Clinton County Fiscal Court, despite several areas of disagreement, a few moments of argumentation and differences of opinion, apparently came up with a new 2011-12 fiscal year budget that everyone can agree upon.

The court discussed budgets, including the county government budget at length, at a special call meeting held last Friday morning, April 29 with all members present.

Prior to the start of the county budget discussion, Judge/Executive Lyle Huff read a prepared statement to the court and members of the public on hand pertaining to the budget he had presented. (That statement can be found at the end of this article).

Judge Huff also touched on the national situation, primarily with the amount of the ever increasing national debt, inferring the situation was filtering down to states and small cities and counties.

Magistrate Charlotte Bernard then brought back to the floor an issue that had been discussed at the court’s meeting the prior week–that being to set a rate of pay for Andy Davis, who was hired recently as Flood Plain Coordinator. He is also the 911 Mapping Coordinator.

Bernard said she felt a salary for that position should be set and eventually made a motion to do so in the amount of $32,000 total for both jobs. Of that amount, approximately $6,200 would be for the Flood Plain Coordinator duties.

During discussion on the issue, magistrate Phillip Parrigin also questioned whether or not Davis should be allowed to drive the county vehicle he uses home at night. County Attorney Michael Rains advised the court it would be better if he didn’t since it was a county owned vehicle and should be utilized for county business only.

There was also a question of some overtime Davis had apparently logged during the last fiscal year in connection with his jobs.

When the vote was taken on setting the pay scale for the coordinator position, it resulted in a three-three tie among magistrates. Along with Bernard, magistrates Patty Guinn and Willard Johnson voted yes while magistrates Mickey Riddle, Parrigin and Ricky Craig voted no. Judge Huff broke the tie with a yes vote, passing the motion 4-3.

Magistrate Craig said he felt if one employee should be allowed to get overtime, all employees should.

The original budget presented by Judge Huff to the court had cut out all employee health insurance and had other changes from budgets of year’s past.

Magistrate Johnson said the county may have to go over the budget “line item by line item,” which could take several hours.

Magistrate Riddle then suggested to keep employee insurance and possibly save the county around $125,000, employees could pay more out of pocket, from $80 to $100 per month share. This would also keep the deductible at $1,500.00.

He and other magistrates agreed that they would go along with a budget that mirrored the current year’s budget otherwise, adding the extra amount employees would be required for insurance coverage and keep other amounts in the budget basically the same as this year.

A couple of county employees who were at the meeting indicated they were basically working for the insurance coverage they receive.

Apparently, the $10,000 each for the library and park that is in the original draft, would remain to assist those services.

The court directed Treasurer Dallas Sidwell to draft a new version of the budget, similar to the past three years budgets, adding the increase in employee share for insurance.

Once that budget is prepared, a special meeting will be held for first reading prior to be forwarded to the Department of Local Government for its approval.

Even if the insurance savings add up to enough to get the county by for another fiscal year, all court members agreed there was going to be some hard decisions to be made down the road to keep the budget balanced–which is required by law.

Judge Huff noted that revenues continue to sink while costs continue to rise. Magistrate Johnson added that it’s difficult to operate when you take in $3 million in revenue but have $4 million in bills.

The estimated budget for the upcoming 2011-12 year will be in excess of $4 million.

Two of the services the county provides of most importance are also two that are in the most financial straits and add a strain on expenditures, those being the ambulance service and jail.

An already financially strapped EMS has recently suffered a decrease in the percent of Medicare and Medicaid payments made for ambulance runs.

The jail and the cost to operate it also was discussed by the magistrates and judge. The budget for facilities operation is over a half-million dollars.

Magistrates discussed the food and medical expenses related to jail operations and the pros and cons of whether or not the jail should stay open, become a 24-hour holdover facility, or even close.

Although all magistrates indicated they wouldn’t want to see the local facility close, Magistrate Johnson said the idea had been tossed around.

Court members also discussed the local cost compared to having to house and transport inmates to other detention facilities and questioned why some counties which may be interested in offering contracts for local inmates had been looked into, in particular Adair County Regional Jail and the new Russell County Jail.

Judge Huff said the two primary facilities local inmates are now housed at, other than locally, are Casey County and Wayne County. He noted those facilities had been good to work with and accept local prisoners and that Wayne County was a shorter distance to travel.

The judge also commended Jailer Gene Ferrill for helping keep costs, both medical and otherwise, at the jail down and working with the court system in situations with certain inmates. He also stressed he would be in no way for closing the local jail.

During the jail discussion, Magistrate Bernard said to Judge Huff, “Don’t get offended by magistrates asking questions,” after referring to possibly contracting with other jails such as Adair and Russell to accept inmates.

Magistrate Craig also said “(we) fiscal court is going to do what is best for our county. You can’t just have it your way unless there are four votes,” of the six magistrates.

That is when Judge Huff described the working relationship with Casey and Wayne counties and indicated that maybe he should keep the court members more aware of what goes on with the jail and inmate situations.

He also presented a contract that Russell County had proposed for accepting inmates but indicted stipulations in the contract would not be beneficial to Clinton County and added taking prisoners to other facilities now would burn bridges with those we already have a good working relationship with.

Judge Huff then informed the magistrates that each district would be receiving $6,000 from the discretionary road aid fund to help do some repairs to the most damaged roads in each district due to the harsh winter weather.

Court members then noted that the road fund is a restricted fund and cannot be used for any general government purpose. When roads are repaired or blacktopped, it comes from state allotted money and those funds also cannot go into a deficit.

The court also requested that each county department look at ways to cut back and save money.

Road Supervisor Jim Pennycuff noted several years ago the state Transportation Cabinet had supplied road tiles, but now the county has that responsibility. He noted that one way of saving some funds in the road department budget may be requiring residents to purchase their own tile, stop graveling around mailboxes at the county’s road fund expense and cease graveling bus turnaround areas for free.

At the onset of the meeting, the court approved four taxing district budgets as presented by each for the upcoming 2011-12 fiscal year, which begins June 1. Those budgets approved included the Soil Conservation District; Public Library; Extension Service; and Health Department.

A special meeting of fiscal court was expected to be called for sometime this week to consider the first reading of the revised proposed budget. Should that meeting occur, details will be published next week.

The next regular meeting of fiscal court is scheduled for May 19.

The following is the statement read by Judge/Executive Lyle Huff prior to the start of the meeting last Friday morning:

“As Clinton County Judge/Executive, I am required by state statute KRS 68.240 to provide the Clinton County Fiscal Court an accurate accounting of anticipated revenue and expenditures. The budget presented at this time reflects a continuing down turn in our county’s revenue and further reflects a continued rising cost in operating. My number one priority is to avoid a tax increase at this time. In my view taxes collected in Clinton County should provide services to all its citizens. In naming just a few, services such as the ambulance service which provides emergency response for the health and well being of our citizens; Clinton County Jail which as a facility, provides services and safety and meets the state standards for a life safety jail; 911 Dispatch, which provides to law enforcement as well as emergency responders accurate information for safety within our community. It should also be noted in regards to the county services, they provide employment opportunities for our citizens.

“In continuing to provide these services and to have a balanced budget, I have found it necessary to cut health insurance coverage for our 55 county employees that are currently enrolled. I have been working on this budget for several months, and have tried to find a way to continue health coverage for these employees, however, due to the rising costs with insurance providers, I have come to the conclusion, other than increasing taxes, this cut must be done in order to present a balanced budget to the fiscal court for the fiscal year 2011-2012.”

(Footnote: The statement issued above was made prior to the compromise in which county employees who chose to continue participation will have health insurance at an increased out-of-pocket expense.)