Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Apparently in response to criticism leveled against him earlier for his controversial contributions to two private organizations and at least one commissioner’s call for a forensic audit of his office’s records, Clerk of Court Kirk Reams last week offered to let the commission handle its own finances going forward.
Although the clerk has traditionally served as comptroller and chief financial officer for the county, Reams said the law didn’t preclude the commission from handling its own financial affairs.
At the onset of the meeting on Thursday evening, Nov. 4, Reams presented the Jefferson County Commission with a request that entailed the board taking action on four items.
The four were that the board establish its own finance office, establish its own human resources and payroll operations, handle its own insurance lines and related matters, and establish its own county budget officer.
“That’s four items,” Reams said. “We’ll be happy to relinquish any or all of them.”
The change, he said, would have little effect on the current processes or procedures. The board, however, would have to hire its own people to pay the bills and process the necessary paperwork, as required by state statutes and the Florida Constitution, he said.
“If establishing your own finance office is something that you would all like to do, that’s fine with me,” Reams said of the first item.
He wanted the commissioners to keep in mind, however, that the board would have to hire people and put in place a financial system, so that the new hires would be able to input information into the system, the same as his people now did. The new people also, Reams said, would have to account for all monies received from the state and from other revenues sources.
County Coordinator Parrish Barwick said it would amount to a duplication of efforts.
“It would essentially be another level of bureaucracy,” Barwick said. “You wouldn’t be getting anything different. You would just be getting the same thing twice.”
Reams said what he sought was clarity.
“I fully support this, if this is what you want to do,” he said. “But we need to have a clear understanding of what you want me to do for you, because sometimes I feel that it’s not really clear. I do a lot of things that aren’t in my duties, but somebody’s got to do them. So I like for you all to make a decision on this tonight.”
The second part of his request, he said, was for the board to decide if it wanted to handle its own human resources and payroll. This again would entail hiring more people, he said. Likewise for the insurance lines that his office currently handled for the board and the hiring of a budget officer. The latter, he said, would be responsible for the Truth In Millage requirements, advertising the budget and submitting the appropriate paperwork to the Florida Department of Revenue and working with the auditor.
“Those are four separate items,” Reams said. “I like for you guys to vote on them tonight. That way I’ll know if we have to keep doing this anymore; and if not, we can transition with your people in place hopefully by the first of the year.”
Attorney Scott Shirley offered that, at the risk of disclosing information that he didn’t have explicit permission to share, Commissioner Betsy Barfield (who was not present at the meeting) had earlier reached out to Attorney Mark Mustian at the Nabors, Gilblin and Nickerson law firm, which specializes in finance matters.
“He (Mustian) is prepared to advise the board as to the ins and outs of this type of process and help the board work through which of these four issues, if any, should be something that the board should undertake,” Shirley said. “They are a firm that has a continuing relation with the county, should the board decide to acquire its services.”
Not to offend Shirley, Reams said, but this would be the second time that the county “hired somebody to explain what’s black and white in statute and that you can read for yourself.”
“If you want to waste more money, waste more money,” Reams said. “But I would rather that you all just decide tonight and let’s get this over and dealt with. I don’t want to delay this any further.”
Commissioner J.T. Surles made the motion to retain Reams’ services.
“The gentleman has been there 14 years,” Surles said. “He’s been audited every year, and there’s no reason why the county can’t move forward with him at the wheel.”
Commissioner Chris Tuten said he had no problem with Surles’ proposal, provided that the board got more quarterly reporting so that it could better track what was going on at the industrial park and elsewhere.
Reams assured him that such would not be a problem. His office, in fact, already provided monthly reports to Barwick, so that the latter could use them as a tool to determine if his department heads were overspending or under spending, he said.
Barwick added that commissioners already received biweekly vouchers that showed every check written out of the general fund.
“I understand that doesn’t give you a budget printout, but I guess what I risk questioning is that you’re dangerously starting to get close to telling your department heads, ‘get out, we’re going to watch the budget,’” Barwick said.
He defended his department heads, saying they were given authority to govern their budgets and so far all had done well at staying within their set budgets, with a few justifiable exceptions.
“I’m frankly surprised that our departments would be looked at with that fine toothed of a comb,” Barwick said. “You have department heads that run their businesses well and make you look good. You don’t have citizens constantly questioning your departments and how they expend money.”
The two citizens who spoke on the issue, Paul Henry and Richard Connell, both supported the board retaining the services of Reams’ office.
Henry, what’s more, touched on the underlying issues.
“There’s a process in place for what happened,” he said, referring to the recent controversial contributions of public funds to the local Republican Party and Ducks Unlimited.
“I’ll speak candidly,” Henry said. “We have a grand jury and we have a state attorney. If someone makes a complaint, they’ll investigate, based on the merits of the facts and evidence. This is how this is dealt with. I feel that this other is an overreaction. I urge you to let the process take its course. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. If there was misconduct it needs to be addressed, but the last time that something happened here, the penalty far outweigh what took place in my opinion, and the taxpayers paid dearly for it. Please don’t make that mistake again.”
The board’s vote to allow the Clerk of Court office to continue handling the finances was 4-0.