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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > March > 15
Monday, March 15, 2010
Furmon calls out payments to township trustee’s business
Butler County has been paying a company with ties to a local politician nearly $1,000 a month for more than a year without any contract or resolution authorizing the payments, according to Commissioner Charles Furmon.
And he says he can’t get anyone to do anything about it.
The company is Performance Benefit Solutions, owned by West Chester Twp. Trustee George Lang and his wife. The company provides flexible spending accounts to county employees using another company called Hauser Corporate Solutions.
In a letter to the Auditor of State requesting an investigation, Furmon argues that the 2008 resolution allowing PBS to offer products to county employees says they’ll do so “at no charge to Butler County.”
Yet despite a lack of a contract, Furmon says the county paid PBS and HCS $1,000 a month for a year and a half before he stopped the payments late last year.
Here is a copy of Furmon’s letter, and a letter sent to the county prosecutor on the same issue asking for an Attorney General’s opinion:
Analysis:
“No program documents exist, and no documents of any kind explain the pricing structure for what is being paid on a regular monthly basis,” Furmon wrote.
In the letter, dated Feb. 23, Furmon expresses frustration that “I find myself in the rare situation of being unable to mobilize my county prosecutor or county auditor to do anything about (the issue).”
Furmon says the prosecutor’s office told him the payments were valid because one for $12,000 was authorized by commission resolution in March 2009 — though there is still no contract or language in the resolution referring to ongoing payments.
“Somehow it was pushed through a back door,” Furmon said by phone. “If you push any kind of contract through a back door and it gets partially paid, does that mean you have to pay it the rest of our lives? That doesn’t make sense to me.”
“The county auditor has simply not responded to my inquiry,” Furmon wrote in his letter to the state.
PBS is one of two companies authorized to offer FSAs to county employees under the 2008 resolution. The other is Chard Snyder, which charges $4.50 per participant and $400 set up and renewal fees.
Prior to 2008, PBS was the only company to offer the service. They did so at no charge, in exchange for the exclusive right to offer other insurance products to employees. A former Lang business partner told this newspaper in 2008 that “political pad money” was helpful in getting that arrangement. Lang has denied getting any special treatment.
The process was opened to bidding when other companies cried foul. Furmon says Chard Snyder won the bid and was going to get exclusive access, partly because employees weren’t happy with PBS’s performance.
But PBS was allowed to stay on, Furmon wrote, “because several elected officials provided letters of support for PBS (probably because the husband of the principal of PBS is a prominent township trustee and active in Republican party politics in Butler County).”
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Dixon’s proposed Butler County levy review committee
Butler County commissioners agreed this morning, March 15, to establish a committee to analyze the necessity of proposed tax levies.
Commissioner Donald Dixon outlined a plan that calls for a nine-member committee and a thorough, nearly yearlong process for reviewing levies before they go on the ballot.
Here is Dixon’s proposal:
Analysis:
It also limits the amount that expiring levies can increase, not allowing it to exceed inflation.
Dixon said the plan is based largely on Hamilton County’s tax levy policy.
“I’ve talked to them about their committee, and they say they’ve saved a lot of money and it’s the hardest working committee they have appointed,” Dixon said. “If we can get it started, I think it’s going to add a lot of value for the taxpayers.”
Dixon’s plan would require agencies to hire a consultant to review the agency’s financials, operations and management structure. It requires a detailed plan on how levy money would be spent.
Based on this information, the levy review committee would recommend whether the tax is needed, at what rate and for how long.
“Make no mistake, the final decision rests with the Board of Commissioners,” Dixon said.
Monday’s vote only got the ball rolling; commissioners didn’t wholeheartedly adopt Dixon’s plan.
Commissioner Charles Furmon expressed some concern about giving the committee too much power. He agreed with the general idea, on the condition that it’s discussed further before being created.
Commission President Gregory Jolivette suggested adding a committee that also reviews capital expenditures before the county borrows money.
Dixon said an abridged version of the 335-day process would have to be created for this year, with a few new and controversial levies possibly on the ballot. This includes a new tax for Butler County MetroParks and a renewal or replacement for the senior services levy.
The senior levy was used as an argument for a tax review committee after the agency that administers it announced it could take in $21 million more than it needed. Levy collection was since reduced.
Dixon’s plan also sets rules on what surpluses can be used for, and forbids agencies from using levy funds for future levy campaigns. And it requires a financial review halfway through the life of the levy.
“(It will ask) are they on track? Are they spending on the rate they’re supposed to be spending? We don’t have any of that stuff now, and it just makes good fiscal policy,” Dixon said.
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