June 19, 2010

A Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling Friday regarding oversight of spending in county clerk offices is a victory for McCracken County taxpayers, Judge-Executive Van Newberry said.

The appeals court said fiscal courts have a right to approve budgets and spending in the clerk’s office. “It makes it clear that there are checks and balances for clerks the same as there are checks and balances for spending in every other county office,” Newberry said.

The ruling involved cases in Ohio and Monroe counties in which clerks were trying to strip fiscal courts of control.

McCracken County Clerk Jeff Jerrell said he’s familiar with the case, but was told it only applies to clerks who have voluntarily agreed to give budget control to the fiscal court. Newberry said that’s not his interpretation or the interpretation of County Attorney Mike Murphy or others involved in the case. Murphy wasn’t available for comment late Friday.

Attorney Stacey Blankenship, with the Paducah law firm of Denton and Keuler, represented the winning side in the court of appeals case. She said the decision “reinforces laws that say fiscal courts have the responsibility to set the budgets of all county clerks.”

Newberry on Friday also delivered a letter to Jerrell that, among other things, asked him to voluntarily give control of his budget to the fiscal court.

Newberry made the request after learning last month that the clerk’s employees received 21 paid holidays and personal leave days a year, seven more than other county employees, and that they get up to six weeks off for maternity leave or surgery recovery without it counting against accumulated sick leave.

He also says clerk salaries are higher than most other county employees and that Jerrell was spending only 20 hours a week in his office.

Jerrell said he hadn’t reviewed the letter and didn’t want to comment. He promised a written response next week.

Jerrell currently prepares his own budget, funded with fees collected for services. No agency approves it in advance, but his finances are audited every year. Newberry said the court of appeals ruling makes sense.

“It is a question of checks and balances that exists throughout government at all levels,” he said, adding that it isn’t right to give sole discretion of how to spent taxpayer funds to one person.

“Please remember your first and primary loyalty is not to your fellow county clerks or other employees,” Newberry said in the letter to Jerrell. “As a true public servant and McCracken County elected official, your first and primary concern and loyalty should always be the citizens of this county.”

Newberry would not comment when asked what action he might recommend to the fiscal court if Jerrell doesn’t volunteer to relinquish budget control to the fiscal court