At the last Board of Supervisors’ Budget meeting, June 24th County Administrator Lonzo Lester stated that since some did not get a raise, they were going to give a $1,000 bonus to all employees and a $500 bonus to all part-time employees. Supervisor David Eaton brought up the fact that they had contacted Superintendent Kim Hooker and she would be able to get reversion funds to cover the bonuses. The board voted 7-0 to approve the raises. I believe the amount was $60,000. Much praise was given to Ms. Hooker, and a superintendent that saves the county money could be much appreciated, but do not forget where this money came from to begin with and that was the taxpayers of Russell County.
Lonzo in a prior meeting stated that a 3% raise had to be in the budget, that it was a state thing and that it is locked in the budget. That was not a true statement. The state is willing to match 1.5% to the counties’ 1.5% but the county did not have to grant the raises at all. This is not the teachers’ raise that is totally different from the teacher raises which was in the school budget. This was for all county employees other than teachers. Some employees did not fit into the 3% raise, only those recognized by the state.
Why did Lonzo not come to the meeting and state that he would like to do bonuses for those people that did not get a raise? Instead, he came in and presented a bonus for all. Lonzo got his 3% raise plus a $1,000 bonus. It would have saved the county tens of thousands of dollars to only give the bonus to any employee that did not get a raise.
The county taxpayers got a huge increase in real estate taxes and even with that they were concerned about not having the money to meet the budget. So what happens, the second meeting since setting the tax rate they suddenly come up with another $60,000 to spend.
In the nation we have unelected activist judges, in the senate we have an unelected parliamentarian trying to write the budget, and in Russell County we have an out-of-control unelected county administrator. Local counties would do much better if we went to electing the county administrator and the school’s superintendent.
Supervisor Andrew Hensley has been working hard but he is only one vote. I sent a FOIA request to Lonzo and asked to see emails from Andrew about the budget and he replied he had no emails from Andrew concerning the budget.
Andrew then forwarded me many emails from him and Lonzo. Lonzo’s reply was simply away from having to answer my request. Andrew is looking for ways to save the county money, but he has to have some help. Nate and Tara are working also but no one is taking a stand against what is going on, at least not publicly at a meeting. Andrew was the lone vote not to approve the budget. Andrew informed me that many requests on budget issues to Lonzo are not being too or not getting a true answer. The 7-0 vote on the bonuses for the employees is a little shocking to me. They do not have the money but they do have the money.
In the end, Lonzo got around a $3,000 raise and a $1,000 bonus when the county was in such bad shape that they had to raise our taxes. They keep spending when they do not have the money and that should be a concern for every taxpayer.
