Words And What They Mean!!!!!!!

Please read this statement from the School Board Memorandum and tell what it means.

"The Board will pay $10,000.00 to the beneficiary or the estate of any employee who dies while in service."

This has been explained by some as to mean that the school board will make up the difference between what the insurance company pays in order to make a total payment of $10,000.00.

What is actually written is that "the Board will pay $10,000.00 to the beneficiary or the estate of any employee", there is nothing written about insurance policy or the difference between the policy and the age reduction decrease.

"Who dies in service", is this simply service to the school board or perhaps in service to their country through their military service?

Were I the beneficiary of someone who died while working for the school system I would be asking the Board to give me my $10,000.00 as stated in this policy. This has nothing, as written, to do with whether I had received a payment from an insurance company or not. It doesn't even depend on whether I had a life insurance policy the board by this written policy has obligated themselves to pay $10,000.00 to the beneficiary or estate of any employee that has died.
It's this kind of words meaning one thing and thoughts about those words meaning something different that has helped get this system in the mess it's in. Allen Barrett

Once More With Feeling, please!!!!!!!

Once again the Property Committee will take the proposal to the full commission to sale the Hunter Smith Building at auction.
This was proposed for the last Commissioner Meeting but was sabotaged when the County Executive told Commissioner Terry Harwell that the city was interested in buying the building. This turned out to be news to everyone on the City Council. Now the County Executive reports that there are two groups of people interested in buying the Hunter Smith Building. Lincoln said "you can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time" but you apparently can't keep fooling the Commissioners all the time with the same ole tricks. Today they voted to send the recommendation to the full commission, in March, to sale the Hunter Smith at auction and anyone wanting to purchase it before then should put up their money before the Commission meets or be left to bid at the auction. Wise move. Allen Barrett

Now To Steal Money From The County Without even Trying!

What you do is create a subdivision in the midst of some farm land, set up some roads then con the County Commissioners into believing if they will take the roads into the county system repair and maintain them the subdivision would be brought into the county as developed land instead of undeveloped and the increased taxes would be paid.
So after the county takes in the roads you just renege and keep the subdivision listed as undeveloped. That's the situation with Mr. Bass and the Town Hill development and the county is being robbed with the extra burden being put on other citizens. Allen Barrett

Why Pay A Non-Employee For What An Employee Should Be Doing????

The request was made and approved in the budget meeting to pay $300.00 to an employee of the County Co-Op to complete and submit the paper work to qualify for the governors' Three Star Program. It seems this lady, lady #1, while employed by the county had done this as part of her job. When she left for the job at Co-Op she trained another person, lady #2, to complete this paperwork. Now lady #2 transferred from the County Executive's office to Financial Management and no one else was trained thus lady #1 is called back into service. The question I have is why isn't lady #2 completing this task and why was there no one trained to replace her in this task?
Allen Barrett

Why Are County Employees Paying Nothing For Their Insurance?

According to reports this morning in the Budget Committee Meeting presently county employees pay nothing for their medical insurance. They pay for family members. This year the premium for the county was approximately $900,000.00 with an expected increase of 4% next year.
Is it time to start requiring county employees to pay a portion of their medical insurance? Shouldn't there be a prorated system in place so that at least a portion of those premiums would be paid for by the highest paid employees?
Allen Barrett

How To Lose $300,000.00 Without Really Trying!!!!!

How does a person manage to lose $300,000.00 for seven months then come to the Budget Committee and basically say, oops? If the books are reconciled each month would that amount of money normally stay hidden? Is $300,000.00 a significant amount to be bothered with?
I can understand making a mistake, CPA's and other professionals make mistakes, even regular folks like me make mistakes but how can you go for such a long time without realizing that mistake when it involves this amount of money.
Combining this mistake with some other shortfalls in budgets the county was told this morning at the budget meeting that there is a short fall of $223,009.54 now in the budget and would have to be taken from the general fund.

Now just moments before this startling announcement Mr. Griggs from the Ambulance Service stated that the cost to mount two boxes on a chassis for the Ambulance Service was $14,000.00 less than had been expected. In his way of thinking that was his money and should be used on the Richland station not returned to the general fund. His request was presented as "no new money' involved. My question is when will the Commissioners start seeing that because there is no new money there is new spending. Whether it's new or old money it still has to come from somewhere and at last check all the money trees on Minor Hill Highway had been replaced. It's this kind of thinking that has put the county into a very deep financial hole with little hope of getting out. Allen Barrett