Dispute started at BOCC over $8,800

When the Washington County Board of Commissioners opened their June 19 meeting for public comment one resident, Benita Crittendon, had a question for the board that sparked a small dispute among the members about communication from county staff.

Crittendon, a resident of Greenhead, sent in a public records request asking for what had been asked of the county by the state, and what the county submitted to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in early April. Crittendon explained that she received several documents back from the county and would like to address concerns regarding what she found.

The first document she cited was a task order initiated by Jeff Massey, County Administrator, for Alday Howell Engineering to assign a liaison to gather necessary information to send back to DOGE. Crittendon explained that her concern regarding this document relates to budgeting and communication. “My concern with all of that was: Why can’t we handle that in house?” she expressed. “This task order was $8,800 for Alday Howell.” 

She further cited concerns over a lack of communication from the county administrator to all board members. “I’m not sure if you commissioners were all aware of that.” Crittendon said. “That seems to be an issue too: on which commissioners are aware of what’s going on and who is not [aware].” 

Crittendon questioned why the work was contracted out and not handled by employees of the county. She expressed she believes county employees had the knowledge and time to retrieve the information for the DOGE audit, alleging the task order unnecessary. 

Crittendon wanted to hear responses from the board regarding her concern. “I would like to hear each commissioner’s response on that.” she stated. “If you are aware of that, and if you approve of that.” County Commissioner, Wesley Griffin, addressed Massey asking “Jeff, can you answer that?” 

Massey explained when the board initially made a resolution to be proactive in the DOGE efforts from the state, the state sent them a list of questions and requests for documents dating back to 2023. Massey explained that due to the extensive nature of the audit, his staff did not have the bandwidth to handle this on top of their day to day duties. “We met with the staff, we had a meeting, and this was going to be more overwhelming to the staff than what we thought we could handle.” stated Massey.

Due to this, the county staff reached out to a contract specialist, Alday Howell, and in two weeks Massey alleges they were able to have all of the information for the audit assembled. According to Massey, this made Washington County one of the first counties in the state to have all of the proper information back to DOGE. 

He further states, even though Alday Howell handled the bulk of the work, the staff played a key role by gathering information. “We did what we had to do. I did what I had to do to deliver a good product to the state and that’s what we’ve done.” stated Massey. 

County Commissioner Joey Brock raised concerns over communication of this issue to the entire board. “My question is: who approved it, first of all.” stated Brock. “Second of all, as a commissioner, I’ve been blind sided on another issue.” Brock suggested that if Massey was having an issue getting this work done he should have come to the board and asked for help.

Brock then asked which commissioners were aware of the situation. Commissioners David Pettis, David Corbin, and Ashlynn Marquez answered that they were aware while Commissioners Griffin and Brock were not. 

Massey stated that his job is to administer the day to day operations within the county and deliver a balanced budget to the board. “I have discretion with my job. I have a spending limit with my job.” Massey defended, “If I make necessary decisions to move this county forward that is within my job. That’s what I did, and I won’t apologize for that.”

Griffin echoed Brock’s concerns. “How do three commissioners know and two don’t?” Griffin questioned. “If it’s your job to relay information, relay it to all five of us, not three. Not just pick who you’re going to give it to.” Griffin also cited concerns about the price of having Alday Howell handle the audit stating he voted to move forward with the staff, not that Alday Howell would be doing it. “It’s $8,800 and we’re still up here fussing about money every time we turn around, about funding stuff.” Griffin stated. 

Marquez attempted to address Griffin’s concerns stating. “If we want to change his spending limit – he has a certain amount that he can make decisions under – if we want to change it and it needs to be lower [than $25,000] we can.” 

Griffin questioned how Marquez knew that Alday Howell was handling it. Marquez stated that she asked the clerk’s office when she was in the commissioner’s building. Griffin rebutted back to Marquez stating “Let me go back on that – about you being up here every day – about you being up here all the time.” Griffin asserted, “The county administrator runs day to day operations. As a commissioner, you don’t handle day to day operations. It’s his job to relay information to us five county commissioners, and he is failing on that job”

Massey interjected and addressed Griffin. “A lot of things happen every day. Do you want to be involved in every piece of business, every day?” questioned Massey.

Griffin responded stating “I want you to give me a weekly update from this day forward about everything that is going on concerning you and this county.”

Chairman Pettis stepped in to ease tensions and put the matter to rest. “Listen up. We’ll take this discussion back up when we get to other business. Let’s move forward with the other requests.” he stated.

The matter was not brought back up in the meeting. The Board of County Commissioners will meet again at their regular workshop July 10.