Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

The Washington County Budget Board denies expenditures to Kent Stroman of Stroman & Associates for additional consulting services and travel outside the Bartlesville area.

Chairman Mitch Antle says the Board had an issue with the lack on transparency. Antle says they do not want to cast dispersion of Stroman & Associates for the great work that they have done on a feasibility study to look at the potential for a new County Expo Center, but costs were a little high. He says there was a process to follow that they failed to follow it.

Antle says the item should have gone before the Trust Board first and then the Washington County Board of Commissioners before coming to the Budget Board. He says the Board echoed his sentiment that there was a lack of transparency with their no votes.

If the item had been approved, Stroman would have been paid $2,750 for a half-day visit with Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnel in Oklahoma City. Antle says he did the math, extracting the IRS mileage of 58.5-cents a mile, and came up with approximately $430 per hour. He says that brought him pause as a taxpayer, because all eight elected officials could go to OKC and visit with Pinnel about the Expo Center project for less than $2,750 if they all drove separately.

While he won't discount that professional services are expensive, Antle says didn't see this agenda item as a "value add for the amount." Stroman's visit with Lt. Gov. Pinnel about the project is still scheduled at this time to take place on Tuesday, March 22.

The initial contract with Stroman & Associates that was presented in the meeting had terminated in October 2021. That contract was worth upwards of $29,600. There was made mention that there was another contract that had not gone before the Board of County Commissioners quite yet that would cost roughly $25,000. In total, $51,000 has been expended so far.

Antle says the Washington County Board of Commissioners has not seen a presentation on the project from July to date. He says he doesn't know what the situation is there, but they have not seen anything related to what they have received that he can recall.

The Washington County Budget Board voted down the item by a vote of 7-1 duing a special meeting on Thursday morning. That cleared the expenditure item, meaning there will be no need for further action unless a new item regarding the same matter was brought forth that the Board could take action on.

More on Stroman & Associate's feasibility study for the potential County Expo Center can be found here.