An offer by the Oklahoma State Auditor's office to hold a town hall forum that would not cost Henryetta any money was turned down this past week.
According to Trey Davis at the auditor's office, that option was presented as part of a conversation with Howard Sheward who has requested the state audit. "He declined to go that route."
"Gary (Jones, state auditor) started the town hall meetings due to an increase in these types of audits to find a way to intercede on behalf of both parties to get answers and resolve issues," Davis said. "That would avoid an expensive audit."
Sheward and his group have until Aug. 16 to have petitions signed and returned to the state auditor's office. Once there, the signatures will be sent to the Okmulgee County election board to be verified. Those signatures are confidential unless a court orders them to be released. He said once a person signs the petition, their name stays with it unless they go back to the petition circulators and remove it themselves.
Davis said the audit can take from three to six months and cost up to $75,000. "By law we don't profit from the audits but we can recover the costs to our office." He said if the audit takes longer than expected, the state auditor's office will stay with the projected amount.
"Usually the audits are justified but there are instances where we wondered what this was all about," he added.
Those town hall meetings have been held in Durant, Ardmore and Cordell. Davis said they were successful in both Durant and Ardmore.
Regarding the Henryetta audit, Davis said some of the issues being brought up are already known and are several years old. "What went wrong at the water plant is public knowledge and the audit will not hold anyone responsible," he said.