Aragon can’t find laptop purchased in 2012

♦ Cash purchase goes unexplained following receipt’s review by Williamson and Company

A mystery remains in place within the City of Aragon as officials have looked but can’t find a laptop to match up with a receipt found within files left behind after the departure of former City Clerk Lori Dunn.

Council member Debbie Pittman said in an official written statement the city has not made a decision about how to move forward on the inquiry into the receipt of a laptop purchased in September 2012.

“The only thing the city has noticed at this time is there was not any tax exemptions used on the purchase,” Pittman said.

However the whereabouts of the equipment are still up in the air.

An Open Records Request was made of the city previously to provide either documentation about what happened to the laptop or the physical equipment itself, and all City Clerk Christie Langston was able to provide in reply were previous and current inventories of the computers on hand. It was an item of question on a receipt generated at Walmart on Sept. 27, 2012 with a serial number of BQ9KGS1, paid for in cash.

“At this date and time the city does not have this laptop in its possession,” Langston said in an e-mailed reply on Sept. 24.

Additionally, the only explanation for the inclusion of the receipt in a review of files completed by Williamson and Company was that Aragon city officials found it along with un-cashed checks left behind in the wake of former City Clerk Lori Dunn’s resignation.

The 23 computers in the city’s current inventory include three that are damaged with broken screens, two in use by the finance clerk, six computers in use by the police department, three used by the library opened earlier in the year, six in use by city administration, a server and a laptop being used by Public Works.

An additional spare computer is also set aside, a HP desktop that isn’t in use at this time with older specifications.

Of those within the city’s current inventory, none match up with the Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 purchased in September 2012.

According to information from the Dell warranty website after a search of the serial number BQ9KGS1., support from the company on the laptop ended on Sept. 29, 2013.

That didn’t include the 2-year service agreement purchased through Walmart when the laptop was sold.

The city also provided an inventory of all the equipment owned by city hall as of 2014, and it also was not included on a list supplied by Aragon officials with the current inventory.

The only Dell laptops with in the city’s inventory currently are a 17-inch Studio 1737 purchased from Walmart according to a previous inventory, but built and put in use in 2009. The city also owns a Dell Latitude E5550 used by Court Clerk Amy Liggons, and built and purchased in 2016.

None of these match up with information already provided by the city.

The receipt, which was included in documents found in 2017 after Dunn’s departure, remains unexplained as far as what or where the purchases were used.

Previously, former Mayor Ken Suffridge said he never knew of or approved of a laptop purchase made from Walmart in Rockmart on that date.