A policy change and missing paperwork have Hamilton County commissioners facing a tough decision: whether to try to retrieve nearly $50,000 in taxpayer money improperly accrued to some county magistrates, or just write it off.
Commissioner Tim Boyd made the issue public Wednesday, demanding to know why former chief magistrate Randy Russell received a payout of more than $26,000 when commissioners failed to renew his contract in May.
Payments in error
Nathaniel Goggins, $9,374.41, paid May 2017Sharetta Smith, $5,720.92, paid May 2017Brandy Spurgin-Floyd, $2,917.67, paid May 2018Randall Russell, $13,396.46, paid May 2018Accumulated leave for current magistratesRon Powers, 375 hours, $12,241.79Andrew Basler, 91.7 hours, $2,917.67Source: County finance department
Also of interest
Commissioners also will vote next Wednesday on:Approving former Chattanooga Fire Chief Chris Adams to head the county's emergency management agency to replace Tony Reavley, and appointments to the Scenic Cities Beautiful Commission, the Erlanger hospital board and other local boards and commissions;Multiple appropriations from Commissioner Joe Graham's discretionary and travel funds for local improvements in his district;A contract to buy 19 vehicles for the sheriff's office;Whether to permit construction of a cell tower on Hurricane Ridge off Fuller Road, a proposal contested by local residents.
In this June 2016 staff file photo, Chief Magistrate Randy Russell pulls a file from the back of the door in his narrow office at the Hamilton County Jail.
That sum included almost $13,400 for unused vacation time for which Russell shouldn't have been reimbursed after a 2013 contract change that allotted magistrates 10 days of use-or-lose vacation a year. As it turns out, three other former magistrates also have been paid for unused leave, and two now serving have accumulated time off totaling more than 475 hours.
Commissioners are expected to vote next week whether to let them keep the vacation pay or ask them to pay it back.
At a Security and Corrections Committee meeting after the morning commission agenda session, Boyd pressed for explanations from County Attorney Rheubin Taylor. Who authorized the payout, when and why? he demanded.
Boyd complained he had emailed Taylor on July 19 and July 24 seeking contracts for Russell and current magistrate Stuart Brown, without getting a response until he took the problem to Chairman Randy Fairbanks.
"This is another example of how county government is complacent in doing its job, with no communication with the commission," Boyd raged. Fairbanks, Vice Chairwoman Sabrena Smedley and commissioners Chester Bankston, Greg Beck, Jim Fields, Joe Graham and Warren Mackey were present for at least part of the meeting.
Taylor said Boyd should have called him, since he doesn't usually read emails. And he said his office had nothing to do with the magistrates' pay.
"We draw up the contracts, finance handles the money," Taylor said.
The group was taken aback when Fairbanks and Smedley said they knew about the unauthorized pay and had told county finance officials they didn't support seeking repayment.
"I told them no, we basically fired these individuals," Fairbanks said. "I don't want to go back and tell them we made a mistake and ask them for the money back."
Fairbanks voted in May to keep Russell on as a magistrate. He said Wednesday he based his decision on recommendations from multiple county judges that Russell was doing a good job running the program.
He acknowledged Russell had handled a divorce for a close family member about a decade ago but said that had nothing to do with his vote.
Smedley voted in May for the two successful magistrate candidates, Miller and Stuart Brown. She said she told the finance staff "I didn't think it was worth going after the money" paid in error.
Beck objected.
"I bought a $35 shelf at a thrift store with discretionary money and [the finance department] is raising hell with me saying I have to turn it in because it belongs to the county," said Beck, who leaves office at the end of the month.
"That's the way it is, if you owe the county something, you give the county theirs back," he said.
Graham said Fairbanks and Smedley didn't have authority to make that decision.
"It takes five votes. It needs to be voted on," he said.
Boyd asked Fairbanks in the committee meeting to add a resolution to Wednesday's agenda for a vote.
How it happened
Mayor Jim Coppinger, with Taylor and the heads of finance and human resources on speakerphone, told the Times Free Press on Wednesday the problem came out of a paperwork slip-up.
The commission created the magistrate program years ago to ease jail overcrowding by having someone there on nights and weekends who can sign warrants and set bail. It's the only program the commission runs.
The commission voted in 2013 to change magistrate leave to a use-or-lose policy, but didn't send a form signed by the commission chair to human resources so the change could take effect, Coppinger said.
That duty should have fallen to the chief magistrate, then Randy Russell, who works for the commission and administers the program, he added.
"We're totally independent on the information they provide us," Coppinger said.
Russell said Wednesday he was surprised by the whole thing.
"After seven and a half years, this is the first I'm hearing about it," he said.
He also seemed unaware of the 2013 switch to use-it-or-lose-it vacation for magistrates.
"Every magistrate that's been in the the program, their balance [of unused leave] has been paid, no questions asked," he said. "For them to be bringing it up now just doesn't' make any sense."
Asked how he would react if asked to pay back the money, Russell declined comment.
"I'll just have to wait and see what the commission does," he said.
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfrepress.com or 423-757-6416.