The County Commission on Wednesday approved a special request of $300,000 for the Criminal Court clerk's office.
Clerk Vince Dean said his office was $53,000 under budget, but he said there had been a revenue shortfall.
Commissioner Tim Boyd said he was "extremely disappointed" that Mr.
Dean did not give the commissioners prior warning about the shortfall.
He said in the private sector such a situation "would be considered mis-management."
Commissioner Boyd asked Mr. Dean if he had considered an across-the-board pay cut for employees, he replied that he had not. The commissioner said if each employee took a cut of about eight percent the shortfall could have been handled without coming to the county treasury.
Mr. Dean said it is very important to have experienced employees, saying that one mistake could be highly costly for the county. He said the average time employees have been with the office is 15 years.
There are 64 employees in the clerk's office.
Mr. Dean said he had been advised that Commissioner Boyd was sending texts to county officials about the funding situation for his office. In response he said he sent this letter to the County Commission:
Dear Commissioners:
I would like to take the opportunity to clarify a few things from and since your last meeting. I am aware that some misinformation has been put forth and I will try to clear the air. First and foremost, my lightheartedness, during the meeting, was in no way meant to be a sign of disrespect. I fully understand the importance and graveness of spending and appropriating tax dollars. I spent 10 years on a local governmental body and believe me I understand. I absolutely meant no disrespect.
One of the main issues that seemed to be concerning was that I had waited until April to inform the Commission of the shortfall in revenue. And let’s be clear, this is a revenue shortfall and not a mismanagement or budgetary issue. The Hamilton County Finance department will confirm that this issue was identified several months ago. The Finance department advised our office to wait until we had a better understanding of our actual needs to present it to the Commission. That is what we did. I stated this during the meeting. If I was unclear about it, I apologize.
The commission was informed that our office’s 64 employees average salary is $60,399. That is simply not true. As a matter of fact there are only 2 employees in our office that make over that amount. Based on our current payroll, we have 61 total employees. Those employees have 15 years average service. Their average salary is a little under $43,000 and that includes my salary, which is regulated by the state. Granted that does include benefits that the county pays, as that is not controlled by this office, nor is it included in the “Letter of Agreement.” The previous Administration’s Letter of Agreement was $2,724,195. Our current Letter is for $2,643,371, which is what we budgeted. And our payroll under that letter is $2,590,627.79, which as you can see is $133,568 less than her last letter of agreement. As a matter of fact we are nearly $53,000 UNDER budget for this year. We have reduced payroll, as promised.
With respect to collections, we are significantly up. From OCT 2014 until MARCH 2016, our first 18 months in office, our collections are up nearly $200,000 compared to the same time frame of the previous administration. Had we not made improvements, our appropriation’s request would have been significantly higher. We have increased the collections, as promised.
State laws have been changed, in part, due to the diligent efforts of our office. Those changes are as follows:
1- Pass the cost of collections on to the defendant, instead of being paid by the Clerk’s office.
2- A law requiring the State of Tennessee to pay to the county the Felony Costs bills that have been remitted to them within 120 days.
3- Set up a program to allow for a lump sum partial payment of certain fines that meet specific criteria, with a Judge’s approval. In addition we have identified another law that if changed, would move our office from a fee base status and thus end the need to request future appropriations from the County Commission.
The revenue shortfall is not unique to Hamilton County. As stated the majority of our clientele are homeless and unemployed. We are doing a remarkable job collecting what we can. It’s not really as simple as just “going out there and collecting it”. The efforts and changes that we have assisted in making at the State Level are being appreciated across the state. The measures we have taken here in our office are being overlooked in part. Our total salaries are down, like we promised. Our collections are up, like we promised. We are fulfilling our promises and appreciate the support of the Commission.
Respectfully,
Vince Dean