SNOW HILL — In the heat of a budget shortfall, Greene County’s finance officer, Shawna Wooten, has announced her resignation.
Interim County Manager Richard Hicks said she had told him she would be resigning Feb. 28, but she hadn’t presented a written resignation as of Monday. Wooten could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
About 75 people, many of them county employees, attended Monday night’s Greene County Commissioners meeting where Hicks discussed the budget shortfall, calculated at $160,523. But the numbers haven’t moved yet and changes to the budget will cause shortfall fluctuations.
“We’re still at $320,652,” he said. “We think that number will grow because of these issues here. We still have not identified any additional revenue sources.”
However, the $50,000 reduction from Greene County Schools, $18,000 from Lenoir Community College and a few other reductions he had discussed earlier will likely bring the shortfall down to somewhere higher than $200,000.
“We’re still probably at least $200,000-plus being short,” Hicks said. “The employee health insurance was a $40,000 recommendation to reduce those costs.”
The board agreed to set aside the implementation of a monthly $90-per-employee health insurance cost-share. At the previous meeting, Hicks had recommended employees pay that share and table furloughs. Following the board’s decision Monday, he said he recommended the board reconsider employee furloughs again.
“We’re in our eighth month of the budget year,” he said. “That does not leave a lot of time until June 30. The estimated savings to the general fund for the furloughs is around $60,000.”
Sheriff Lemmie Smith spoke up.
“Are the furloughs going to apply to the sheriff’s department?” he asked. “Because that’s going to put me shorthanded on dispatch, and I’m already shorthanded.”
Hicks recommended furloughs will apply to all the departments.
“Then who’s going to sit in dispatch because there’s no way,” Sharon Marshburn, a dispatcher sitting in the audience, said. “There’s only seven of us trying to cover it and we’re already shorthanded.”
As several others spoke out, Chairman Jack Edmondson called the meeting back to order.
“We will work with the dispatchers on this thing,” he said. “But right now, we got something to discuss and we’re going to stay in order.”
Commissioner Denny Garner suggested the board consider furloughs at the next meeting to give time to think it over.
“Mr. Garner, it just seems to me and the other employees,” Major Doug Stocks of the Sheriff’s Office said, “that every time something comes up, you all want to put it off until the next meeting. Now whether that is so you can talk about it or so you can hope nobody is here at the next meeting, I don’t know.”
Garner said the furlough came up at that meeting.
“If you want us to go ahead and pass the furloughs,” Garner said, “I’m all in favor of it. But I want to try to come up with a solution that we can work with you guys.”
The board tabled a motion for passing the furloughs. It also recessed the meeting until 8 a.m. today to discuss the issue further.
For budget updates, Hicks had good news and bad news. The Golden LEAF check for $394,000 should be in the budget next week. He also said one taxpayer paid a $30,000 bill that wasn’t planned to be paid until after June 30. But the bad news is another taxpayer with a $36,000 bill filed for Chapter 7.
Revenue from ambulance fees will likely be about $550,000, rather than the previously estimated $600,000, he said.
“So, I guess I’m not as optimistic as I was before,” Hicks said.
On the expense side, the rescue transmittal fee was originally budgeted for $65,000, but later reduced to $40,000. A portion of the Medicaid reimbursement check had already been counted on last year’s budget and other portions went to other county rescue squads.
“When we got that money in,” Hicks said, “a fairly good size check had to go to the area rescue squads because they were the ones that actually answered those calls.”
Expenses are already at $50,000 and there are still five months left in the year, he said.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.