Board levels Supervisor of Elections budget

Palm Coast Observer
News

Tensions ran high again Sept. 19, when the county commission made its final decision to reject any proposed increases and keep the Supervisor of Elections’ upcoming fiscal year budget flat.

Denying Supervisor Kim Weeks’ previously proposed funding jumps, the board unanimously approved a level budget, minus HAVA (Help America Vote Act of 2002) grant monies and matching county funds.

If and when Weeks requires excess funding down the road, it decided, she could issue a request to the board.

“My duty is to provide elections,” she said. “Your duty is to provide funding … The best I can do is prepare a proposed budget … There’s nothing within my proposed budget here that you’re actually questioning.”

Previously, the board and Weeks clashed in discussing whether or not she had awarded her staff raises, or bonuses, or what, on the final day of last fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2010.

Weeks clarified her figures. Instead of the $0.30-per-hour after-the-fact pay increases she initially claimed to give her employees; the amount was actually $1.50 per employee, she said.

Last time she came before the board, she was asked to provide at the Sept. 19 meeting documentation regarding those raises. She didn’t.

“It puts your budget to be suspect,” Chairman Alan Peterson said. “That’s what we struggle with.”