At a Budget Workshop held at the McCracken County Courthouse Friday, May 18th, at which a resolution of the Coroner’s salary controversy was expected, the Court instead announced the discovery of a law previously unknown to and unheeded by the Court for decades.
After calling the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m., the Court went into a 45-minute Executive Session after which they returned and announced the new development. Judge Leeper deferred to County Attorney, Sam Clymer, who explained the newly unearthed Statute, KRS 64.530, requires that the Coroner’s salary be set by the Fiscal Court no later than May 7th of an election year. According to Clymer, this means the deadline for amending the salary has passed.
Clymer went on to say that previous pay raises through the years given to current McCracken County Coroner, Dan Sims, through no fault of Sims’ own, were awarded improperly because those increases were not given in accordance with KRS 64.530. Clymer stated that these increases, then, according to the law, are “void”.
According to Clymer, the County will now have to proceed by performing a “forensic accounting”–essentially, a recreation of financial events and court actions through the years–to ascertain those pay increases given both in and out of line with the Statute. In addition, Clymer said the issue of equity–the fact that the court has paid these agreed upon salaries for decades– also must be considered.
It was estimated that the last pay raise in line with the Statute for the McCracken County Coroner was awarded in 1995.
Amanda Melton, who is running unopposed for the Coroner’s seat, was present with a small group of supporters, including John Williams, Buddy Rushing, Dr. Laurie Ballew, Joyce Sims, and Judy Vance. “The timing of researching this Statute is unusual to say the least,” said Melton, “The political maneuvering is just not conducive to getting on with county business, it seems to me. All I can do is to continue to hope for a fair resolution of this issue and thank my supporters for going to such great lengths in helping me get this far toward that goal.”
The discussion ended with no clear date or time as to when a determination or decision might be made.
I’m am quite curious now as to when the 2015 2016 fy County Judge Executive’s salary of $95,574.00 was approved?
Because according to this article in June of 2015 the McCracken JE’s salary appeared to have been less than $65,000.00 http://archive.courierpress.com/news/deputy-judge-salary-would-rank-high-in-state-ep-1135664906-324781421.html/
This is beyond comprehending. One can not expect anyone to work for 1995 wages. Who will be our coroner?
You have to be kidding?!?! So, if the raises were not in line with the statute, will the raises need to be repaid to the county? Get on with running the business of this county and quit all this political posturing. This is just ridiculous.
All of this just reinforces the validity of the comments written by John Williams, Jr.
This entire Commission needs booted! Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack! What a bunch of losers! What are they going to try next, recoup the 10 years from Danny Sims?
Seems the county should be reimbursed for the illegal raises or the salary should the same for Amanda Melton as the previous coroner.