An investigation into the alleged misuse of $136,677 in federal COPS grant funds awarded to the now-defunct Oxford Police Department in the 1990s turned up no criminal wrongdoing, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department.
However, Bill Dunn, chairman of the Oxford Public Fire and EMS Commission, said he was not satisfied with that conclusion and wants more evidence reviewed, including the former police department’s financial records.
A Feb. 19 letter from Sheriff’s Capt. Michael McCabe to Dunn stated that the department can “find no reason to further investigate this matter for criminal wrongdoing.”
“There are no indications that the money is unaccounted for or has been expended on items unrelated to law enforcement,” the letter stated.
OPFEC voted Jan. 15 to request the sheriff’s department conduct an investigation into the possible misuse of COPS grant funds in light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Dec. 23, 2002 demand for repayment of $136,677 by Feb. 6.
A 30-day extension of this deadline was granted by the Justice Department in response to OPFEC’s request for a 90-day extension. The new payment deadline is March 6.
The $136,677 represents the amount of COPS grant funds the Justice Department claims was “supplanted” by the Oxford Police Department in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
Supplanting is defined as replacing local funds that would have otherwise been spent on existing law enforcement personnel with federally-funded COPS grants, which are supposed to be used to increase the number of police officers patrolling the communities.
McCabe stated that sheriff’s investigators reviewed the Justice Department/Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit report regarding the COPS grants and all the subsequent correspondence between the Justice Department and OPFEC.
“The audit traced all the grant money expenditures to legitimate law enforcement activities. This dispute involved $136,677 used for officer payroll. The OIG concluded the money was used to decrease local funding for existing officers rather than new hires. OPFEC’s position is local funding was reduced because new hires were former part-time officers replacing full-time officers who had been receiving a higher rate of pay,” the letter stated.
“The matter is a disagreement of the definitive restrictions governing the purpose and use of COPS grant money. There are no indications that the money is unaccounted for or has been expended on items unrelated to law enforcement,” McCabe wrote.
Despite the sheriff’s findings, OPFEC Chairman Bill Dunn has set up a Feb. 27 meeting between the sheriff’s investigators and local government watchdogs Sue Bellairs and Helen Barwig to air their concerns about issues they didn’t feel were addressed in the investigation.
“Mrs. Bellairs and Mrs. Barwig were not pleased with the sheriff’s findings,” Dunn said. “They felt that not all the evidence was looked at. I want to give them an opportunity to have their concerns addressed directly by the investigators.”
“I couldn’t believe (the sheriff’s investigators) were asked to do an audit of an audit,” Barwig said. “It didn’t make sense.”
Barwig said investigators should have also reviewed all the former police department’s budget records to get “the whole picture.”
“I know money was misspent,” she said. “But maybe it wasn’t a crime, I don’t know.”
Barwig said she wants to know what happened to all the local funding that was replaced with COPS grant monies.
Barwig said the Justice Department audit showed how the federal COPS grant monies were spent on existing officers and how local funding was decreased as a result, but it did not show what happened to the local funds that would otherwise have been spent on those officers. “Where’s all this money?,” Barwig said. “How was it spent?”
Barwig said she hopes to “find out what’s criminal and what’s not criminal” at this meeting with investigators.
Dunn said he hopes to put the issue to rest soon. “I just want it over and everyone satisfied.”