Sheriff Lott: Okra Strut mismanaged but no criminal wrongdoing

A 10 month investigation by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and Irmo Police has concluded that Irmo’s Okra Strut was mismanaged but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The conclusion was spelled out in a letter from Sheriff Leon Lott dated Aug. 17 to Irmo Mayor Hardy King.

Lott recommended that the city institute “proper and accurate booking and accounting procedures” to prevent the kind of failures that led to lost money by the popular annual festival in the past.

“It is clear the Okra Strut lost money due to sloppy management, booking and accounting error, and a failure to maintain proper accountability of tickets sold,” the investigation found, but “no evidence of the intentional misappropriation of money or any criminal wrong doing” by anyone associated with the Okra Strut.

The Okra Strut has been unprofitable since 2007. Started in 1973 by the Lake Murray-Irmo Woman's Club, the two-day fall festival reportedly drew as many as 50,000 people in its heyday. But in recent years, attendance dropped to about 16,000, according to town officials.

Irmo officials requested the investigation to settle the conflict over red ink plaguing the festival.

After last fall’s festival, managers were unable to account for about $30,000.

“I had no choice but to do this,” Mayor King said in January when the criminal investigation came to light.

By King’s count, nearly $19,000 appeared to have been overpaid to merchants who sold food and other items. Other major losses came from failure to collect booth fees from some vendors and parade participants, he said.

Festival leaders said unexpected costs occurred as the gathering settled into a new home at Irmo Community Park in 2014 and won’t be repeated.

To prevent a repeat, the Lott investigation recommended changes in accounting procedures which if implemented should “prevent questions of impropriety that currently exists.”