During a special called meeting in Demorest Tuesday, Mayor Rick Austin read out the final investigative report into the theft of city funds totaling more than $600,000 between 2009 and 2013. Former Mayor Malcolm Hunnicutt and former City Manager Juanita Crumley are mentioned several times. Investigators concluded that “the apparent disregard for their fiduciary responsibility contributed to an atmosphere ripe for theft and corruption.”
Click here to read the full Demorest report
The loudest applause during Tuesday’s Demorest City Council meeting was reserved for former council member Florence Wikle. Many present credit her persistence with sparking the investigation into the city’s missing funds. Despite the crowd support, Wikle says hearing the city’s final investigative report is bittersweet. “It didn’t feel good to start with, I’ll tell you, because you don’t want to believe things like this can happen.”
The report says Wikle was right all along. It was the city’s financial procedures and those city leaders who allowed the procedures to remain in place who are responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing funds. Wikle never intended to uncover such a financial mess, “I started noticing things. I’d ask a question and never would get an answer. After a while you begin to wonder.”
She says the push-back she got from former Mayor Malcolm Hunnicutt, former City Manager Juanita Crumley and others only served to stoke her suspicions, “The financial reports that we would get were just impossible to figure out,” Wikle explains. “When I suggested we get a new accountant, I was told no and then I was accused of whining.”
Wikle can laugh about the name calling she suffered now. As for what’s next, she says she just wants the city to be made whole, “I would hope that our insurance will pay off.”
VIDEO – Mayor Rick Austin answers citizen questions
Demorest homeowner Elizabeth Pyron is looking for more than simple restitution, “I want the people responsible prosecuted, whether they were the ones who took the money or allowed it to happen through their policies.”
Pyron comes to every Demorest City Council meeting. She was present as the thefts came to light and all through the investigation. She says hearing the final report Tuesday was a relief, “I don’t really trust myself to say how I feel beyond that. I don’t think the words could be printed.”
She says she wasn’t surprised by most of the information in the report, but the fact that former Mayor Malcolm Hunnicutt refused to take a polygraph test was a shock, “That blindsided me. In light of everything that’s gone on, it makes you pause and wonder why.”
Wondering is all any of us can do for now as the investigative report heads over to the Habersham District Attorney’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. It will be up to prosecutors and state investigators to decide if criminal charges are warranted.
