An agreement meant to make sure Lee County gets back money it advances to its Department of Social Services is, at this point, not going to happen, County Administrator Clint Carter told the Board of Supervisors on September 15. The treasurer would not agree to the terms Social Services wanted, he said, according to the minutes of that meeting.
The disagreement is about cash. The county’s treasurer covers Social Services bills when state and federal reimbursements are late. Treasurer Nathan Cope told the board in June that, to his knowledge, Social Services had never written the county a check to pay those advances back. The agency’s director pointed to late state and federal payments.
The numbers on the table in June
The dispute came to a head at a joint meeting with the Social Services board on June 16. According to the minutes, Cope gave these figures for Social Services and the Children’s Services Act program combined:
- Spent so far that fiscal year: $12,161,175.47
- Reimbursed so far: $9,115,025.60, leaving a gap of more than $3 million
- State money for the year: $10,242,700, plus a local match of $1,911,172, all of it already spent with a month to go
- The county’s $600,000 deposit the month before was the only deposit those accounts received that month, money Chairman Mike Kidwell said was coming out of the county’s reserve
The only way the county is repaid, Cope said, is for Social Services to write a check back to the county, and to his knowledge none has been written. He said he had raised the issue in a 2023 letter and at meetings in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
The agency’s side
Social Services Director Michele Brooks said the county should be reimbursed, and that she needed to look at Cope’s numbers. Her agency finished its fiscal year on May 31 right at budget, she said, but reports reached the Treasurer’s Office late after a staff change. She said $600,000 in state money and $300,000 in federal money had been delayed as of May 31.
Summer Hines, who chairs the Social Services board, said the Children’s Services Act program has its own budget but shares a bank account with the agency, which makes the accounting harder. That program is a separate state-and-local fund for services to children and families, much of it court-ordered, Hines said. Brooks said she believed the overspending was on that side. Hines also said the agency cannot view its bank statements online.
An agreement that one side would not sign
The supervisors tried to put rules in writing. On July 21, they voted 5 to 0 for a memorandum of understanding, according to the July 21 minutes. It would let the Treasurer keep covering expenses above the appropriated amount, as long as the agency:
- coded expenses correctly and stopped paying non-reimbursable costs out of local money,
- filed reimbursement paperwork and reports to the Treasurer on time, and
- had its board approve repaying the county for any overage of local money.
If those terms were not met, the document says, the county could cut future quarterly funding or tell the Treasurer not to go over the appropriated amount. It also says Children’s Services Act costs must be covered even when they exceed the budget.
The Social Services board did not want to adopt it, Carter said in August, mainly because it addressed the agency and the Children’s Services Act program in one document. County Attorney Stacy Munsey said the agency had sent proposed new versions, and that the state’s regional manager felt any agreement would have to include the Treasurer as a party, according to the August 18 minutes.
By September, that route had closed too. Carter said the agency wanted an agreement with the Treasurer’s Office and Cope would not agree to its terms. Cope feels the agency is asking for more meetings, timelines and deadlines for reconciling the money, Carter said, and that Cope is doing his part and the failure is on the agency’s side.
Where it stands
No replacement agreement appears in the minutes through September 15. The agency’s monthly report and the Treasurer’s report were both on the board’s October 20 agenda. The money questions have also run through the county’s forensic audit, which could not check $40,937 in Social Services credit card charges because detailed statements were not provided.
One request from the agency did go through. In September, the board approved a one-time 2% bonus for Social Services employees that Carter said is fully paid by the state.
