Auditor from Columbia selected

Pre-audit report must be completed before new Awendaw auditor can begin duties

Awendaw Town Council voted to select an auditor after discussing the scope of a contract in executive session Thursday.

After returning from a closed session to discuss the cost, scope of work and the number of years they may ask for, council members voted to choose Howard Nichols of Columbia. However, he would not begin working until the Municipal Association of South Carolina has completed its pre-audit report. The vote was unanimous. Council member Bryan McNeal Jr. did not attend the meeting.

The town stopped auditing its books some time in 2003 after receiving the audit for the fiscal year 2001, because no one brought the year 2002 records to Jimmy Needham, who audited town's fiscal records from 1992 to 2001.

Dan Martin, the town administrator, said the records disappeared and that he believed that someone else had forwarded the records on. Without the 2002 records, Needham refused to audit subsequent years.

Council members Sam Robinson and Nell Daniels, who were elected in November, pressed for an audit after they joined the council, in part because residents were concerned about a former town clerk who was charged with embezzling $25,000.

Felisha Woodberry, 29, now of West Ashley, pleaded guilty recently to embezzling public funds of $5,000 or more. She was ordered to repay $7,500.

Residents who attended a council meeting last week wanted to know how Woodberry was able to misuse town funds, but no one could give an exact answer.

It was common for Woodberry and other town officials to use money out of their own pocket to pay for items and then ask for reimbursement. Woodberry, for example, used her own money to pay to print the town newsletter and then requested reimbursement.

In a statement to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, Woodberry admitted to using the town credit card inappropriately, but never admitted to an exact amount. For example, she used the card to make deposits on items for a planned wedding that never happened and later returned the items including an engagement ring.

Woodberry said she felt she misappropriated less than $7,500, in part because she had a verbal agreement allowing her to spend $50 per week filling her gas tank. She also reimbursed the town $1,000.

Martin said in a statement to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office that he fired Woodberry after discovering that she had used his credit card to purchase flowers in 2006. He also said that Woodberry falsified checks. The town then hired an independent bookkeeper to reconstruct records Martin had given her, coming up with about $35,000 in missing funds.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.