Police Chief has new City checking accounts

NEW CHECKING ACCOUNTS FOR POLICE CHIEF HORNER

By Austin Leedom, Thursday April 12, 2007

The DRUG TASK FORCE was disbanded early 2003 by Sheriff Marty Donini and Police Chief Charles Horner when another law officer, a village mayor, an assistant county prosecuting attorney, reporters and website writers began asking the question, “Where’s the money?” They were asking about drug task force raids and the money that had been seized. Neither the Sheriff nor the Chief of Police wanted to answer. Horner and Donini swiftly disbanded the Drug Task Force, rather than to make an accounting of the seized money. This breakup made big news in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. The news was aired on radio and television in three states and published in many newspapers.

For over four years Portsmouth Police Chief Charles Horner refused to fully account for expenditures from his “private slush fund” of city money earmarked for drug investigation work. The money from this fund came mostly from money seized in drug raids and no proper reports were made to the City. The Chief had this money in a special checking account, made deposits and wrote checks with no oversight from the City Auditor’s Office. The Chief had his own personal City check book until finally forced by the City Auditor to turn the funds into the City Treasury. When Chief Horner did make an accounting of checks written he reported that $30,000 had been expended on an item identified only as “Other.” No further details were reported on this “Other” expenditure.

In 2004, efforts by Investigative Reporter Doug Deepe uncovered proof that Chief Horner had improperly spent some of the money that was to be expended on drug force work.

HORNER OBTAINED ANOTHER CHECK WRITING ACCOUNT

On Tuesday, April 10, 2007 Reporter Doug Deepe discovered that Chief Horner now had the ability to write checks on City accounts again. Mayor Kalb, and Chief Horner with no authority or permission from the City Auditor, had set up two accounts and permission again had been given to Charles Horner to write checks on a City Account.

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 4:15 p.m. I entered City Hall to speak with the Auditor concerning the bank accounts that had been opened in the City’s name by the Mayor and the Chief of Police.

The Auditor was out of the office temporarily so I went across the hallway and talked with the Honorable Mayor Jim Kalb concerning the bank accounts. When the Mayor comprehended my question about new city bank accounts he reacted much as the now-recalled Mayor Greg Bauer did in 2003 when we asked Bauer about the illegal account that his City Service Director Mike Blackburn had established at DESCO bank.

The Mayor appeared to be embarrassed by the question, but said that recently officials of the DESCO bank came to his office and asked that accounts be set up at their bank to accept donations for restoration work on damages at Greenlawn Cemetery and for rewards to be paid for information about the vandals who had committed the damages.

According to the Mayor, the bank official, a few days later, called his office and asked who should be listed as the person to be in charge of the new City bank accounts. The Mayor said he told the banker that it be okay for Police Chief Charles Horner to be in charge of the accounts as the Chief would be the one writing checks from the accounts.

I asked the Mayor if he had talked with the City Auditor before authorizing the accounts; he replied that had not been necessary. He said, as Mayor he didn’t need to talk with the Auditor, he had given authority for the new accounts without consulting the Auditor.
I left the Mayor and proceeded to leave the building.

MAYOR DOESN’T UNDERSTAND FEDERAL, STATE PRIVACY RIGHTS

I left the City building at 4:25 p.m. The nervous Mayor followed me downstairs and out of the building. The Honorable Mayor questioned me about whether I pay city income taxes when working out of state on disasters such as the Katrina Hurricane in New Orleans, and other work on the East Coast? Respectfully, I told the Honorable Mayor that I would not answer his question, as it was not his concern. (Apparently the Honorable Mayor has little knowledge of federal and state laws of citizens’ rights of privacy.)

The Honorable Mayor demanded an answer saying that he was the Chief Executive of the City, the city was short on money and it was his duty as Mayor to make sure that I pay my fair share of taxes. In reply I asked him if it was true that he has been taking money from citizens for use of facilities at Mound Park for many years and had never turned any money into the City Treasury. He admitted that he had not turned any money into the City because he ran a “private corporation” called Proud, Inc., and money he collected went into his account for Proud Inc.

I then left the Mayor and at 4:31 p.m. I drove away, west on Front Street, to the west side of the City building and then north toward Second Street where I saw Chief of Police Horner and City Auditor Trent Williams standing and talking in a misty rain behind the police station.

For more information on what has happened since, please click on… http://dougdeepereturns.blogspot.com/
By Austin Leedom, writer for Shawnee Sentinel Online - at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, 2007