DAPHNE — Former Belforest Water System president Tommy Mitchell said he can account for some reportedly missing construction items and feels partly responsible for costs exceeding the budget of a now-controversial storage building.

At issue were allegedly missing construction items — valued at $4,347.65 — for a building located off Baldwin County 54 west.

In May, Mitchell presented for the water board a cashier’s check in that amount from contractor Ray Simmons, who reportedly worked on at least five projects for the system.

Though Mitchell and board secretary/treasurer Tom Whitacre signed checks payable to Simmons — checks that some board members placed under scrutiny — Mitchell admitted no wrongdoing and said he agreed with the board’s expenses report for the project.

“I do agree that everything on there was purchased,” Mitchell said, when asked about a list the board compiled of reportedly missing construction items.

He suggested, however, that some of those items could be accounted for.

For instance, included on the list are seven trusses valued at $1,400. Mitchell said he doesn’t dispute the figure but he believes he knows what became of the trusses — and other reportedly missing items like lumber.

“We bought 14 (trusses) … and there were seven left, and they were right on that,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said after he learned the project was about $7,000 over the approximately $32,000 budget, and Simmons had turned in invoices for fuel used on the job, he decided to make a deal.

“I said, ‘I’m already over (budget) a little bit so let’s go ahead and write it off,” Mitchell said.

“I’ll give you (Simmons) the materials. You try to do another job somewhere or you sell it; I don’t care what you do. You can make your money that way.”

Mitchell said he let Simmons have the seven trusses. Simmons may also have lumber from the storage project, unless he sold it, he said. Eight 6x6x16 pieces of lumber, valued at $282.56, are included on the water system’s missing items list.

“Part of this overage is really my fault and the reason is, is I’m not a construction person …” Mitchell said.

For instance, he said, “I didn’t think when I had calculated the slab. I calculated a 4-inch slab. Well, it has to be 6 and 8 inches and luckily Ray caught that.

“So we paid more for concrete and stuff and that’s where it went up a little bit.”

The project’s overall cost also went up after Simmons purchased materials — and reportedly, tools — on the water system debit card, Mitchell said.

“I know for sure that Ray owes 180-something bucks for some tools that he bought,” Mitchell said. He suggested that he initially didn’t know Simmons purchased tools with the card

“Now he told me that what he did is he went to (then bookkeeper) Lea Ann and told Lea Ann to take these tools out of his pay,” Mitchell said. “Now, whether or not they did, I don’t know. By the invoices I pulled up, I don’t see no deduction.”

Asked why he let Simmons use the card, Mitchell said he hoped to avoid markup on construction materials.

“If I let him go and buy the materials, then he’s gonna do a markup. … You know, if they buy the material, they’re gonna do a markup on it. And I didn’t want that little bit … to keep adding up and make the project more money,” Mitchell said.

“Because if I can turn around and get somebody to do it — you know, buy the material and what (how much) I can buy it for — I don’t have to turn around and say, ‘You know, he added 15 percent’ or ‘He added 20 percent.’ ”

Invoices that included vague information such as “County Road 54 project,” complicated matters, Mitchell said.

Despite some board members’ concerns, Mitchell said he trusts Simmons’ work.

“I was here every single day, even when the other building and this building was done and he was out here at night time, I’d come out at nighttime,” Mitchell said.

Frequent visits to the water system helped Mitchell keep tabs on Simmons and it allowed him to know everything Simmons was doing, including those jobs recorded in undetailed invoices, Mitchell said.

Still, he said, he would have handled financial transactions differently.

“If this got brought up now and I got it as president … I would probably say, ‘Hey, this invoice — I want a breakdown. Tell me exactly on it what you did,” Mitchell said.