commissioners' obligation to pay for their financial commitments

7/28/2019 Commissioners' Obligation to Pay for Their Financial Commitments

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To: Citizens of Douglas County

From: Thomas F. Cavanaugh, Douglas County Clerk/Comptroller

Re: Douglas County Commissioners Obligation to Pay for Their Financial Commitments

Are Douglas County Commissioners obligated to pay for funding commitments and legal

agreements they as a Board have approved?

Yes.

It is understood that when two parties mutually agree upon and both approve the terms

and conditions of an agreement, both parties are obligated to fulfill that agreement. Failure to fulfill

these legal obligations is at best deficient due diligence and clear mismanagement. At worst,

unwilling or failing to fund contractual commitments results in a breach of contract resulting in

costly litigation to resolve.

Following negotiations on April 3, 2012, on a motion by Commissioners Boyle and Tusa the

Douglas County Board unanimously approved a three year contract with EULA, a collective

bargaining unit, which requires the County Commissioners to pay for increasing wages (2% for2011, 2% for 2012, and 3% for 2013) for EULA covered employees, including covered County

Clerk/Comptroller staff.

On June 5, 2012, the County Board approved adding funds to the Clerk/Comptrollers

budget to pay for the first years increased costs of the Commissioners approved wage contract

with EULA, thereby mandating increased funding in the Clerk/Comptrollers budget by the Board of

Commissioners.

On January 29, 2013, the County Board again approved adding funds to the

Clerk/Comptrollers budget to pay for the increase of the Commissioners wage agreements. Again,

mandating by the County Board to add funding in the Clerk/Comptrollers office budget. Thisunanimously approved County Board resolution stated in part increase proposed were shown to

be necessary in order to meet statutory obligations of the County requiring budget adjustments as

follows

In addition to these collective bargaining contract wage increases negotiated and approved

by the County Board, Commissioners also increased wages for County Clerk/Comptroller staff not in

a collective bargaining unit by 1% in 2012 and by 2% in 2013. The 2013 increase was adopted

THOMAS F.CAVANAUGH

DOUGLASCOUNTYCLERK/COMPTROLLER

KATHLEENA.HALL

CHIEFDEPUTYDOUGLASCOUNTYCLERK


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unanimously December 4, 2012, on a motion by Commissioners Tusa and Boyle. Funding for these

mandated County Board wage increases were also added to the Clerk/Comptrollers office budget

by Commissioners.

Now, even though Commissioners know the true cost of all of their approved employee

wage increases that have and continue to increase the true cost of County offices and departments,some County Board members are seriously considering not funding their legal contractual

obligations to pay for their mandated wage increases.

One month after increasing the County Clerk/Comptrollers current authorized budget in

order to fund the County Boards mandated wage increases for the current budget year ending June

30, 2013, and without rescinding these mandated increases, Commissioners notified County

officials and department heads not to request additional funds over this years final budget amount

for budget year 2013-14, beginning July 1, 2013.

From budget year 2009 through 2013, the Clerk/Comptrollers office has realized an 18.35%

budget reduction.

By comparison, the County Board of Commissioners spending budget increased 43.17%

over the same period of time for the Commissioners growing administrative staff.

-20%

-15%

-10%

-5%

0%

FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013

Douglas County Clerk/Comptroller's office

% Change from FY09 Actual - FY13 Budget

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013

County Board's Administrative Office

% Change from FY09 Actual - FY13 Budget


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On April 4, 2013, the Clerk/Comptrollers office submitted to the County Board this offices

2013/14 true budget requirements in the amount of $1,656,321.76. That included the actual cost of

the County Boards mandated wage increases. Once again the Clerk/Comptrollers office non-salaryrequirements remain unchanged for next budget year.

For budget year 2013/14, the Douglas County Clerk/Comptrollers office requires for its

statutory duties a budget that includes $39,315.20 to pay for the County Boards mandated

Clerk/Comptrollers staff wage increases for the period of July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014, in

addition to the unchanged amount of $1,615,323.00 that was this offices final 2012/13 authorized

budget amount.

Given several County Commissioners have repeatedly called for truth in budgeting, the

Clerk/Comptrollers office 2013/14 budget requirements meet this standard in reflecting the true

cost of the County Boards approved mandated wage increases for County Clerk/Comptrollers

office staff in order to fulfill its required duties in accordance with Nebraska state statute.

As the County Boards approved salary increase resolutions have clearly stated,

Commissioners need to fund these increases in order to meet statutory obligations, including

requirements to provide for the performance of state statutory duties.

$190,621.40

$48,067.00

2009 2014

Douglas County Clerk/Comptroller Non-Salary Budget

Requirement Amount% Change from

FY12/13 Fina l

County Clerk/Comptroller Flat 2013/14 Budget 1,615,323.00$ 0.00%

County Board mandated 2013/14 EULA Increases $23,798.40 1.47%

County Board mandated 2013/14 Pay Plan I ncreases $15,516.80 0.96%

County Board mandated Increase Total $39,315.20 2.43%

Total Required Budget 1,654,638.20$ 2.43%

Douglas County Clerk/Comptroller

2013/14 Budget Requirements


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While not having any legal or other obligations to give away County tax dollars to non-

County organizations, the County Board of Commissioners are now poised to approve $500,000 tax

dollars for a non-binding $5 million, ten year commitment made by six Commissioners on

September 11, 2012, at the request of a non-County government group. At the same time, several

Commissioners are contemplating to not approve funding for mandated wage increases the

Commissioners negotiated and agreed to pay to Douglas County employees.

Given the above sited $5 million non-mandated tax dollar give away, it is clear the Douglas

County Board of Commissioners are in fact financially able to fulfill their approved legal

commitments and contracts. However, some Commissioners are apparently unwilling to abide by

and take responsibility for their legal obligations.

OMAHA-DOUGLAS CIVIC CENTER 1819 FARNAM STREET, H08 OMAHA, NEBRASKA 68183-0008402-444-7150 fax 402-444-6456

E-mail: [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.douglascountyclerk.org/http://www.douglascountyclerk.org/http://www.douglascountyclerk.org/mailto:[email protected]

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