KARK: Former Forestry Financial Chief Says Director Not Telling The Truth

KARK Channel 4 has a solid report on the controversy surrounding layoffs at the Arkansas Forestry Commission.

Talk Business reported last week that declining revenue from collections related to the severance tax on the timber industry would result in layoffs of nearly 36 Forestry employees.

In testimony on Monday, director John Shannon told a legislative panel that he was unaware of the seriousness of declining revenues. A trust fund set aside for emergencies was depleted leaving the agency as much as $4 million in the red. Department of Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss told lawmakers that Shannon “was poorly served with the people he had in his employ who were charged with the responsibility of keeping the books.”

But the former financial chief for the forestry agency, Robert “Sarge” Araiza, says he repeatedly warned his boss for years that the fund balance was diminishing.

“He [Shannon] was well aware long before it became zero. For him to say that, I don’t know where that came from or why he said that, but it’s not true,” said Araiza.

He provided financial evidence and e-mails supporting his claims. “It’s like he was listening and not hearing,” Araiza added.

Channel 4’s Lauren Trager reports:

But state forester John Shannon says he was surprised that the trust fund balance was at zero, though he says, he will take all the blame.

“I am not blaming Sarge, he kept me up to date on how bad the budget was but it was just worse than I thought and I learned that on November 17th,” Shannon said.

Around that date, he decided, to stay above water, they’d have to axe employees by next month.

Araiza got very emotional Tuesday talking about those employees. He says something could have been done sooner to possibly save their jobs.

Shannon said if he could turn back the clock, he would have acted differently.

You can view the full report at this link.