Taney Co. Commissioner Speaks Out About Prosecutor's Investigation - KSPR Joanna Small Reports

By KSPR News By Joanna Small Story Created: Apr 9, 2010 at 10:23 PM CDT Story Updated: Apr 9, 2010 at 10:23 PM CDT A criminal investigation underway in Taney County Friday night as accusations fly about the presiding commissioner. He is the only one willing to speak freely about an investigation he says is the result of a simple misunderstanding he attempted to fix, going as far as to dip into his own bank account. The Taney County commissioners sift through thousands of bills every month. Most get paid without problems. "The invoice at issue is $12,315.25." That's the amount of money Presiding Commissioner Chuck Pennel says the county owed an Arkansas-based engineering firm. "we owed the bill- there wasn't any question about it in my mind." Pennel says another commissioner wasn't so convinced. "Mr. Strafuss had an issue because he believes we overpaid them and we're in disagreement there- he asked that the bill be held out," Pennel tells us. A few weeks later the firm was requesting its money, and Pennel says Western Commissioner Jim Strafuss moved the bill back to the accounts payable pile, so pennel paid it- without another vote of the three commissioners. "We should have brought it back up and had a vote on it, so I did wrong, no two ways about it," Pennel explains. Pennel says he tried to do right by writing a check to the county treasury out of his own bank account, but that didn't seem to rectify the situation. He says he didn't realize the disagreement was so serious until he got a letter from the prosecuting attorney's office. It references a "situation" and an "investigation" but really nothing more specific. "I'm pretty confident that's what it's about." The letter also asked commissioners to refrain from commenting, which Strafuss did. When we called him to get his side of the story he read this statement over the phone: "The county commissioners have been requested in writing by the prosecuting attorney not to discuss this case because it is an ongoing investigation." Pennel says the commission is not happy with the engineering firm's work, but the county has a contract with the firm. He says that contract should be honored.