After learning that one county employee’s fuel and travel expenses are handled differently than any other local government worker, The County Record did some digging. To put it simple, our numbers aren’t adding up the same.
As previously reported, we learned that Sonny O’Bryan, who serves as Calhoun County’s emergency management director, grants coordinator and county administrator, is paid $20,000 and some change annually to cover fuel and travel expenses for using his own truck on the job. O’Bryan is given a monthly check for $850, then turns in gas receipts and is reimbursed for any fuel purchases he makes during the month. The amount budgeted indicates he is driving 41,237 miles per year on county business. That’s over 3400 miles each month and an average 156 miles per day.
That seemed like quite a bit of driving so we asked for details on the road projects O’Bryan is reportedly inspecting during his daily rounds. This is the information provided to us by his office:
CALHOUN COUNTY
2012 CURRENT
PROJECTS
2012 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery Road Paving
• J W Rackley Street
• Floy B Rackley Road
• Rudolf Rackley Road
• Bowden Road
• Leonard Varnum West
• Myers Dairy Road
Small County Road Assistance Program (SCRAP)
• B.H. Stone Road
Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) Tupelo Avenue Expansion Project
• Mac’s Nursery Road
• Gray Road
• B.H. Stone Road
• Whitewater Grade
FEMA DR-1785 Various County Roads
FEMA DR-1831 Various County Roads
* * *
After receiving the report, we asked for more specifics on the “various county roads” listed at the end. The staff was very helpful and explained this information changes daily as road projects are completed, but a list would be provided later this week.
So, we took the roads we were given and did some mapping. Going from project to project, road to road, we came up with a 68-mile round trip route if O’Bryan left from the courthouse each morning and went from one end of the county to the other and back, inspecting every single one of these projects. A little less than half the miles being paid in travel reimbursements. Where are the remaining miles coming from? The County Record will check out the travel logs this week and get more comments from county commissioners on this “Your Money” matter.
