By Linda Dean Cooper
Property Appraiser Jason Whistler requested an $ 11,897 budget amendment during the BoCC June 18, 2024, regular meeting. According to the BoCC agenda, the $11,897 increase will be taken from the county’s Uses Reserve for Contingencies account. His current approved budget is 1,360,917 according to his website.
Whistler was requesting the money that needed approval from the BoCC before moving money into his budget. Whistler read from his agenda item 4 “Requesting the Levy County Board of County Commissioners’ approval to appropriate reserve (Contingency) in the amount of $11,897”. I asked Whistler to explain why he needed the additional money and why it was coming out of the county’s contingency fund. He would not answer and deferred to new county budget manager Jared Blanton to explain.
BoCC Budget Director Blanton Explains Transfer for Whistler
Blanton tried to explain but it was over my head and made no sense to me. I know that after a final budget has been approved, changes must be made through the budget amendment process. Blanton’s explanation seemed to indicate the reason for the transfer was because at the time the appraiser’s budget was approved, the State had not set the salaries for the constitutional officers for fiscal year 2023-24.
Constitutional Officers Should Explain Their Request for More Money
I take issue with a constitutional officer reading a sentence from a BoCC agenda summary form and cannot explain why they are asking for money after their budget is set then taking it from the county’s contingency fund then the BoCC automatically approving. They may know why but the public doesn’t, and we pay the bills.
The appraiser’s salary last fiscal year was $124,623, this year $132,114. That’s a $7,491 difference but including all the benefits the actual cost may be the additional $11,897. Whistler’s personnel budget is $1,167,220 for himself and his ten employees. I asked if there was a vacant position in Whistler’s office, if so, why not take it from there and not from the contingency fund? I was told the Department of Revenue will not allow it.
It seemed apparent that the pay from 2022 to 2023 was increased therefore the transfer was to cover that salary increase. That makes it a pay raise. It appears that some Facebook readers were offended by this and thought I did not understand the State sets the salaries. My issue was Whistler could not or would not explain why he needed the transfer.
The agenda summary form stated, “This is necessary to realign the BoCC-Funded budget after late adjustment by DOR in their approval process” but no details were listed. In the supporting documents, there was a DOR letter dated August 15, 2023, that mentioned something about additional information or testimony provided by Whistler or the county commission but there was no mention of what that additional information was. I have a records request to the BoCC for that additional information.
I am still confused; nothing adds up for me.
Why I Refused to Speak to Whistler About the 2022 Audit Report
As far as Whistler using his personal Facebook to say that I would not talk to him concerning audit reports, he did ask and I refused. I have spoken to him on several occasions before about complaints I filed on Hodge’s sand mine classification as AG and Black Prong’s resort as an AG classification. Those conversations resulted in nothing but excuses. As far as the DOR audit from 2022 I mentioned in my last article, those classification errors documented by the DOR were not corrected so there is nothing to talk about. Whistler is a Spotlight member and had every opportunity to plead his case about my issues with him on my FaceBook page, but he did not.
Below is the PDF of the BoCC request:
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Posted July 9, 2024
