Pine Bluff Couldn't Trace $241,218 in Parks Department Cash

Arkansas Legislative Audit⧉ -- the state's constitutional auditor of city and county government, which every Arkansas municipality is examined by on a recurring cycle -- reviewed City of Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Department transactions from January 1, 2023 through May 21, 2025 and found $179,629 in manual cash receipts that could not be traced to the City Collector's own receipts and deposits.▸ Some Parks entities, including Harbor Oaks Golf Course, issued no receipts at all for revenue they took in, so the auditors wrote that the real total 'could be higher'⧉ than what the review could even attempt to trace.

The same review found $48,415 in purchases the auditors classified outright as unallowable -- holiday decor, kitchen items, personal hygiene items, fashion accessories, gift cards, and electronic devices -- plus another $13,174 in purchases they called merely questionable: snacks and office decor.▸ Auditors compared the original invoices vendors kept on file to the invoices the department had submitted to the City Clerk's office, and found numerous invoices had been altered to conceal what was actually purchased and where it had been shipped -- to addresses with no connection to the City⧉. Two vendors' original invoices couldn't be produced at all, so auditors could not confirm whether those purchases were for city business.

Arkansas law requires a city council to approve the vendors a municipal department buys from; five of the vendors used to purchase the questionable and unallowable items had never been approved by Pine Bluff's council⧉.▸ Separately, three department lawn mowers were not available for the auditors to inspect, so they could not determine whether the equipment was still in the City's possession⧉. The Management Letter names the officials who held office during the 2024 audit year, including then-Mayor Shirley Washington⧉ and Parks and Recreation Director Trudy Redus; the City's finance office was cited separately for its own compliance gaps -- cash receipts journals not properly maintained or reconciled to bank deposits, monthly bank reconciliations not performed on time, and receipts not issued or deposited promptly, as Arkansas municipal accounting law (Ark. Code Ann. §§ 14-59-101 to 14-59-119) requires⧉.

The two Parks employees on duty when the transactions occurred -- the department's Office Manager and Assistant Director -- were terminated May 23, 2025.▸ According to Mayor Vivian Flowers's own account⧉, the evidence went to local law enforcement immediately, the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney formally asked the Arkansas State Police to investigate, and the referral was disclosed publicly on June 4, 2025 -- all before the audit itself was finalized on December 10, 2025.

The findings reached the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee on March 13, 2026⧉, where committee House Chair Rep. Robin Lundstrum called them 'plain old theft' and credited Flowers -- who took office January 1, 2025, after the conduct occurred -- with surfacing rather than covering up the problem.▸ As of that March 2026 hearing, the Arkansas State Police was still investigating the allegations⧉ -- the most recent public status available -- and no charges had been announced.

Flowers's administration says it has since created and funded a Procurement Director position to centralize purchasing, required City Council resolutions to approve budget amendments, and moved to electronic payments and deposits⧉.▸ It has also filed for a broader, City Council-approved forensic audit -- still in process as of the mayor's statement -- covering all of the City's 2017 sales-tax activity and every mayoral department's records for 2023 and 2024. Whether that audit turns up more than the $241,218 already on the record is, for now, an open question with no filed date for an answer.