Questions Still Exist about Wakulla County Employee Travel Expenses

Editor,

{sidebar id=1}Each of us received from Wakulla’s Clerk of Court Brent X. Thurmond a copy of his August letter with the salutation “Dear Concerned Citizens of Wakulla County” obviously responding to our letter of August 8, 2007 addressed to him and Mr. Brian Langston, Chairman of Wakulla County Board of County Commissioners. In our letter we asked under what authority were two checks in the amount of $243 and $660 issued from the Clerk’s Office to Commissioner Brimner to cover his travel expenses.

Our August 8th request for information was not from the Concerned Citizens of Wakulla County (CCOW), but was from a group of individuals, the undersigned, acting individually on their own behalf, even though some of us, not all, are members of CCOW. We recognize it is possible that the Clerk might have been using “Concerned Citizens of Wakulla County” in a generic sense.

The Clerk’s letter pointed out that Florida Statutes 112.061 authorizes an agency head or his/her designee to “make travel advances to cover the anticipated costs of travel to employees…and that travel advances are advances until approval from the Board with all other checks” (Bold added). We understand this; however, the checks were not made out to Commissioner Brimner as a travel advance. One check (#118763) in the amount of $243.00 was made out to “HOLIDAY INN HOTEL 2000 STAPLES MILL ROAD RICHMOND VA 23230” and the other check (#118764) in the amount of $660.00 was made out to “NATIONAL CONSERVATION TRAINING CENT 698 CONVERSATION WAY, SHEPHERDTOWN WV.” Since these checks were made out to vendors, not to the employee Commission Brimner, are not they equivalent of purchase orders? If these two vendors had cashed the checks and refused to return the money for whatever reason and Commissioner Brimner’s travel was not approved, under what authority could the Clerk’s Office make a payroll deduction from Commissioner Brimner’s salary since Commissioner Brimner did not issue the checks, i.e., purchase orders, or personally receive the funds? We again ask under what authority did the Clerk’s Office furnish Commissioner Brimner two checks made out to two vendors in the amount of $243 and $660?

Sincerely,

Jimmie Doyle
Crawfordville

Suzanne Smith
Crawfordville

Hugh Taylor
Tallahassee

Jack Whaley
Crawfordville

Victor W. Lambou
Crawfordville

This letter originally published on August 24, 2007.

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