A Kentucky state audit found Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars overspent a budget limitation by more than $107,000 for 2013.
The county fiscal court each year sets the limit on how much the sheriff can spend on deputies’ and assistants’ salaries, but the sheriff can submit an audit to increase that limit.
Marshall County Judge Executive Mike Miller says the sheriff’s 30 employees are paid with fees the Sheriff’s Office collects throughout the year.
Byars says he had to exceed the pay limit to account for overtime. He says the $107,000 expense has already been paid with fee money and the audit simply points out a clerical issue.
“I failed to go back to the court to get an amendment to raise it to where it would cover the maximum amount spent,” he said. “And there’s no monies missing, there’s no monies that’s owed. It’s all taken care of. Matter of fact I turned over fees to the county that year. We had excess fees.”
County Treasurer Emily Martin says the Sheriff’s salary is independent of the fee money. Miller says the sheriff needs sufficient money to run his department and just needs to pay close attention to the budget and submit necessary amendments to the Fiscal Court before audit time.
