STATE DISPUTES MEAL PAYMENTS TO SCOTT COUNTY

BENTON -- A state audit of Scott County government has cooked up controversy over how the sheriff is paid for the feeding of prisoners.

Sheriff Bill Ferrell pays for the meals. The County Commission then reimburses the sheriff at a daily rate of $3.30 a prisoner.

But the commission doesn't receive or review the food bills. So it has no assurance that the payments are "reasonable" and based on actual costs, state auditors said.

The commission paid more than $100,000 to the sheriff for serving meals in 1994 and 1995 combined.

The payments also weren't reported on the sheriff's W-2 income tax form as required by the Internal Revenue Service.

Auditors said such non-accountable reimbursements are subject to withholdings and payroll taxes.

The state auditor's office released the financial report earlier this month.

In the report, the auditors recommended the County Commission pay food vendors directly, as is done in Cape Girardeau County.

But the commissioners said they would continue with the current arrangement. They said it is more economical to reimburse the sheriff than to pay food vendors directly.

The commissioners said the reimbursements at one time had been included on the sheriff's W-2 form. They said they will resume that practice, as recommended by the auditors.

The meal deal was just one of a number of items dealt with in the audit.

Auditors said the sheriff and a number of other office holders need to improve controls and procedures on handling public money.

Ferrell and the commissioners defended the reimbursement practice.

The sheriff said he informs the commissioners every year at budget time as to what the costs were for feeding prisoners the previous year.

"We are complying with the statutes," he said.

Presiding Commissioner Bob Kielhofner said the county has always reimbursed the sheriff for feeding the prisoners.

A jail trusty cooks the food at the jail. "If we did it any other way, we would have to hire a cook or part-time helper," Kielhofner said.

"We feel we are saving money by letting a trusty do the cooking," said Commissioner Walter Bizzell.

Kielhofner said county officials at various times have considered having the meals catered as some counties do. But he said it always has proved too expensive to do.

The number of inmates at the Scott County Jail averaged between 43 and 44 prisoners a day in 1995, according to state records.

Kielhofner said the sheriff provides the commission with a monthly report on the Scott County Jail population. The commission uses it to determine meal-expense reimbursements.

In contrast, the Cape Girardeau County Commission pays all the food bills for the feeding of prisoners in the Cape County Jail in Jackson.

The county's sheriff, John Jordan, prefers such an accounting system. He said undocumented reimbursement payments to any sheriff for feeding prisoners is "an invitation to improprieties."

H. Weldon Macke, Cape County auditor, said it isn't illegal to reimburse a sheriff for undocumented expenses.

But he said he would want to see the bills if he were a commissioner.

"I don't think that is unreasonable at all," Macke said.

The state reimburses counties at $20 a day for each prisoner who ultimately is sentenced to serve time in the state's prisons. That cost is intended to help cover room and board, utilities and all other costs associated with housing the prisoners.

Counties must file jail-cost reports with Missouri's Office of Administration.

The latest report, filed last year, shows that Scott County paid more than $76,000 for food in 1995. But that figure includes the cost of boarding prisoners in other jails in the region because of lack of space in the Scott County Jail.

"We are running full," Kielhofner said.

The county spent around $40,000 to $50,000 to board prisoners in other jails in the region last year. "We bunked prisoners all the way from Doniphan to Ste. Genevieve," Kielhofner said.

The commission reported to the state that it cost the county nearly $24 a day to house a prisoner in 1995. That figure took into account everything from salaries of jail employees to prisoner meal costs.

In Cape Girardeau County, the cost was nearly $28 a day. That included the cost of cooks.

In 1995, Cape Girardeau County spent more than $75,000 on food for its prisoners. That included room and board for a few prisoners who were shipped out to other jails in the region.

Last year, the county spent $76,578 on food.

On average, it cost the county about $2.60 a day to feed a prisoner last year, officials said.

But that doesn't include the salaries of cooks. The county paid more than $39,000 in salaries for three cooks last year, budget figures show.

Sheriff John Jordan said it costs Cape Girardeau County less to feed prisoners than some other counties because it buys food in bulk and stores it in large freezers.

Counties that have more prisoners can afford to buy food in bulk, he said.

Cape County housed about 71 prisoners a day, on average, in its jail in 1995. Jordan said the jail population averaged about 80 a day last year.