After starting the meeting prayer after the pledge, a new addition by the new commission, Bourbon County Commissioners spend more than an hour in salary discussions with County Clerk Susan Walker.
Walker began her remarks by giving a brief history of her positions at the county. She was hired in 2022 to assist department heads and county officials as CFO. She stayed in the position, despite the tension it cause because she cares.
“I’ve devoted 20 years to public service, and plan to continue doing just that,” she said. “I ran [for county clerk] on transparency and respect and plan to continue just that.”
She went on to explain that there were many issues with how the county was processing employee pay and benefits as well as tax and insurance problems when she was hired as CFO. Budget and cash basis laws were violated. The county was paying sales tax, though it is an exempted entity. Walker also worked to get the county reimbursed for utility bills. Payments the county owed were not paid on time, causing penalties and grant paperwork was not filed in a timely manner, causing the county to have to pay $38,000 back to the federal government.
Bourbon County’s first clean audit since 2017 was when Walker came on board in 2022.
She said that the salary schedules from the Jan. 13, 2025 meeting needed more discussion, but it wasn’t her place. She explained that $65,000 was budgeted for each elected official’s position, and the dissolving of the position of CFO made the funds available to cover the cost of the increase in pay.
During the budget sessions last summer, a commissioner agreed to fund every department as requested, except the County Clerk, and $26,550 was moved from the clerk’s budget and added to the commission’s budget. The clerk was told that the new commission could move it back if they wanted.
“I’m asking these funds be moved back to the clerk’s budget,” she said. The extra $20,000 to get employees to the $70,000 that was requested would come from employee benefits as, “we’ve had extra savings due to all the changes that we made last year.”
Walker said she ran for County Clerk because she was given to understand that the CFO position was going to be dissolved, though that was the place she always wanted.
Walker refuted statements about county employees not getting raises with a list of departments that had received extra funds for those raises in the last 2 years.
She also disputed the statement that the county is broke. “We have spent down $1.2 million in cash reserves by lowering taxes but not cutting spending…Cutting spending does mean cutting services even though some do not believe this statement.”
Walker concluded her statements saying, “I want to be a part of the solution to get the county back on track. That is what I was hired to do and that is what I will continue to do…the question is, ‘in what capacity does the commission want me to be in?'”
The commission proceeded to revisit the salary schedule approved at the Jan. 13 meeting.
Commissioner Leroy Kruger apologized for “acting hastily” regarding the new salary schedule in the last meeting and said he wanted to rectify that in the current meeting. He then moved to repeal the raise increases and open them back up for conversation, which the commission approved.
Kruger said that after looking into things and fielding many calls, emails, and texts, he would like to see that those elected officials not at the $58,600 mark be brought up to “at least that if not just a little bit more of a bump to $60,000.” That way if the bill regarding wages which is currently being held up in court does pass, the county is on track to not have to pay back-wages.
He wants to hold off on raises for everyone else until next year and then revisit it annually.
Commissioner Dave Beerbower said that his research shows that in 2019 a salary of $47,428 was approved for the county clerk, register of deeds, and county treasurer.
He commented that previous commissions had the opportunity to increase that and that a 4% increase per year is the corporate average. If that had been compounded over the last 4 years, the current pay rate would be $60,000. He doesn’t think it should all be done in one year, however, and suggested starting now with 4% increase as more reasonable step.
The other part of the salary issue the commission discussed was payment for extra duties, some of which is mandated by law. Currently, budget, payroll, and benefits, are extra duties of the clerk, not mandated by law as part of the legal description of her position. These duties were performed by Walker when she was employed by the county as a CFO. However, that position was dissolved by the last commission, which is part of why Walker ran for County Clerk.
Kruger said that he had spoken with member of other county governments and most of them do pay extra for those duties.
Commissioner Brandon Whisenhunt said, “We gotta look and see how much it would cost us if the clerk wasn’t doing those. I mean, if she’s asking for an extra $20,000 but she’s doing $9,5000-worth of work on top of her regular clerk duties… The only elected official that can do those jobs on a day-to-day basis is the clerk.”
“If the clerk doesn’t…help us with it, then that’s our job,” he said tot he other commissioners.
Beerbower agreed that it makes the most sense for those duties to be part of the county clerk’s position.
The clerk also serves as the election officer for the county, which duties are compensated at $10,000, per state statue.
A document showing salaries of clerks, register of deeds, and treasurers in counties of comparable size, population, and valuation was passed around for the public in attendance to see. This document had been provided to the commissioners at the Jan. 13 meeting.
The $47,428 current salary and no raises given under last commission, puts a big gap between what other counties pay for the same positions and Bourbon County’s current payroll.
Beerbower said same discrepancy exists on all levels in the county.
A citizen attending the meeting spoke up and said there’s no good fix to the situation the commissioners inherited. Even if they do a 4%-per-year raise they will continue to lag behind comparable counties and the next commission will inherit a similar mess to what they are dealing with now.
There’s not been a salary solution for at least four years, said Lora Holdridge, Register of Deeds.
The 2025 budget approved by the previous commission, which included base salary rates of $65,000 for the sheriff, register of deeds, and county treasurer, but not the county clerk, was not revenue neutral.
Beerbower asked how the county will get back to revenue neutral.
Walker listed insurance rates, both liability and health, as the main reason for the increasing county budget.
She explained that assessed values will either stay the same or come up a little. Not taking advantage of that in the county’s expenditures is how to stay revenue neutral.
She then reiterated that money for raises is coming from removal of CFO position.
Beerbower continued to point out that the rest of the county employees hadn’t received raises either.
Kruger stated that it’s up to the new commission to start fixing the issues of the broken system they have inherited, seeking fairness for the employees and the public.
There’s very few departments that have the ability to give themselves or their employees raises out of their regular budget without coming to the commission, said Walker.
Bigger budgets have lots of leeway to create raises in their department meetings.
“I’ve been drug through the mud on this. But I’m also standing up for what I think is right.” said Walker.
Walker also pushed the commission to make a decision, reminding them that she is running payroll this week and needs to know what to pay people.
Kruger: Get everyone to $60,000 Register of Deeds, County Treasurer and County Clerk. Everyone else stays the same. Also pay the required extra duties.
Beerbower said that payroll and benefits were done by the clerk before Walker was hired as CFO in 2022. Walker reminded the commission that the county was not in compliance with statues and had various other financial problems that she had had to rectify as CFO. Whisenhunt reminded that if the county is not in compliance with statutes for the county budget they can be written up in audit and can be fined.
Beerbower said of base salaries, “I don’t have an issue with increasing it to $58,600.” Then said he was “not opposed” to having another set of eyes look at the budget.
Whisenhunt weighed in with, “We need to do the payroll and benefits. I think if we do the $60,000 and the extras for the extra work, that gets ’em close. Then we dig through the budget and see where we can scrimp and save to start getting the other departments up to the level of the neighbors.”
“There’s room somewhere. We just have to figure out where we’re spending. I mean we’re a government, there’s lots of inefficiencies,” he said.
Beerbower made motion to set the salaries for county clerk, register of deeds, and county treasurer at $58,600 and that the sheriff, attorney, and county commissioner salaries stay the same; the motor vehicle and investment officer extra duty at $10,000 for the treasurer’s office; register of deeds $5000 for road officer, and the county clerk receive $10,000 for election officer, $6000 for payroll and benefits and table the budget, which includes financial review, to be discussed at a later date.
There was no second
Kruger made a motion similar to Beerbowers but with a base salary of $60,000 and extra duties as posted on the original sheet including $10,000 for extra duties of the clerk.
Whisenhunt seconded and the motion passed. Kruger and Whisenhunt: Yes. Beerbower: No
The commission took a 5 minute break 1 hour and 10 minutes in to the meeting so Walker could created a new salary resolution.