The county judge/executive says none of the money is missing nor has it been spent on anything except county needs.

The money in question comes from the $1 paid by Taylor County residents each month on their phone bills.

The $1 surcharge is supposed to pay for E-911 service.

According to the state auditor's findings, since the county began collecting the $1 fee in 1996, $526,917.77 has come in for the E-911 service.

This means the auditor is questioning the spending of 37 percent of the total E-911 fees the county has collected.

"It's an accounting issue," Eddie Rogers said the day after the auditor released his report.

"It looks bad on us. But, I think it looks just as bad on [State Auditor] Ed Hatchett's office. They audit us every year and we were trying to do everything like they told us to. We were doing what they had told us to do in the past."

According to a press release from Hatchett's office, the investigation into the E-911 money was triggered by Taylor County residents calling the State Auditor's fraud hotline.

The auditor's investigation found that the county:

• Used $102,000 in E-911 money in ways that were against state law. An additional $60,000 may have been spent wrongly.
• More than $46,000 in extra E-911 service charge money has not been restricted for E-911 as the law requires.
• More than $44,000 in occupational tax money was not divided with Campbellsville as an interlocal agreement required. The money was spent for E-911, which the auditor found was not in compliance with an agreement between the city and county. This leaves Taylor County owing Campbellsville just more than $22,000, according to the auditor.

State and county law both require that money collected from the E-911 service charge be spent only on providing E-911 service.

Among inappropriate items the county spent money on were $10,000 for industrial development, paying the salary of a county employee who works full-time at the E-911 center, mapping of the county for E-911 and new road signs.

The Investigation

Rogers said he became aware that the state auditor's office was investigating Taylor County's use of E-911 money about a month-and-a-half ago.

According to the auditor's letter, the investigation included interviewing various county employees and officials, as well as examining county accounting records, ordinances, agreements and transactions.

Rogers said one of the things that most upset him about the auditor's investigation was the lack of opportunity for Taylor County to respond to the auditor's findings.

The county was supposed to have five days to respond, Rogers said, before the auditor's findings were released.

County Attorney Craig Cox made a response, according to a document filed in the auditor's report.

The response is a request for an Attorney General's opinion on whether some of expenses Taylor County paid for out of E-911 service charge money were indeed inappropriate.

Rogers said the auditor's office didn't acknowledge the county's response.

Recommendations

The auditor made several recommendations about how the county can rectify the misuse of the money.

One of the recommendations is that the county transfer nearly $149,000 from the general fund to E-911, and that the county pay the city $22,000.

Rogers said the county would follow the recommendations outlined by the auditor.

As to what the transfers will do to the county budget, Rogers said he couldn't say at this point.

"All the money is there, it's just not dedicated specifically for E-911 use."

Another of the auditor's recommendations was that Taylor County periodically review the service charge that residents pay for E-911.

If E-911 service charges had been spent only on E-911, as the law requires, the auditor's office found that Taylor County would have had extra money in its E-911 fund.

Rogers said the county might need to look at reducing the service charge.

"If we can't use it for what we need to use it for, we don't need the [E-911] tax."

The law requires, Rogers said, that counties have no money left in any budget line item at the end of a fiscal year. For this reason, he said, the county may have to reduce the service charge to avoid an illegal end-of-the-year surplus in the E-911 fund.

The E-911 service charge money can't be used for some salaries and equipment, Rogers said the auditor's investigation revealed. If that money can't be used for those things, Rogers said fiscal court needs to look at how it will pay for those parts of E-911 service.

The auditor also recommended that the E-911 Committee, which was established through an agreement between the city and county, take over the duties that the agreement outlines.

According to the agreement, the committee is supposed to oversee payments made with E-911 service charge money.

The committee is made up of Rogers, Campbellsville Mayor Pro Tem Al Hardy, Campbellsville Police Chief Bill Cassell, and Cox. Other county and city officials serve on the committee.

However, the committee hasn't met since late summer, just before the E-911 Center opened.

Rogers, who took office in 1999, pointed out that much of the time that the auditor says money was misused was under a previous county administration.