While the county approved a fiscal year budget more than a month ago several items — including employee pay raises — are on hold as the county waits to hear from state officials that the budget has been given the go ahead.
Members of the Carter County Financial Management Committee heard an update from County Finance Director Christa Byrd on the status of the county’s budget.
Byrd said she had expected to receive a letter or notification from the state by the end of August that the county’s budget had been approved through the Comptroller’s Office. However, she said, no letter or notice was ever received. When she called to find out the status, Byrd said she was told the Comptroller’s Office would look into it.
“Usually they will call and ask questions or ask us for a form that wasn’t required last year but is required this year and they’ve not done that,” Byrd said. “From my experience that leads me to believe they haven’t looked at it yet.”
Byrd said the county submitted their budget to the state before the deadline and she is not sure what is behind the delay.
What is apparent though is that some county business is being put on hold while the county awaits approval by the state.
“The biggest thing is raises,” Byrd said. “Our employees were told they were getting a 3 percent raise and they are waiting, and from what I can tell they are waiting patiently.
“I feel bad for them because they thought they were getting a raise on July 1 and here it is September and they don’t have it,” she added. “We can always approve to give them back pay once the budget is approved by the state.”
In addition to the raises, Byrd said the county has had to put some major purchases on hold while awaiting state approval.
“At this point we are at the state’s mercy,” Byrd said, adding she will continue to routinely contact the Comptroller’s Office to monitor the status of the budget approval.
Members of the Financial Management Committee also discussed an investigative report by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that was released regarding accounting procedures used by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office during the administration of the previous sheriff Chris Mathes. State Officials with the Comptroller’s Office notified county officials in 2014 that an audit of accounting practices used by the Mathes administration did not comply with state law. The audit determined the Mathes administration had not been turning all collected revenue and donations in to the County Trustee’s office for proper accounting and recording, which is required by law.
During the group’s August meeting, Sheriff Dexter Lunceford announced that the TBI and District Attorney General had completed their investigation, and while the investigation revealed findings the agencies decided not to pursue criminal charges against Mathes. Lunceford told the committee he would bring the full TBI report to the group at the September meeting for their review.
During the meeting Wednesday, Committee Chairman Ray Lyons announced that neither Lunceford nor Chief Deputy James Parrish were in attendance at the meeting and he had not been contacted by them regarding the meeting.
Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey, who serves on the committee, said he did not think it was the business of the committee to review the report and decide if charges should be pursued.
“I think this matter is outside the scope of this committee,” Humphrey said. “There were charges or allegations made and it went through the process.
“We are not a tribunal,” Humphrey added, saying the county should “respect the decision” made by the TBI and District Attorney General.
Lyons explained to the committee it had not been his intent to sort through the report to try to determine if charges should be filed but rather to review the report to see what problems were found and search for a way to keep those problems from happening again in the future.
“It did not go through the process that it was supposed to,” Lyons said. “That was clear. It was an audit concern.”
Lyons said he felt it was the responsibility of the committee to make sure procedures were in place to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future and also to ensure that those policies are being followed.
Because the matter had been previously addressed by the Financial Management Committee both after the county was notified by the state auditors as well as by Lunceford’s announcement the investigation was complete, Lyons said he felt the official report should become part of the record for the committee.
“I think it would behoove us to get a copy of that report because it is in our minutes,” Lyons said.
Following the discussion, the committee voted unanimously to table the matter until next month when hopefully Lunceford can present the report to the group.