SHARE

By of the

The Milwaukee County sheriff's office has used funds from crime asset forfeitures to buy workout equipment for Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.'s command staff, customer training for 50 employees through a Disney program and a mounted patrol unit, a county audit released Friday shows.

Under the national asset forfeiture program, property seized in drug raids and other crimes can be used to compensate victims and deter crime. The sheriff's office fund provided more than $800,000 since 2008.

None of the spending violated federal rules governing asset forfeiture money, but it did run afoul of county procurement rules, the audit said.

The tab for the workout gear came to $11,400; the Disney Destinations training cost $24,900; and more than $77,000 went for horse rental, boarding and transport for the sheriff's mounted patrol. A $43,000 Dodge Ram pickup bought in 2008 to haul the horses was the largest portion of the mounted patrol spending from the fund, the report says.

The funds also have paid for a wide assort ment of vehicles and watercraft, uniforms and equipment, including $8,200 for nine flat-screen televisions for top sheriff command staff and $12,340 for "high performance metal detectors" to screen deputies and other sheriff's employees before meetings with Clarke for disciplinary hearings, the report says.

Of the funds, $115,000 was given to community groups. Clarke said attention should focus on those donations and not on his equipment purchases or mounted patrol.

Donations went to 10 organizations, including Boy Scouts of Milwaukee County, several sports leagues and Hope Christian School. The audit said documentation on a $10,000 payment to the Friends of Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission was insufficient.

Of the sheriff's $826,577 in forfeiture money over the past four years, 55% went for equipment, 18% for training, 14% for donations, 9% for travel and the rest for awards and other costs.

County Supervisor Patricia Jursik said she was concerned how much money Clarke had spent on his mounted patrol.

"In these tight budget times, the sheriff should be looking at using funds like this to really maximize his department's" primary duties, she said. Jursik agreed with an audit recommendation that Clarke run his purchases using forfeiture money through the county's procurement office.

"What this underlines to me is this sheriff is not an island unto himself," Jursik said. "The (procurement) rules are there for a reason, to be sure the funds are properly spent."

Routing forfeiture spending through the county procurement office is required by the U.S. Justice Department, the report said. The sheriff's office challenged that determination, saying Clarke's predecessors as sheriff never did that. The sheriff is seeking a written clarification from the Justice Department on whether the forfeiture fund spending must be routed through the county's procurement staff.

Clarke said in an interview that he would prefer to run his own books on the drug forfeiture money but would use the county's procurement office if federal officials order it.

He said the audit verified what he said he knew to be true: "That no money's being stolen and the money's being appropriately spent."

He said criticism from Jursik and others on the program is motivated by a desire to gain control of the forfeiture funds.

Clarke said he personally approved all expenditures of the drug forfeiture money and that his staff checks with the Justice Department to ensure all the spending is appropriate.

The audit also faulted the sheriff for failing to perform background checks on nonprofit organizations that received donations from the forfeiture fund. The sheriff's inspector who approves the spending from the fund "has begun to develop a standardized procedure" for determining whether a prospective recipient of a donation from the forfeiture fund is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation or has a record of felony or drug convictions, Clarke's office said in its response to the report.

The spending on community-based groups exceeded a federal rule limiting that to 15% of the total over two fiscal years. Clarke went over that benchmark by about $24,000.

The workout equipment - two treadmills, an elliptical machine and a stationary bicycle - were purchased in November and installed near administrative offices in the county jail. The sheriff also paid $1,875 to the Wisconsin Athletic Club for wellness training for 25 members of his command staff.

Clarke said it was a new program to improve officer fitness that will be expanded to the rest of the department later. He said he didn't participate because he already had his own fitness equipment and exercise routine. The benefit to the public is healthier employees with lower medical costs, Clarke said.

The nine flat-screen TVs were installed in Clarke's top managers' offices so they could be used to display data from the department's crime statistics computer system.

The Disney customer service training was provided at the County Correctional Facility-South in Franklin in 2011 to management staff, Clarke said. His managers are, in turn, training the rest of his department on better customer relations, he said.

Disney Destinations, the service provider, is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Co. and primarily involved in developing and managing theme parks and vacation resorts.

Among the staff training costs was more than $52,000 to send four current and former members of Clarke's command staff - Richard Schmidt, Edward Bailey, Kevin Carr and Tobie Weberg - to leadership training courses at Harvard University, research for the audit found.

The audit turned up more than $10,000 in various travel expenses that weren't supported by documentation. The report called for more timely processing of travel expenses.

The sheriff's written reply said recommendations on better bookkeeping would be followed in the future.