Editor:
Re: “MCSO snafus” in the Sheriff’s Office, I would like to remind readers:
1. Former Undersheriff Cronk first began working in the sheriff’s department “about four-and-a-half years” ago (“Cronk under review,” Cortez Journal, 6/20/13), making his begin date somewhere in late-2009 to early 2010. Sheriff Spruell did not take office until January 2011. Until then, he was with the Cortez Police Department. It is not unreasonable that Sheriff Spruell, upon being elected, relied on the sheriff’s department personnel records when making his selection for undersheriff. A background check on Cronk should have been done when he was originally hired.
2. As a former CPA, I saw many businesses where various chief executives came and went. Never did any of them pay attention to the bookkeeping and accounting functions unless there was some specific reason that indicated a problem in that department. These functions are very routine and repetitive. Once a system is in place, it functions whether the executive is on the premises or not.
Sometimes portions of the bookkeeping and accounting functions fail, such as during periods of great employee turnover or rapid growth. Errors or failures in the systems are then caught after the fact. My experience has been that such failures are oftentimes not caught or addressed until problems progress so far that the viability of the business comes into question.
I don’t know the specifics of the sheriff’s office. But the odds are that Sheriff Spruell inherited the system for approving and paying employee expenses paid with credit cards. (Not to disparage any former sheriffs who probably inherited the same system from a former sheriff.) As most executives, Sheriff Spruell probably did not look for problems until he became aware that something was wrong.
For Sheriff Spruell to act other than as he did, both with regard to Cronk’s background and employee expenses paid by credit card, would have been a waste of time and taxpayer money. Each new sheriff should not be held to a standard that would require them to reinvent the wheel with regard to processes that are typically routine.
Pat Requena
Cortez
