Last night, the Buncombe County Commissioners caught a lot of grief for what little citizens could find to complain about the budget. Although the JLF gives the City of Asheville and Buncombe County the same grades on their Transparency web site, locals can see, feel, and hear a difference.
Commissioners approve via their consent agenda seven-digit line items with no more explanation than their brief line-item titles. County leadership defers to department heads’ authority for placing items on the agenda. People are too busy trying to put food on the table to take time off work to talk to the county finance manager to figure out where their tax dollars are going.
Mike Fryar, however, has taken time to build trust with county employees, research records, and identify where some of the leaks are. To date, he has only discovered some unusually high pay rates. The few thousands of dollars don’t mean much as the typical local government is reporting shortfalls a thousand times as great. Taxpayers are complaining that their taxes are forcing them toward having to decide between working and growing the demand on government welfare.
Fryar’s exposure of the commissioners’ top-rank compensation packages received much coverage in the mainstream media. After the commissioners voted themselves a paycut, members of the public demanded more reductions in their pay. Further, citizens spoke before the commissioners demanding that they report to the public where the money in their expense accounts goes. Peggy Bennett questioned the efficacy of dignitaries gracing special interest gatherings with their presence in this age of telecommunication and belt-tightening.
Fryar then began an exposure of two sleights of hand in the handling of pay increases in the sheriff’s department. He didn’t have time to finish. Jerry Rice presented a response to the county manager’s presentation of pay scales for select positions in other counties. He cherry-picked a different batch. Rice also questioned the cost and efficacy of the ten sheriff’s deputies guarding the commissioners from the small and civil Tea Party demonstration outside. Chair David Gantt indicated in the commissioners’ pre-session there may have been a need for a closed session to discuss a personnel matter that may arise during the meeting. No further information was made available.
Following questions about sheriff’s department pay, the Mountain Xpress published information about the $128,850 salary commanded by the retiring register of deeds, Otto DeBruhl. The commissioners, assuming what appeared to be a staged reactionary position, entered into a discussion of register of deeds salaries in other counties. They decided to offer DeBruhl’s replacement, Drew Reisinger, the lowest amount, $78,497. Reisinger, in turn, kept his campaign promise to reduce his earnings 40%. He said he would donate the remainder to the Asheville City and Buncombe County schools foundations. During his campaign, he had said he wanted the savings from his salary to save a teacher position. He however accepted a gesture from Commissioner Holly Jones to waive his healthcare insurance waiting period.
