BENTON – Marshall County Fiscal Court met in regular session Tuesday, December 6, 2016 hearing from Veteran’s Van program director Robert Chandler with an update on their yearly activity. They have recorded 73 trips to the Marion VA Hospital and many to Paducah. Chandler and his drivers work voluntarily and he asked if his five drivers could receive $100 each in a transportation stipend.
Marshall County High School teacher Vivian Collins and five students from Marshall County High School spoke to the Fiscal Court as part of proclaiming the week of December 4-11 as Career and Technical Education Week. The student representatives spoke about each of their organizations. FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America) was represented by Genesis James, Garrett Fulgham representing Skills USA, Talon Henry representing FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), HOSA (Health Occupational Student Association) was represented by Madeline Henson and Shelton Owen representing FFA (Future Farmers of America).
Judge/Executive Kevin Neal read the Proclamation that stated in part, “The various chapters would like to recognize their community service endeavors and commitment to the youth of Marshall County as they highlight their work within the school, region and state.”
The proclamation stated that the career and technical chapters at Marshall County High School represent over one third of the student population, a vital part of the school environment and provide opportunities for students to become involved in the community and train them to become our leaders of tomorrow.
Marshall County ABC Administrator, Scott Brown, gave the Quarterly ABC Regulatory Report from August 1st through October 31st. Brown said four more stores will open this quarter, which will be a short quarter. Earnings were down approximately $20,000 from last quarter.
Judge Neal spoke to the budget and how alcohol sales affect it, saying it’s hard to match up projections with what is actually brought in. “It’s clear will have the potential to be short, it’s like trying to hit a moving target”, Neal said. “It can be a challenge, but it’s important moving forward that we do business on a day to day basis”.
Neal went on to say they have yet to have one full year to identify how much money is going to come into the county but still have to approve a budget by July 1 which require estimations and then adjust along the way.
“Decisions made on the front end have the taxpayers in mind along the way”, Neal said. All the ABC information is uploaded onto the Fiscal Court webpage.
OLD BUSINESS
Barnes Grocery
County Attorney Jeff Edward said the deed is prepared to transfer the Barnes Grocery property to the Refuse District.
NEW BUSINESS
Road Petition
A petition has been received to bring roads Hill Creek Lane, Creed Side Drive and Hill Creek Court into the country road system. A public road hearing will take place during the next Fiscal Court meeting on December 20th at 10:00 am.
Fiscal Court Audit
The audit for the period June 30, 2014 to June 30, 2015 has been received. Judge Neal spoke to recent items highlighted by local media from the audit saying, “The 2015 audit year, the monies were budgeted, the issue of $500,000 that was transferred to the road department and the procedure of going through the Fiscal Court wasn’t followed. There were no miss-appropriations, no miss-handling of those monies, it simply was the procedural approval through the fiscal court.”
“I encourage the citizens of the community again, we upload everything to the webpage.” Neal said. “This is by far one of the most transparent Fiscal Court’s you are going to find. All the information is here. If you rely on media, it’s at your own risk. Here are the facts and here are the reports and we don’t have a problem discussing it.”
Neal said changes and improvements had already been made in the areas of discrepancies found in the audit.
Commissioner Rick Cocke spoke to the time of the audit saying, “the 12-month period that was covered by this audit took place starting July 1, 2014, well before the vast majority of elected officials here this morning were even here.”
Commissioner Cocke released this official statement on the audit:
It is important to point out that we, as members of the Marshall County Fiscal Court, take the findings of this audit and these deficiencies very seriously. It is also important to point out that the 12 month period covered by this audit began back in July 2014, almost 2 ½ years ago and well before the majority of this present administration even took office.
In the past 14 or 15 months, this present administration, by way of self audit, had also found the majority of these deficiencies to exist. Since discovering these past deficiencies, this new administration has already put in place new policies, updated old policies as dictated by new laws and in some cases, just made sure that some departments were following the policies they had laid in place. We are continuing to do this on a constant basis. All of these actions were put into motion, by the new administration, well before the office of Mike Harmon, Auditor of Public Accounts, even started its audit.
I believe that the new administration under the direction of Judge/Executive Kevin Neal has taken a proactive approach in dealing with these past existing deficiencies and for that, should be commended.
Dr. Rick Cocke
Marshall County Commissioner
County Treasurer Emily Martin spoke to the timing of the audits and when items are addressed. Martin said we are already halfway through this year’s budget year and haven’t even started the 2015-2016 audit.
“If they don’t start that audit until February, it’s going to take them well into fiscal year 2017-2018 to identify what things they want us to change”, Martin said.
“It all comes from our self-audit because the state lags 2 ½ years behind”, Cocke said. “It’s imperative that we audit ourselves which has been done by this administration to find these deficiencies and try to correct them well in advance before the auditor gets here.”
CLICK HERE to go to the Fiscal Court webpage and view the audit ending June 30, 2015.
Audit Reports
The court approved receiving the audit review of the Marshall County Judicial facility and the East Marshall Fire Protection District audit for fiscal year ending June 30, 2016. The audit of the Marshall County Health Department Financial Statements ending fiscal year June 30, 2016 was accepted by the court as well as the Marshall County Health Department taxing district Financial Statements for the years ended June 30, 2016 and 2015.
Code Red
Judge Neal would like for the Commissioners to review the Code Red cost assessments, an emergency communications network for the county that will go directly to the citizens of Marshall County with alerts, emergencies and updates.
Sanitation District #2
A request for transfer in the amount of $100,000 was approved by the court to finish the project at Sanitation District #2. The court budgeted over $300,000 to get the district in compliance and Judge Neal commended them for the great job they have done to get where they are today saying, “they have managed those dollars extremely well”.
New Year Ad
The court approved a Happy New Year ad in the amount of $29.99 for a special page in The Lake News.
Aurora Businesses
On December 15th at 4:30 at Kenlake State Park, there will be a meeting with Aurora businesses and residents that wish to attend, to discuss ways to improve the area economically and identify priorities for the area.
Kiwanis Bill
The Kiwanis Club had approached the court about replacing a sign on the north end of town. A group composed of several organizations were involved in this project and the Fiscal Court’s part is $500. The payment to the Kiwanis was approved.
Executive Session
Court went into Executive Session to discuss a clerk resource sharing agreement with the county. A motion was made and approved to move forward with an agreement between the County Clerk’s Office, Refuse Department and Tourism Department with the county. Parks Director Dennis Foust will work on this agreement.
The Road Department Call-Out for a minimum of four hours was discussed with clarification made that a call-out is for minimum of four hours and will be regular time pay. This is separate to staying on the job above their regular 40 hour week, due to adverse weather conditions, which would be overtime pay.