Editor’s Note:

Last week, Okmulgee County District Attorney Carol Iski was informed that Okmulgee County elected officials were overpaid by $382,403. The salaries, exceeding what state statutes currently allow, are said to have occurred over a six-year period since fiscal year 2014. State Auditor & Inspector Cindy Byrd was in Okmulgee Monday to meet with officials, who met in executive session during the meeting of the Okmulgee County Board of Commissioners. The county laid out a plan to correct the situation. Byrd submitted the following information to the Okmulgee Times in response to the situation and address comments made by citizens on social media.

On June 6, The Oklahoman published an article that discussed my letter to District Attorney Carol Iski, informing her that Okmulgee County elected officials’ salaries exceed what state statutes currently allow per year. The contents of that article are true.

However, any premature conclusions that people might reach based on that article may turn out to be false. In my more than 20 years of auditing experience, I have learned the importance of reserving judgment until all facts are known and evaluated in light of the circumstances. I hope that Okmulgee County residents will do that here.

Auditors pay attention to patterns. Okmulgee is the second county discovered within the last year to have miscalculated the elected officials’ salaries, and my office suspects that it will not be the last.

The reality is that no other position in state or local government relies on such a lengthy, complex formula for compensation. Even a relatively-new auditor that I assigned to work on Okmulgee County initially calculated the identical, incorrect salary amount as was paid to the officials.

Before I began serving as your State Auditor & Inspector in January, I was the Deputy State Auditor in charge of the County Audit Division. In that role, I spent countless hours with county officials – interviewing them and their staffs, reviewing their work, answering their questions, and explaining our audit findings.

During the June 10 County Commissioner meeting, I was able to interact with your elected officials in person. In preparation for that meeting, I studied notes from past exit conferences and learned that they have always been receptive to audit findings and taken corrective action when any issues were found. After Monday, I believe strongly that the same will be true this time.

The Okmulgee County officials have dedicated many years to serve the taxpayers. Although they appeared very surprised by the finding related to salary, each expressed a desire to get the matter resolved quickly and ensure that it never happens again.

I hope that state legislators and the Governor’s Office will work with my office and county officials across the state to change the law with respect to this complex salary formula.

I have included it below so that Okmulgee County’s citizens may see it, word for word, for themselves.

Salary increases are calculated by the following:

Add the product of $100 times each:

• $10,000 of revenue authorized to be collected for county purposes, or major fraction thereof, until the amount of such revenue equals $750,000,” in one set of statutes.

• $1,000,000 net valuation, or major fraction thereof, until a net valuation of $75,000,000 is reached,” in another set of statutes.

• “Thereafter, add the product of $100 times each additional:

• $50,000 of revenue authorized to be collected for county purposes, or major fraction thereof, until the amount of such revenue equals $5,000,000,” in one set of statutes.

• $5,000,000 net valuation, or major fraction thereof, until a net valuation of $500,000,000 is reached”, in another set of statutes.

• “Thereafter, add the product of $125 times each additional:

• $70,000 of revenue authorized to be collected for county purposes, or major fraction thereof, until the amount of such revenue equals $20,000,000,” in one set of statutes.

• $7,000,000 net valuation, or major fraction thereof, until a net valuation of $2,000,000,000 is reached,” in another set of statutes.

• “Thereafter, as to all additional:

• revenue which is authorized to be collected for county purposes, add the product of $125 times each additional $200,000 of such revenue, or major fraction thereof,” in one set of statutes.

• Net valuation, add the product of $125 times each additional $20,000,000 net valuation, or major fraction thereof,” in another set of statutes.

Statues require the following calculations for additional required salary increases:

• The product of $12.50 times each 1,000 population, or major fraction thereof, until a population of 75,000 is reached

• Thereafter, the product of $12.50 times each additional 5,000 population, or major fraction thereof, until a population of 150,000 is reached

(County officials’ salaries are required to be discussed and approved yearly in an open meeting of the Board of County Commissioners with notification to the public by publishing the salaries in the local newspaper.)