Franklin County Accounts Payable Files Missing

A computer file, containing all of Franklin County’s accounts payable records dating back to 2008, is missing from the computer used by former accounts payable clerk Rhonda Grizzle, who resigned last week.

Grizzle quit her job suddenly last Thursday night, June 13^th, during a called meeting of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners in which they announced the hiring of Elaine Evans as the new county clerk after coming out of executive session.

Rhonda Grizzle had been one of more than 40 applicants vying for county clerk position.

Angered that his wife was not offered the job, her husband, former county commissioner Eddie Wayne Grizzle, reportedly complained to the board at the end of last week’s called meeting.

Grizzle told the board his wife had been a top employee for the county for the past 13 years, even bringing work home.  Grizzle then pointed out what he said were management and leadership issues in the county office.

“I watched a long time and kept my mouth shut. Poor management poor everything,” he said last week.

Grizzle accused the county of making  numerous accounting mistakes, such as not collecting $17-$25,000 in water bills since January with no cut offs imposed and making numerous payroll errors.

County manager Billy Morse denied that allegation Wednesday.

“I don’t know how he came up with that number or where he got that number,” Morse said.

Grizzle did not say how he came by those figures.

At their work session Tuesday night, Morse told the board that it was during last week’s called board meeting that the accounts payable computer files had been deleted.

 “It was June 14^th when it was discovered that files on a former accounts payable clerk’s computer had been deleted, is that correct?” Harper asked Morse. “Do we have a time frame for when those files went missing?”

“Yes. According to our computer consultant it is his opinion that it did happen sometime in the evening of June 13^th,” Morse said.

“The day we had our special called meeting,” Harper asked.

“Correct,” Morse replied.

Morse said Tuesday that since last week, their computer expert has been working to retrieve the deleted files and he said so far, he has managed to recover some of them.

“Basically all last week he was using software to try and recover files that had been deleted,” Morse said. “He has had some trouble recovering files, but he has been able to use what he called a server snapshot and has been able to recover all of the files that existed in August, 2012.”

Morse said the consultant has not yet determined whether the rest of the deleted files can be recovered and he continues to work on it.

Morse said the technician was able to recover the spread sheet formula for keeping track of accounts payable receipts.

After Tuesday’s meeting, commission chair Thomas Bridges would not say if the county believes  Rhonda Grizzle may have purposely deleted the accounts payable files from the office computer.

 “I would think that would be according to the expert and he would give us an opinion,” Bridges said. “But I have no clue how they would determine that.”

However, Morse said he has made Sheriff Stevie Thomas aware of the situation.

 “We have talked to the Sheriff about this, but I don’t think it has risen to that level yet,” Morse said. “We have not yet determined what all can and cannot be recovered, but yes, I have spoken to the Sheriff about it.”

According to Morse all of the accounts payable files are also on file in hard copy, but he has not yet decided whether to re-enter all of those files into a new computer folder.

Rhonda Grizzle has not been charged with any crime. Attempts to reach Mrs Grizzle for a comment have been unsuccessful.   WLHR News will continue to follow this story and bring you updates as they become available.