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Baker County finance director says ARPA coding and timing left roughly $1 million off the books; commissioners press for fixes
Summary
New finance director Brooklyn Neville told commissioners that bookkeeping and timing — not missing money — likely explain roughly $1 million in expected ARPA balance, citing misallocated charges on the Sanderson Fire Station and NAB Sports Complex; commissioners demanded updated grant tracking and faster reimbursement practices.
Brooklyn Neville, Baker County’s new finance director, told the Board of County Commissioners that timing and bookkeeping errors, not missing funds, likely account for roughly $1 million that should be in the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) balance. "So in total, there's a 150,000 left in that fund," Neville said while walking commissioners through a three-page packet of ARPA and grant expenses.
Neville said two projects — the Sanderson Fire Station and the NAB Sports Complex — account for the bulk of the discrepancy. She reported roughly $1.5 million of expenses tied to the Sanderson Fire Station, and said about $850,000 in state appropriations were available for that project but only about $200,000 had been charged to that grant, leaving an estimated $637,000 unallocated to the state grant and instead charged to ARPA. On the NAB Sports Complex Neville said about $471,000 was charged to ARPA and roughly $232,000 to state appropriations against a $600,000 grant, leaving about $367,000 that should have been coded to the grant before ARPA was used. "So in total between the 2, ARPA should have about 1000000 dollars more in it," she said.
Neville said she is working with CKH, the county’s consulting CPA firm, to correct entries by journal entry (moving expenses between funds, not moving cash) and to compile documentation so auditors can verify the corrections. "We think we should be able to just make a journal entry to move not really move funds, but just move expenses," she explained.
Commissioner (speaker 2) pressed for immediate fixes and for clearer reimbursement practices, calling past grant management a "complete dismal failure" and saying predecessors had shown "colossal failures" in handling grants and invoicing. The commissioner asked how often reimbursements had been sought, saying the county should have been submitting expenses at least quarterly. Neville and others on staff said the county has hired or plans to hire a grant manager and that improved communication between staff who approve purchase orders and the finance team should prevent future miscoding.
The board did not take further action on ARPA at the meeting; Neville said the next steps are to work with the CPA to make corrective journal entries and to update internal grant spreadsheets so the county can restore ARPA fund balances and proceed with planned projects once the coding is corrected.
The board’s discussion underscores a bookkeeping and process problem rather than allegations of missing funds; commissioners requested an updated grant spreadsheet and proposals for monitoring reimbursements going forward.
