SAN ANGELO, Texas — Just before being fired from his job as manager of a local water improvement district, Yantis Green admitted in a letter to the district board he had used a district credit for personal expenses, documents show.
In a letter to the board of Tom Green County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, Green — who also is a county commissioner and until recently a delegate to the Republican National Convention — said he had used a district credit card for "personal use."The board terminated his employment a few days later.
The July 23 letter from Green to the board, obtained by the Standard-Times following a Freedom of Information Act request, states in part: "The credit card charges for fuel at Schneider Distributing are not accurate. I was using the credit card for personal use. I will begin repaying the O&M account with my whole paycheck from the 15th of the month beginning in August. It will take a while." Green could not be contacted for comment. He has previously declined to comment on the matter.
The documents do not reveal how much was charged to the credit card for Green's personal use, although current district manager Clayton Friend said Green had a monthly salary of $1,500 at the water district.
Green had served as manager for the district for about 10 years. He also is Precinct 4 Tom Green County commissioner, an office he has held since January 2011. A prominent figure in the local Republican Party, Green had been selected as the Congressional District 11 delegate to this week's Republican National Convention but did not attend.
The water improvement district met in an emergency session and terminated Green's employment effective July 26, board President Bruce Gully told Green in an undated letter.
The letter Green sent to the board, addressed to "Guys," reveals an apparently penitent man: "I'm so sorry I wasn't up front about that from the beginning; I was too embarrassed to tell you. The information I gave the auditor was my feeble attempt to cover up my own mess, and all I did was make it worse. ..."I didn't sleep very well for a few days; I'm just not a good liar. My faith tells me that when I commit an offense, I need to admit it to the people I have offended and make it right. That's what I'm doing now. Again, I'm so sorry for my actions and I will do what is right to fix this issue."
Earlier this year, in April, the district voted to replace Anna Thomas, "who stopped performing annual audits. Mr. Green recommended Becky Roberts, CPA to take over outside auditing," state minutes from an April 11 water district board meeting obtained by the Standard-Times.
In a board meeting on June 20, "Mr. Green then reported that Becky Roberts, CPA would present the annual audit at the July board meeting scheduled for July 11, 2012. Mr. Green said Roberts requested Capital One statements and supporting invoices, which hadn't been required by the previous auditor," according to minutes from that meeting.
Minutes state that the board went into an emergency meeting on July 23, in which members voted to "cancel the credit card and the debit card that has the district's name on them. It was also discussed to not pay any bills online and all new bills must use new checks that will be ordered."
Green's termination, which was effective July 26, wasn't approved until a separate emergency meeting on July 25, according to the minutes from that board meeting. In Green's July 23 letter, he recommended hiring Anna Thomas to "handle financials as Becky recommended."
The FBI removed materials from the water improvement district offices Aug. 1, Friend said. The water improvement district has confirmed that an audit is under way and asserted that materials being used to finish the audit, such as information Green may have presented for previous audits, are not available to the public.
Green's personnel records are in the possession of the FBI office in Lubbock, water district attorney Tip Hargrove said in response to a Standard-Times freedom of information request. Green's activities as a county commissioner are not being investigated, Tom Green County Judge Mike Brown said. "He has been the commissioner he was elected to be" representing the people of Precinct 4, Brown said. No special audit is being conducted, as the county has a year-around auditor appointed by the district courts, Brown said.
As a commissioner, Green makes $37,080, county human resources staff said. His term expires at the end of 2014.
*The Tom Green
County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 is
headquartered in Veribest, Texas. The District manages the supply of water to
farmers east of San Angelo from a canal that includes San Angelo
wastewater. The District’s water supply is
made up of a combination of storage water from Twin Buttes Reservoir when available, reuse
water from the City of San Angelo, and 100% of tail water is reused within the
District. All of our water is used for agricultural purposes.
Reclaimed water and stored water are used to provide irrigation service to
approximately 118 farms and 15,000 acres.
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