Mackinac County Commissioners have got back only $2,000 of the $5,000 the county treasurer appropriated to herself and her staff last year without authorization. Commissioners want all of the money back and, at their Thursday, April 28 meeting, handed the matter over to County Prosecutor W. Clayton Graham for prosecution. Mr. Graham said Tuesday, May 3, he does not know how he will handle the matter.

Mackinac County Treasurer Jane Hampton appeared at last week’s meeting with a receipt showing she had paid $2,000 of the $5,000 commissioners want back. She had paid herself the $2,000 from the county’s PA 123 delinquent tax fund account, but she said she was not returning the $3,000 she gave the chief deputy treasurer from the same account.

Mrs. Hampton appropriated the money last year after commissioners refused to pay her staff for extra work required while the treasurer was convalescing from illness. Prosecutor Graham, however, opined January 11 that Mrs. Hampton had no legal authority to authorize payments to herself and Chief Deputy Treasurer Sue Dionne, and commissioners demanded that Mrs. Hampton return the entire $5,000 to the county by April 27.

At Thursday’s meeting, Mrs. Hampton said Ms. Dionne should be able to keep the $3,000 because of additional work she performed last year while Mrs. Hampton was on medical leave.

“I’m still requesting that the board consider that as work done and paid for,” said Mrs. Hampton. She said the work could have been contracted out, but it would have cost more and it would not have been done as well.

Commissioner Joe Durm said he had a problem with this because the previous board had approved a part-time employee for the treasurer’s office to help with the Moran Township tax collection, and had added an additional $3,500 to the department’s overtime budget to be used by Ms. Dionne.

Commissioner Jim Farero agreed.

“The whole point is the $3,500 was given for additional work to be performed and she (Mrs. Hampton) took $3,000 more out of PA 123 and paid it without the approval of the commission. That’s what it all boils down to.”

“The point is that was outright just literally stealing money from the county,” said Mr. Durm.

Chair Dawn Nelson said she did not want to make a capital offense out of the matter and Commissioner Larry Leveille requested that since they were all elected officials, they should work together.

“I do know that Sue does a fantastic job,” said Chairman Nelson. “Why put a big black mark on the treasurer’s office over this incident?”

Mrs. Hampton told the board she had given the previous board a letter in August requesting additional money for Ms. Dionne. In her letter, Mrs. Hampton wrote, “I’d like to suggest that for the period of time that I am not able to be in the office, at least part time, she (Sue Dionne) receive the equivalent of my salary.”

Mr. Farero reminded the board that the previous chairman, Mike Litzner, “did a fantastic job researching that and he came up with the answer that we cannot afford to pay two treasurers.”

Mr. Durm said that as a board, they had voted that the $5,000 was to be returned to the county.

“That has not been done,” he said, and added the next step is to get the prosecutor involved. “We have no choice as a board,” he said.

Commissioner Carl Frazier said that if the board took no action on this, “I couldn’t look my constituents in the face, because that’s their money.”

In a related matter, commissioners took no action on Mrs. Nelson’s concern regarding a third payment Mrs. Hampton had made to her staff from the delinquent tax fund. Deputy Treasurer Nora Massey was paid $1,605.47 for field work on delinquent tax postings.

Mrs. Nelson asked the county prosecutor if he was 100 percent sure the work Mrs. Massey had performed was substantiated and that the county did not pay her during normal business hours when she would have been paid her normal salary. Mr. Graham said his opinion assumed the postings were completed outside normal business hours.

Mrs. Nelson said she had gone on postings with Mrs. Massey during the normal business day and wondered if she had been doubly compensated. Mr. Graham said further research of payroll records would be required. Those records would reflect whether Mrs. Massey had taken time off on those days.

About halfway through the 30 minute board discussion, Mrs. Hampton announced she had an appointment and left the meeting. Commissioner Frazier expressed his frustration in her abrupt departure and recalled she’d done the same thing during a meeting last year.