New staffers on 3-year horizon for Clinton County Veterans Service Commission office

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WILMINGTON — Within the next three years, both the executive director and his assistant are looking to retire from the Clinton County Veterans Service Commission (VSC) office.

Hiring someone to start training for the assistant position is expected to occur in early 2019, Clinton County VSC Executive Director Ray Souder told Clinton County commissioners Monday morning. There are seven applicants for the job, he said.

Souder said he and the Clinton County VSC board want to hire a very qualified person because not only will the new staffer replace the assistant in the short term, but more than likely will succeed Souder as the executive director probably in about three years.

Of the seven applicants, four reside in Clinton County, two in Fayette County and one in Warren County. After the seven applicants are narrowed down to three, a second round of interviews will be conducted in front of the VSC board prior to the final decision.

Investigator / Assistant Veterans Service Officer E.E. “Mac” McKibben plans to retire in 2019.

Souder and the VSC board members had their annual face-to-face budget meeting Monday with commissioners. The local VSC office also employs a secretary and three part-time van drivers to transport veterans to medical facilities.

During the budget part of Monday’s commissioners session, Clinton County Commissioner Kerry Steed — who facilitates the meetings with county department heads where proposed budgets are gone through line by line — mentioned that non-General Fund (non-GF) budgets are treated differently than General Fund budgets.

He said the practice for county commissioners has been to approve the “top line” dollar figures of non-GF budgets — a figure that includes personnel and non-personnel expenditures. Just last year, he said, that process was somewhat altered when commissioners indicated they wanted to be notified of any changes to the personnel line expenditures in the non-GF budgets whereas previously those personnel line changes did not cross commissioners’ desks.

Clinton County Commissioner Brenda Woods asked whether there’s a reason commissioners wouldn’t want to review the lines in non-GF budgets because, like General Fund budgets, commissioners approve those budgets, too.

Woods added, “I don’t know where that got started, because for years and years and years we did every non-General Fund budget just like we do the General Fund [budgets], so I don’t know where in the world that got started that you [commissioners] don’t approve [line items in] the non-General Fund budgets because we do, and we are liable for those as well.”

This is Woods’ first term as a county commissioner, and previously she served as a clerk for the county commissioners as well as having worked in administration for the City of Wilmington and as fiscal officer for Wayne Township.

Examples of non-GF budgets at the county level are the dog and kennel fund under the dog warden, the real estate assessment fund through the county auditor’s office, and Clinton County Job & Family Services.

Steed said the different approach to non-GF budgets was the direction he was always given during county budget season since becoming a commissioner.

Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.

Looking at their proposed 2019 budget displayed on a wall are, from left in the foreground, Clinton County Veterans Service Commission (VSC) Executive Director Ray Souder, VSC Board Vice President Mike Sutton, and VSC Board President Charles “Charlie” Shoemaker.
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2018/11/web1_DSC_0153-1.jpgLooking at their proposed 2019 budget displayed on a wall are, from left in the foreground, Clinton County Veterans Service Commission (VSC) Executive Director Ray Souder, VSC Board Vice President Mike Sutton, and VSC Board President Charles “Charlie” Shoemaker. Gary Huffenberger | News Journal

By Gary Huffenberger

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