The Little Rock Police Department has turned over to the Pulaski County prosecutor its
in an investigation into Little Rock Wastewater Utility expenditures on trailer hook-ups for operations director Stanley Miller, disposal of utility property and reports of bullet-riddled signs at the Fourche Creek Treatment Facility.
The police investigation, requested by Mayor Stodola, concluded that the expenditures incurred to prepare and hook-up sites for Miller’s RV at the Fourche and Adams Field Treatment Facility — which the utility said cost a total of $26,366.79 (twice as much as reported previously) — violated statutes prohibiting municipal corporation employees to provide or accept utility services “without paying for it at the same rate and in the same manner” that the general public pays.
The investigation also cited Arkansas Code 5-38-203 [criminal mischief in the first degree] for damaging property and city code for firing a weapon in the city limits.
Miller and Wastewater Utility Director Reggie Corbitt, who Miller said signed off on the RV placements, have been on administrative paid leave. The Sanitary Sewer Committee will meet today at 4 p.m. to discuss an internal audit of the utility. Corbitt has offered to resign in return for severance pay and health insurance coverage for him and his wife through 2014 (when he planned to retire), according to documents obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He also wants reimbursement of legal expenses. His current pay is more than $187,000, plus he gets an $8,400 car allowance.
The report outlines the work done at the treatment plants to install pads and run utility hookups to trailers owned by Miller and the construction of a heated dog pen at Adams Field. Police also interviewed employees about the bullet-riddled signs; employees acknowledged that they fired guns at berms behind the Fourche Creek facility and that one employee shot at signs and a street light.
Police also talked to Doug Meyer, who was allowed to remove pipe from the Adams Field facility at his own expense, and Richard Furr, whose company also was allowed to salvage the pipe under the condition that they clear the area. Miller maintained the pipe was not inventoried so no salvage sale was required; police found the pipe was inventoried.
City Director Lance Hines, the board liaison to the Sanitary Sewer Committee, has said the utility’s explanation of why Miller was set up at the treatment plant — that it was for security reasons — didn’t make sense, in the face of facts that there are other treatment plants with no such security in place. His attitude is shared by the rest of the City Board, which makes approval of Corbitt’s settlement terms seem iffy.