During a special call meeting of Clinton County Fiscal Court last Wednesday afternoon, October 30, the court learned that those meetings, due to state requirements, will likely continue indefinitely.

The meeting, which saw four of six magistrates present, had only one item of business on the agenda, that being the ongoing transfer of funds from the Occupation Tax fund to the ambulance and jail funds.

At the court’s regular meeting held earlier last month, they had voted to approve a standing order to make the fund transfers without the necessity of a special meeting being required. However, that apparently was contingent upon approval by the Department of Local Government (DLG).

At the beginning of last week’s call meeting, County Treasurer Cindy Thrasher addressed the standing order issued and the DLG’s role, noting the Department of Local Government could not approve it.

Thrasher told the court that the DLG required all cash transfers from one fund to another be made by a vote of the entire court, noting the court–at least for some time, would have to meet twice a month, with at least one of those being a special meeting to approve any cash transfers the county makes.

Magistrate Ray Marcum asked Thrasher if the county couldn’t transfer enough funds at a regular meeting to cover an entire month, but Thrasher noted that payroll is on a bi-weekly basis and each cash transfer, to keep a record trail, would require a vote for each payroll period.

Marcum also questioned “when will they (ambulance and jail) ever get to the point where they can meet their own payrolls?”

Due to the budgetary problems in each the ambulance service and jail funds, there was no clear answer to that question, although both are working to decrease expenses and especially in the case of the ambulance service, raise more revenue.

Magistrate Terry Buster also noted during the discussion that some county fiscal court’s hold two meetings each month.

Following the brief discussion and questions, Marcum made the motion to approve the following transfers: $15,000 from the Occupational Tax fund to the jail fund and $20,000 from the OT fund to the ambulance fund to meet payroll.

The motion was seconded by magistrate Gary Ferguson with all magistrates voting in favor.

The next regular meeting of Clinton Fiscal Court is scheduled for Thursday, November 21 at 5 p.m.