Franklin County Council Member issues response to audit findings

Franklin County Council Member Brian Patterson has released a statement regarding his assertion that the county had overpaid on health insurance premiums in previous years, and in response to the findings of the April 12 Franklin County Board of Commissioners meeting. In that meeting the Commissioners internal audit found the county had overpaid on county employee health insurance by $1,700 in the year 2020, and would be trying to recoup that money. The full press release is below:

Regarding Councilman Patterson's question on potential over payments of county health insurance premiums, along with County Auditors and Commissioner findings.

As your County Council Representative, at large, I swore an oath when I took office. When I swore this oath, I promised that I would always carry out the duties of my office no matter the consequences. I swore an oath to the taxpayers to keep a vigil eye on every dollar of their hard- earned money that they pay into County Government. I swore an oath to help protect our county employees and to ensure that they are protected and are always listened to. I took this oath in front of Judge Cox and my family while my hand was placed upon The Bible. I do not take that lightly.

If a county employee finds any type of waste, fraud or abuse, I want them to come to me because I will listen. An employee did that in this case, a great employee; a trusted employee. I listened. The employee also raised the same potential long-term loss of taxpayer dollars with our County Commissioners, and they did nothing for four months. I decided to bring it to the public to get answers.

People have made comments as to why I did not dig any deeper into the books and do the research myself. Well, here's the reason. It would take two offices to do this, both the County Auditor and the Commissioner's office, both of which are elected officials. In normal circumstances, once an elected official finds out about possible taxpayer waste, they should be obligated to do an audit on their own and fix the problem because they care about taxpayer money. In this case, neither office acted until I brought it up in a public meeting. I wish both offices would have investigated the issue on their own, but they didn't for whatever reason.

Now, let's address the findings. In a matter of less than a week's time, the County Auditor and County Commissioners have done a complete audit of our county health insurance for the year 2020. I'm glad they did it. I appreciate the elected officials taking their valuable time to do an INTERNAL audit; however, an external audit should have been done instead. Their findings were that there was only a loss of $1,700 for the year 2020 of which they are trying to recoup. The point that I brought up in the County Council meeting on March 29th was that the County Commissioner's Office did an audit in late 2020 and potentially found $60,000 in over payments. I don't believe all these payments were paid out in 2020 because, at that point, the discrepancies had already been identified. While 2020 was a huge concern for me, I quickly realized that there is more to the story than just 2020. I also asked the Commissioners in that same meeting what happened in 2019, 2018, 2017, and let's just go all the way back to the year 2000.

To my knowledge, the Commissioners have overseen the County health insurance since 2000. Keep in mind, I have only been in office 16 months.

We all got an answer, and that's good, but it's not a complete answer. I still do not know if there was money lost in previous years or not. During the 29 March County Council meeting, my proposal was that we have our financial consultant, The Reedy Group, at a minimal cost, investigate the discrepancy. I thought it would be best if an external group that were also experts in financial matters investigate the problem to give us a clear picture. The majority of county council members did not agree with me. The council, led by Joe Sizemore, decided to first find out how much money we can recover for overpaying before finding out how much money we have already lost. To me, that was like the cart before the horse, but I was in the minority.

It is unfortunate that our county commissioner of more than a decade, Tom Linkel, called this issue, "fake news." If nothing occurred, then why not let an external group provide a review of our county health insurance? This would be at a MINIMAL cost. It is a shame that a county employee felt the need to relay these findings to me because they felt their concerns were being ignored by Mr. Linkel and the other Commissioners.

I personally would think that the taxpayers of Franklin County would want to know where their money has gone over the last two decades and if the potential exists of a 1.2-million-dollar loss. That number is simple math. $60,000 (potential overpayment for 2020), multiplied by the 20 years that the Commissioners were responsible for county health insurance payments. Unfortunately, it appears the taxpayers of Franklin County will never know.

Overpayment into health insurance means that your tax dollars were paid to an insurance company for no reason, that less money is going into our roads and bridges and one more low water crossing is still here in Franklin County.

I did not bring these allegations to the public for political reason or to make anyone look bad or make myself look good. I brought these allegations because it is the right thing to do and that is what I swore an oath to do. To the taxpayers and County employees of Franklin County I want you to know that I am here fighting for you every day and, believe me, it is a struggle, but you and your families are worth it. I also want to let all county employees know that if you see something that doesn't add up, call me. I hope this issue proves that I will stand up for our citizens and our tax dollars, no matter the consequences.

Thank You, Brian Patterson Franklin County Council At-Large.

The Franklin County Auditor's office issued the following statement in response to the press release:

Mr. Patterson had the same obligation to investigate potential taxpayer waste as he has accused the commissioners and auditor of not doing. The allegation of the County potentially overpaying the county's health insurance by $60,000 in 2020 was never brought to my attention. Upon his revelation at council's meeting, I immediately conducted the audit for 2020. Had Mr. Patterson talked to me on March 29th when he was in my office prior to Council's meeting, I could have explained to him that he was relying on an invoice that was irrelevant and was not paid by the county. If he cared so much about this waste, why not talk to the commissioners or auditor before going public with an allegation he had no facts to back it up with. Why not contact the State Board of Accounts as he is required by law to do with the evidence supporting his allegation. I did contact SBOA following the meeting on March 29th and reported the allegation made by Mr. Patterson but I was unable to provide any facts to support what he was claiming.

Mr. Patterson continues to accuse the commissioners and auditor of failing to take some action on this matter. What action did Mr. Patterson take during the 4 or 6 months he had this information? Nothing. He sat on this information and then stated at a public meeting that the county overpaid $60,000 (nothing to show where he got that number from) and potentially for 20 years for a $1.2 million loss. This is completely bogus and he made those numbers up. Had he talked to me during the time he was sitting on it, I could have provided him with accurate information. If he takes his oath as serious as he claims too, then as an elected official he should have been more careful and done his own investigation to get the facts straight before going public. But instead of doing that he waited one week before early voting started to make an accusatory allegation in a public meeting with not one piece of evidence to support it. He was in the building this past week too but he did not bother to stop in my office. I would have explained to him how it works and what I found. It is obvious that facts don't matter to him.