The Fayette County Board approved a loan of $400,000 from the Capital Improvement Fund during Tuesday night’s monthly meeting. The loan will transfer the funds into the General fund to be used for what will largely be payroll that is upcoming for county employees this month. County Treasurer Rose Hoover says the county is currently a couple hundred thousand in the red and there are multiple payroll dates and claims to be paid out this month.
And Hoover says it seems as if the county is getting itself in and even deeper hole.
After discussion, a motion to approve the loan failed by a vote of 2-8 with board members Glenn Gurtner and Jeff Beckman the only ones voting in favor of the loan. However, later in the meeting, the issue was revisited following a presentation from consultant Bruce Delashmit of Bellwether Advantage who was approved to do a cost study on the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department and the County Clerk’s Office just a bit earlier in the meeting. Delashmit relayed what he had seen happen with other counties who had been in the same position that the county is currently in. After a motion to reconsider the resolution for the loan, board members again voted on the resolution with it passing by a vote of 7-3 the second time around with board members Mark Isaiah, Glenn Gurtner, Dean Bernhardt, Troy Patillo, Darrell Schaal, Jeff Beckman and John Daniels voting in favor of the loan and board members Wade Wilhour, Chad Austin and Glen Daniels voting against the loan.