SOUTHAVEN, MS (abc24.com) - Less than a week to go. Southaven's Board of Alderman expects to release its findings to the Mississippi State Auditor next Tuesday.
The agency wanted the board to review $44,000 worth of receipts submitted by Mayor Greg Davis. Davis is trying to pay off $170,000 to cover expenses he says were spent on dinners and trips to promote the city.
Right now all of the aldermen are looking at the receipts individually. They weren't given a deadline, but say they'll meet next Tuesday to discuss what they find.
"I picked mine up Monday morning," says Ronnie Hale. "I started going through them and am about halfway through right now."
Hale says all seven Southaven board members are doing the same, going over hundreds of pages of receipts Mayor Greg Davis submitted to the state auditor.
"Each alderman will go through the list and mark off the ones they were at or remember what this is. That will let auditors know it's a legit receipt," says Hale.
It's a time consuming process. The investigation covers two and a half years of spending. The aldermen are checking dates, determining if they were with the mayor or saw him spend the money.
"We just have to kind of go through and recognize anything that pops out at us," Hale tells abc24.com.
He says the receipts cover a variety of city expenses, including trips, restaurant bills, retreats and city banquets. And Hale thinks all of them are legitimate, not spent on Davis's personal use. The issue, he says, is time.
"I've always said I think they're legitimate," he says. "It's just whether or not we can remember the dates because two years is a long time to remember whether you were at a function or not."
"I can tell you absolutely some of them are legitimate," says Greg Guy, Alderman at Large and Mayor Pro Tempore. "Obviously I wasn't at everything on there and can only speak to what I personally know about."
The mayor's paid $96,000 out of the $170,000 the auditor says he owes. After the board has reviewed these receipts the state will release the final amount Davis has to pay and how long he'll have to do it.
These receipts are related to the state's civil investigation into the mayor's spending. The auditor's office announced Davis is also being investigated on criminal charges, but no one is commenting on the status of that case.
