TURRELL, AR – Members of Turrell City Council say the mayor is playing tricks with the municipal bank account. Mayor Franklin Lochkart moved the city’s money from one bank to another without talking to city council about it. He says he made the move in order to change the names on the account. “State code says can’t no councilman be on the check account.” Instead of council members signing off, the mayor wants the second signature to be his secretary.
According to City Council Member Floyd Holmes, Lockhart’s actions are against the law. Holmes tells myEyewitnessNews.com the mayor cannot change the names on the account without council approval. With the back and forth bickering between the mayor and city council, taxpayers like Curtis Bradley are caught in the middle. “It’s real important. We need to know about all this. A lot of people e don’t even know what’s going on up in there.”
The small town of Turrell has been in big financial trouble for years. Things got so bad in February 2009, the town went three weeks without city services because the mayor and council were bickering over the budget. Lockhart tells myEyewitnessNews.com he plans to take matters into his own hands. The mayor’s relationship with city council has now gone from strained to nonexistent. “We don’t have no kind of relationship because they act just like little kids because they don’t have all the ice cream. They can’t run things like they want to run it, then they going to tear it down.” Lockhart says this latest move is in the town’s best interest.
