Finance Officer David Clack reads a statement regarding the county budget during Monday morning’s County Commissioners meeting.
Many county employess recieving a qualified pay raise for the fiscal 2024-25 year will see a little extra in their paychecks this September.
A proposed revision to Section XII of the county budget ordinance was approved during the Sampson County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday morning, a move made necessary following what amounted to a clerical error impacting the $747,000 allocated for mid-point raises. It was, commissioners were told, an error in the budget ordinance language that led to the miscalculation.
“This will keep us within the $747,000 budget,” Sampson County Finance Officer David Clack said of the revision and the funds approved for mid-point raises.
Two weeks ago, during the Aug. 6 County Commissioners meeting, Clack broached the subject of how the county had made a clerical error of $1 million on the estimation of funds available for mid-point raises. The error was brought to the attention of board members during a closed session immediately before the public meeting and then announced during that time.
On Monday, Aug. 19, Clack distributed a written explanation of what happened to cause such an error in calculating the total amount available for the mid-point raises. In the written statement, presented by Clack, it read, “As we were preparing to implement the pay increases, we discovered a conflict between the language in the budget ordinance and our available funds. This issue was discovered before payment of any salary increases for this fiscal year and brought to the board’s attention immediately…”
The statement continues by explaining the original error was “due to miscommunication and inadequate follow-up during budget preparation.”
In regards to the extra $1 million needed to bring employees to the mid-point, Clack explained that the money never existed, and it was never a misappropriation, just simply a miscalculation.
“We didn’t put that much into the budget,” Clack said of the original miscalculation. He added that nothing had been paid as of yet, further reassuring the commissioners, employees, and the public that the money wasn’t moved, or removed; it just wasn’t available.
“There was no misappropriation of funds” County Commissioner Sue Lee reiterated during the meeting.
Chairman Jerol Kivett piggybacked Clack and Lee’s comments, “The board basically said ‘this is how much we have to spend’ and it was just worded differently in the ordinance as to getting people to mid-point”
Kivett blamed hyper-inflation as a contributing factor to budget restraints, due to rising costs the county has had to endure while staying in the confines of an approved budget that remains the same through the fiscal year.
All county commissioners expressed their appreciation to the county administration employees, thanking them for their dedication to the county.
“We are working hard to get our employees where they need to be, and we appreciate what you’re doing,” Lee said to county administration employees in attendance.
“There was obviously some disappointment,” acknowledged County Manager Ed Causey in regards to when the mistake was discovered. He expressed his concern over the lack of understanding from some residents of Sampson County.
Causey stressed how communication is critical when understanding the truth with issues such as clerical errors as this, adding, “Sometimes the damage is done before we are given the chance to explain the facts,” he said during the meeting.
Kivett added that he hopes future Sampson County boards will be able to help employees reach the mid-point, where they were not able to do it themselves, purely due to a lack of funding.
“There are 30,800 taxpayers who are bearing the brunt of the burden for funding the county,” Kivett added, highlighting the importance of how less than half the county carries the weight of the taxes to fund the entire county’s services
Commissioner Allen McLamb praised the efforts of both the board and the administration for doing the best they can with the funds available.
This revision to Section XII of the budget ordinance will allow the qualified county employees to see an increase in pay, with back pay from August, in September paychecks.