17 laid off, 32 furloughed in Letcher Co.
The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG — Date: 04-26-2017 — Nearly 50 county government workers are out of a job or being scheduled for furloughs this week — the result of the Letcher Fiscal Court’s failure to raise new revenue sources to a serious budget shortfall brought on by drastic cuts in coal severance tax receipts.
In all, 17 employees were presented with layoff slips and 32 employees were notified their hours would be reduced after the court late last week approved a plan by Judge/ Executive Jim Ward that is intended to allow the county to finish the fiscal year June 30 without running a budget deficit, which is illegal under Kentucky law.
The four-to-one vote to approve Ward’s plan was a rare do-over for the fiscal court and came just minutes after magistrates had initially voted against starting the layoffs and furloughs, a move that would have forced the complete shut-down of county government services this week.
At the beginning of the special meeting, held April 21, Ward told the court that state law requires county governments to end the fiscal year on June 30 without going over budget, and said there are a number of penalties for county officials if they spend more than they had budgeted. He then presented magistrates with a list of county employees to be laid off or furloughed, which would reduce their jobs between two and six paid days a month. Ward also said that while he has the authority to hire and fire county employees, state law also requires the fiscal court to approve layoffs and discharges. He said the layoffs and furloughs will not be permanent and that he hopes to be able to bring employees back as soon as the county has more revenue.
Before the first vote was taken, Fleming questioned the layoffs of seven Road and Bridge Department employees and the furlough of Road Foreman Chester Smith, saying that department had enough money to continue to operate as it has been. Ward answered that the fiscal court’s requirement by law to operate the Letcher County Jail will use up much of the county’s remaining funds for this year.
Terry Adams blamed the shortfall on poor financial management, but Ward replied that county officials in every surrounding county have adopted new revenue sources to offset their own deep cuts in coal severance money.
“Is it bad management that we refused to vote for a revenue source?” Ward said, referring to the refusal of Terry Adams, Keith Adams and Bobby Howard to vote in favor of a business license fee on coal mines, natural gas wells and other extractive industries that Ward had hoped would cover the county’s projected $1.2 million budget shortfall.
Several magistrates said they “hate” to see employees laid off, to which Ward replied, “I hate it too. If we had to come up with a revenue source, it wouldn’t have happened. But we haven’t been able to agree on a revenue source.”
Letcher County Highway Garage Supervisor Kim Stewart told the court that some of the people who are scheduled to lose their jobs have more than 20 years of service to the county.
“These men are like my family to me,” said Stewart. “We’ve sat in these (recent meetings to discuss revenue) meetings under a black cloud.”
Stewart said the magistrates are responsible for the layoffs by refusing to pass any of the revenue proposals that have been presented to them. She noted that after the recent court meeting during which the magistrates refused to approve the second reading of the ordinance to place a $2,500 licensing fee on gas wells, coal mines and rock quarries, she followed seven carloads of people who had attended the meeting to protest the plan on their way back to Virginia, where she assumed they live. She also thanked Fleming, who voted in support of the license fee ordinance, for not being intimidated by the outsiders who showed up at the earlier meeting.
The first vote ended with a four to two vote against Ward’s plan, with District One Magistrate Bobby Howard, District Two Magistrate Terry Adams, District Four Magistrate Keith Adams, and District Five Magistrate Wayne Fleming voting no and Ward and District Three Magistrate Woody Holbrook voting yes.
After that vote, Ward told the court he would have to shut down county government by scheduling “no work” days beginning this week and continuing until the county had saved enough money to avoid ending the year with a deficit.
Ward said he had spoken with state officials who told him that would be the only other option if the court did not agree to the layoffs and furloughs. He added that while laid off workers would be able to draw unemployment benefits, no workers would be able to draw jobless pay if he was forced to go with the day-to-day “no work” policy.
Magistrate Keith Adams suggested the matter be voted on again and approved so that those workers who were laid off could draw unemployment. Fleming said the “no work” plan was a scare tactic and cast the only no vote in the second of the two votes concerning the layoffs and furloughs. Terry Adams abstained, but Keith Adams and Bobby Howard reversed their original no votes and Ward’s plan passed with a four to one vote, with Ward, Holbrook, Keith Adams, and Howard voting yes.
Ward told the magistrates that if they want to take action on approving a new revenue source, he would be glad to call another special meeting to address the issue.
Following the meeting, several highway department workers gathered in Judge Ward’s office to hear the decision on who would be laid off or furloughed. Following is a list of those county and jail employees affected by the court’s action:
Teresa L. Banks; James R. Hall; Ricky A. Hall; Angela S. Hardin; and James W. Revis Jr., 911 coordinator and Letcher County Ranger; Sean Blair, Letcher County Ranger and maintenance; Gale D. Campbell, litter warden; William M. Campbell, Road & Bridge; Barry Combs, Road & Bridge; Brandon S. Conley, Road & Bridge; Danny B. Field, Road & Bridge; George V. Gibson, Road & Bridge; Marty A. Smith, Road & Bridge; Tristian D. Stewart, Road & Bridge; Jeffery K. Bentley, sanitation; Robert L. Gordon, sanitation; and Sean P. Hall, sanitation.
Letcher County furloughed employees are:
Hettie L. Adams, judge/ executive secretary; Doris J. Frazier, county finance officer; Phillip Hampton, county treasurer; Eddie W. Meade, judge/executive pro tem; Darrell E. Banks, litter warden; Derek C. Barto, Parks and Recreation Director; Dustin W. Holland; Jennifer L. Malan, Letcher County Recreation Center director; Paul D. Miles; Courtney L. Baker, sanitation employee; Christine Bolling, sanitation employee; Bobby D. Kincer, sanitation employee; Chester Smith, Road & Bridge foreman; Robert R. Adams, county jail employee; Barry A. Blair, county jail employee; Charlotte I. Cook, county jail employee; Megan S. Cox, county jail employee; Roger I. Eldridge, county jail employee; Michael L. Enfusse, county jail employee; Angela S. Fields, county jail employee; Benjamin C. Fields, county jail employee; Destini Fields, county jail employee; Samantha Gordon, county jail employee; Ernest F. Ison, county jail employee; Elena S. Johnson, county jail employee; Wallace D. Kincer, county jail employee; Brandon K. Moore, county jail employee; Carroll J. Pease, county jail employee; Brian A. Perry, county jail employee; Brian Slone, county jail employee; Donna M. Slone, county jail employee; and Luther Tackett, county jail employee.
