A coalition of forestry and conservation groups host “Women in the Woods” in Baldwin County
Last Wednesday, October 23, through Thursday, October 24, the Alabama Forestry Association (AFA), the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC), the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and the Alabama Association of Resource Conservation & Development Councils (RC&D) hosted around 40 women in government to participate in outdoor events in Baldwin County. According to a press release by the Alabama Forestry Association, “this year’s theme was “Working Together” to showcase how the different organizations work together across the state to keep Alabama growing and thriving in its communities, environment and economy.” “Women in the Woods provides invaluable educational opportunities that empower women in state government to gain a deeper understanding of industries like forestry, conservation, and wildfire management,” said Representative Leigh Hulsey. “This event strengthens our ability to support these essential fields, which play a vital role in serving, protecting and growing our state.” The first day, ladies participated in a tour of Week’s Bay in Baldwin County. The tour was hosted by DCNR and focused on the different ecosystems south Alabama is fortunate to have. The AFC discussed their land management plan and their conservation efforts by using controlled burns at the Gulf State Park with the group while touring the Park. The second day, the participants were trained in Firearms Safety 101 hosted by DCNR at the City of Orange Beach Shooting Range. The ladies were instructed by highly trained rangers on proper gun safety and techniques. This allowed DCNR to showcase one of the many programs available to Alabama’s citizens that promote outdoor recreation and appreciation of the state’s abundant natural resources. “DCNR is thankful for our great working relationship with the Alabama Forestry Commission and the Alabama Forestry Association,” said Charlanna Skaggs, General Counsel for DCNR. “We appreciated the opportunity last week to showcase Gulf State Park to some incredible women leaders from around our state, and to talk about the projects we are working on with AFC and AFA. DCNR was excited to share with them that we will be using 100% Alabama grown timber in our new Cheaha State Lodge.” This year’s participants included: Vilma Sneed Smurfit Westrock Jennifer Fidler Representative Hope Brasell Deputy Chief Of Staff – Senate President Pro Tempore Sara Elizabeth Burnham The Bloom Group Twinkle Cavanaugh Alabama Public Service Commission Alyson Cauthen EBW Development Terri Collins Representative Susan DuBose Alabama House Of Representatives D45 Christy Edwards Court of Civil Appeals Stephanie Fuller ForestryWorks® Donna Givens Alabama House of Representatives Emily Ham International Paper Blake Hardwich Adams and Reese LLP Frances Holk-Jones Al Representative Leigh Hulsey Representative Jane Hutcheson Cosby Company Tera Johnson Office of US Senator Katie Britt Elizabeth Langley Chris Langley Timber & Mgt, Inc Charlsi Lee Lieutenant Governor’s Office Emily Lyons B.R. Mosley Land Co. Lora McClendon PowerSouth Energy Laura Jean McCurdy Ag & Industries Mary Martin Mitchell Alabama Department of Revenue Lillian Parker Buchanan Timber and Forestry Catherine Reaves Alabama Port Authority Robin Ricks Manufacture Alabama Jeana Ross Alabama House of Representative District 27 Connie Rowe Lieutenant Governor’s Office Charlanna Skaggs AL Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Cyndi Tidwell F & C Logging Susan Wilhelm Alabama Department of Finance Kelli Wise Supreme Court of Alabama Sarah Wooten RC&D Chris Ziebach Camille Place, Founder Anna Morgan Duke Alabama Forestry Association
Questions remain after Hoover CFO Jennifer Cornett reports on Finance Department corrective action plan
Last Monday, the City of Hoover held its regularly scheduled city council meeting, during which the city’s chief financial officer, Jennifer Cornett, spoke. In response to a request from Councilman Derrick Murphy, she presented an update and plan for remedying some of the concerns from the secretly commissioned forensic audit conducted by the nationally renowned firm Kroll. The presentation addressed some of the top issues but still left many questions. Residents have been asking these questions in earnest for months now at council meetings, as they’ve come across elected officials out locally and through petitions and phone calls. Yet, week after week, they’ve found that the mayor and council president rebuffs their concerns. Denying them answers or a venue to be provided answers. Three critical questions come to mind: first, why won’t city leadership create an open forum to address start to finish the legitimate questions that have been asked and ignored? This forum has been suggested not just by concerned residents but by Councilman Steve McClinton as well. Second, how can residents be sure these problems will be prevented in the future, not just in the Finance Department but also in other departments within the city? We know from the Kroll report and several former members of the council that the information was known to Hoover’s top, namely Mayor Frank Brocato and Council President John Lyda, yet worse than just being ignored, they were seemingly covered up and denied. Why did the checks and balances between the mayor’s office and the city council fail? How do voters prevent that failure in the future as well? Additionally, no one in the city has addressed the limitations described in the forensic audit, and if additional steps need to be taken to examine this administration and their financial dealings, departmental staffing beyond the Finance Department, and other issues brought to light through this process. Kroll described on Page 1 of their report, “In performing our forensic accounting and review and analysis of the Finance Department operations, we had certain limitations in our scope of review including a lack of accurate financial reports available from Munis and potentially thousands of electronic files that were deleted without any audit trail or definitive indication of who may have been responsible.” The Kroll report was 274 pages long. Cornett’s update included 7 PowerPoint slides. This leaves a lot of ground to be covered by city leadership, one would hope that would include those responsible. The sections in the Cornett report: Erroneous Financial Reporting Deleted, Missing and/or Destroyed Records Understaffed Finance Department Lack of Experience/Training in Payroll and General Ledger Division Lack of Training, Skills & Communication Lack of Formal Policies and Procedures MUNIS Accounting & Software Implementation Fluctuations in Finance Department Budget Budget Presentations Lack of Complete and Timely Reconciliations Unaddressed Payroll Issues Summary Cornett described four of the issues addressed in these sections as having been resolved through subsequent actions, marking them as “closed” in her presentation. Among the issues marked as “closed,” however, are the deletion of files that she and the mayor have said were reported to the State’s Attorney General. When asked, William Califf, a spokesman from Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office, said, “It is the longstanding policy of this office to neither confirm nor deny the possibility of an investigation.” The Hoover Channel, the local YouTube channel created by Robin Schultz and his grandson Jackson Schultz, loaded the video of her full update to its page as a part of its newest segment type, “The Week in Review.” You can also find within the description of the video all of the supporting and backup documents, including the detailed PowerPoint presentation that Cornett gave.
