Harrison (West Virginia) commissioners' argument leads to disclosure of $2 million in additional funding after accounting error found

The issue came to light after a verbal exchange between Commission President Susan Thomas and Commissioner David Hinkle.

Toward the end of the commission’s meeting Wednesday, Hinkle alerted County Clerk John Spires that he would be leaving the meeting as he had to tend to other county business.

Later that morning he attended a ribbon cutting for an expansion at Aurora Flight Sciences at the North Central West Virginia Airport, which Gov. Jim Justice also attended.

On his way out the door Commission President Susan Thomas quipped, “he’s got more important things to do.”

Hinkle turned heel and asked her to repeat the remark for the public to hear, but she continued with the meeting, refusing to be interrupted.

In the course of their verbal exchange, Hinkle said “I’m going to work on jobs — something these two don’t do,” referring to Thomas as well as Commissioner Patsy Trecost.

Before exiting the commission meeting room, Hinkle told WV News, “we collected an extra $1.5 million in taxes she’s keeping hidden from the public. And that’s a fact.”

After the meeting WV News reached out to Hinkle, Thomas, and County Administrator Laura Pysz-Laulis for comment on the situation.

While creating the 2024-2025 budget, an accounting error was made in which certain figures were transposed into incorrect lines. A budget based on those figures was passed by commissioners earlier this year.

However after being sent to the State Auditor’s office for approval, the error was discovered. In discovering the error it was also found that with the correction the county gained an additional $1.9 million in projected revenues, Pysz-Laulis said.

The mistake was reported to the County Administrator’s office April 1, Pysz-Laulis said.

“It’s my mistake, and I own that,” said Pysz-Laulis who worked on the budget prior to the commissioners’ approval.

How the money will be utilized has now become a point of contention. Hinkle was wanting to first lower levy rates, but it was determined too late in the process for that to occur.

Now he wants to use the additional money to create a cash infusion for the county’s financial stabilization fund. He says he was told that the idea wouldn’t make it to an agenda.

However, Pysz-Laulis said she plans to make the recommendation to the commissioners in the coming weeks to do just that.

“If she wants to make that recommendation she can do that. If we want to take the funds out for something else, we can do that,” Thomas said.

“There’s plans for the money for projects other than financial stabilization,” Hinkle said. “Which is an oddity when you take that Mr. Trecost and Mrs. Thomas constantly remind everybody that the county is broke and can’t afford anything.”

There is currently $4.1 million in the county’s financial stabilization fund. Pysz-Laulis said that wasn’t the case in 2021, when funds were needed to offset a $2 million revenue shortfall.

“I took the majority of that money out of financial stabilization so we can make the budget whole without cutting every department and elected officials budget,” Pysz-Laulis said.

“There were times I was afraid we wouldn’t make payroll,” Thomas said.

But the county is now doing better financially, Thomas said, by controlling the county’s spending and debt.

Thomas said she would like to see the money used to fund various projects around the county, including the rail-trail, new animal control facility, and agriculture and youth barn project. She also said injecting cash into the financial stabilization fund is another possibility.

“I’m all about saving money,” she said.

In reference to the comment Hinkle made about Thomas hiding money, Thomas said she was tired of the negative discourse between commissioners.

“I don’t appreciate being accused of hiding money. He basically accused me of the same thing last week, but I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Thomas said.

“A mistake was made and Laura is handling it. He’s well aware of this stuff.”

Thomas said the commission’s arguing can be embarrassing.

“I’m tired of the public fighting. I don’t care if every voter in Harrison County knows how sick of it I am. This is not the way a county commission should go, it just isn’t. I’m embarrassed,” Thomas said.

“Have I said things in a meeting I probably shouldn’t have? Yeah. But a person can only take so much. And that’s what happened to me. And I’m ashamed of doing it at times.”