Smith if expenses from a respectable business like Applebee’s fall within the parameters of the city per diem. Smith said they could.
The complaint also alleged Felder attended partisan events while on city business in Atlanta.
The board has scheduled its next meeting for 5 p.m., Thursday, November 7 in City Hall. Chairperson Shawn Taylor said City Commissioner Alvin Nelson was scheduled to appear at the session.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 2 p.m., November 15 in City Hall.
After being sworn in early in the October 31 proceedings, Rayford was asked by Taylor about commissioners attending partisan events while on city business.
Rayford said he assumed Felder knew it wasn’t permitted since it was part of the ethics training each administrator received upon assuming their position.
Member Felicia Brown then took up the process of filing and monitoring the reports with Rayford. He said administrators have training on how to handle reports, what’s allowed to be included as an expense and how to handle the city-issued credit card.
Rayford said early in his now 20-month tenure he discovered issues in the expense process which were putting a burden on an already-taxed finance department. Rayford said when he found the issues with per diem and vouchers, he took steps to reinforce the process.
“There are a lot of processess we do not follow in the charter, but we’re working to return to that,” Rayford said.
Rayford said he didn’t know if anyone had spoken with Felder about questionable transactions on the credit card.
Member Lorraine Regulus suggested a monthly budget meeting be held during which officials give an account of any questions on reports.
Rayford said that was part of the process at this point.
Member Martin Gray asked if weekly or monthly audits were done to deal with any discrepancies discovered. Rayford said there was only the yearly audit.
Gray then took a long range look at the issue of the complaint asking Rayford how the city moving forward could assure the citizenry issues such as this will get the attention they deserve from City Hall.
“Can you give the citizens the assurance the attention this matter deserves,” he said, “and guarantee this will not fade away over time?”
Rayford said he can give citizens assurance any recommendations made by the board from the complaint regarding the expense reporting process will be presented to the commission to consider for implememtation.
He said neither he, the commissioners nor Mayor Michael-Angelo James wanted citizens “to think we’re doing somthing unethical” as a result of the complaint.
Smith, himself a former auditor for an accounting firm, followed Rayford and fielded similar questions about his office’s part in the process. He spoke on the per diem and what qualified as an allowable expense.
