Farmer faced legal issues over unpaid income taxes while he ran for Lawrence City Commission in 2013; did not disclose

Lawrence Mayor Jeremy Farmer looks to the crowd at a City Commission meeting, April 14, 2015, at City Hall.

During his 2013 campaign for the Lawrence City Commission, Jeremy Farmer failed to disclose that officials in Arkansas were taking legal action against him to pay nearly $2,200 in past due income taxes.

Court records from Garland County, Ark., show the state filed a tax lien against Farmer and his now ex-wife in March of 2012, which was about 10 months before Farmer filed for a seat on the Lawrence City Commission. The records show the $2,190.20 tax lien wasn’t paid off until March 18, 2013, which was just weeks before voters elected him to one of five seats on the Lawrence City Commission.

The records have come to light as questions have grown about Farmer’s past financial practices. Farmer on Aug. 10 abruptly stepped down as executive director of the Douglas County food bank Just Food after he conceded that he had not paid an estimated $50,000 in payroll taxes for the organization. Farmer on Wednesday then resigned from the City Commission and his position as mayor. The next day, City Hall officials released details that Farmer had used a city credit card to pay for some personal expenses, which Farmer later repaid when city officials questioned him about the matter.

The Arkansas court records now create questions about whether Farmer intentionally misled voters during his 2013 campaign. The Journal-World conducted an interview in January 2013 with Farmer shortly after he became a candidate for the City Commission. As it does with all candidates, the newspaper asked Farmer whether he had any legal issues to disclose to voters, such as past criminal charges, past due taxes or other matters of a similar nature. Farmer said there were no such issues to disclose.

Court records, though, show Farmer and his ex-wife were the subject of at least three tax lien cases in Arkansas. The first was in August 2011 when the couple was cited for $222.41 in unpaid state income taxes. The amount was paid off in October 2011. The second case was in January 2012, when the couple was cited for failing to pay $2,374.85 in state income taxes. That amount was paid off in February 2012. The third case was the $2,190.20 tax lien filed in March 2012, and it was not paid off until late in Farmer’s 2013 campaign.

Farmer, who turns 32 on Tuesday, did not return a phone call seeking comment for this article.

The Journal-World in the 2013 campaign conducted background checks on the candidates in the field, but the tax liens did not show up in those checks, which were more heavily focused on seeking court filings made in and around Douglas County.

A recent review of Farmer’s background has created at least one question about the accuracy of Farmer’s employment history. A resume that Farmer has posted online states he began working for Project Hope Food Bank in Hot Springs, Ark., in March 2009. But Ted Thompson, the director both then and now of the food bank, said Farmer did not start working for the food bank until October 2010, more than a year-and-a-half later than Farmer claims to have started at the food bank.

Thompson said he opened the food bank in March 2009 and that Farmer started working part-time for him in October 2010 on a contract basis.

“I contracted with him to come in part-time when he, basically, needed a job,” Thompson said. “He worked here part-time, taking care of food drives, doing some computer work, that type of thing. He was not an employee. He was contract service.”

On his resume, Farmer listed his title at the organization as “Community Awareness/Agency Relations/IT Director.”

Farmer spent much of his tenure on the commission talking about the need for transparency and restoring residents’ trust in the City Commission. Some commissioners have acknowledged that Farmer’s resignation has likely created new issues of mistrust with the commission.

“We talked a lot about restoring trust in the community,” Commissioner Matthew Herbert said at Friday’s special meeting of the City Commission. “We have taken a pretty giant step backwards. We’re 100 days in and I feel like we are farther back than when we started But we have two years left, and it is going to be a very real priority for me to make sure that gets rebuilt.”

Commissioners have noted that Farmer did not have direct access to city funds as part of his mayoral position. The closet Farmer had to spending authority with the city was the city-issued credit card in his name. Commissioners expressed confidence that city staff members have done a good job of reviewing that issue.

Commissioner Leslie Soden, who is serving as acting mayor, said that was why she pushed for city staff to make the credit questions known to the public as soon as possible.

“I think what was important about last week and the decision for City Hall to be proactive in releasing the information is that it shows this new City Commission places a very high premium on trust in government,” Soden said. “That, coupled with not raising the mill levy this year, shows a pattern to Lawrence citizens that we are putting actions behind our words. It is not just campaign rhetoric. We’re serious about it.”

Commissioner Mike Amyx, the lone commissioner left on the commission with more than five months of experience, said he’s promising residents that the commission will stay on top of any new developments that occur.

“Do I feel bad about what has happened?” Amyx asked. “I absolutely do. I feel bad for everybody. This is a bad time in Lawrence, Kansas. But we have a great community. Will there be questions? Should there be questions? You bet. If we find things, we’ll bring them out. But we’re going to continue to move forward as a community.”

Commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, where one of their items will be to select one of the four remaining commissioners to take over the duties of mayor.

— Journal-World reporter Sara Shepherd contributed information to this article.