Three ordinances the Garland County Quorum Court adopted Monday night gave final approval to the formation of the county financial management office two weeks after justices of the peace first debated the merits of bringing most of the county's financial functions under one department.
County Judge Rick Davis said the compressed time frame couldn't be avoided, but regretted that the reorganization didn't receive further consideration. Garland County Library Director John Wells questioned the timing during last week's Finance Committee meeting, saying the library wasn't informed until Jan. 19 that the new office's funding depended on a $14,457 transfer from the library budget.
Wells said the urgency of the legislation's advance through the committee process didn't give the library time to explore what it would cost to process its own payroll and accounts payable.
Davis conceded Monday that the affected offices should've been brought into the discussion earlier. He and several JPs said the swift approval was needed to meet a workload that has grown too large for a current administrative structure that diffuses the processing of payroll, claims, purchasing and grants across numerous departments.
"I've got to be frank, we should've had more discussion," Davis told JPs. "This thing went through in a hurry. We implemented this in a hurry out of necessity."
County Comptroller Susan Ashmore told the quorum court that library Trustee Merek Rowe informed her the library's board will approve the transfer. Wells told JPs last week that the library wants to reserve the right to withdraw from the funding arrangement and operate independent of the financial management office during future budget cycles.
District 9 JP Matt McKee told the quorum court Monday night that the library needs time to weigh the feasibility of handling its own finances.
"It will take them quite a while to figure out what they're going to do if the county doesn't provide these services to them," McKee said.
Transfers from seven general fund-supported budgets and four restricted funds will support the five-person department headed by Ashmore. Nine of them were already contributing $11,676 each to pay Ashmore's $116,760 in salary and benefits. The sheriff's department and detention center budgets each paid a $5,838 transfer.
The new department is expected to begin operations next month. The general services, county clerk, circuit clerk, treasurer, tax collector and assessor's general fund-supported budgets would each transfer $26,134 to fund the financial management office's $287,472 budget for the final nine-plus months of 2016. The sheriff's general fund-supported budget will transfer $20,296.
Four restricted funds will assume the balance of the cost, with the county's emergency 911 fund, road fund, solid waste fund and library fund each transferring $26,134.
A 65-cent surcharge providers collect from cellphone owners and a percentage-based fee levied on landlines support the 911 fund. Turnback money from state and federal motor fuel taxes support the road fund, and 20 percent of revenue from the county's half-cent sales tax goes to the solid waste fund. A 1.6-mill levy supports the library fund.
Four of the new department's five employees currently work for the county judge and county clerk. The defunding of $228,687 from those two budgets along with the general services and sheriff's budgets will go toward the numerous transfers funding the reorganization.
The detention center's sales-tax supported facility fund will contribute an additional $19,430 that currently pays a portion of the sheriff's department's finance manager's salary and benefits. She'll become the finance director of the new department and get a 30-percent pay increase that raises her salary to $47,320.
The human resources committee approved new job titles for four of the five positions and set their salaries at the minimum level prescribed by the county's salary-rating system. The resulting pay increases account for $25,859 of the $39,355 in additional spending needed to form the financial management office. The general fund will absorb $6,793 of the increase, and the four restricted funds will split the $32,564 balance.
Local on 02/10/2016