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Rutherford County DSS financial report: temporary salaries and legal services drive current variances
Summary
Fiscal staff presented month-to-date figures showing administrative general-fund contributions below budget, temporary salaries over budget due to contract workers, and professional legal services higher because of conflict-case invoices paid this month.
Pam Price, fiscal staff, reviewed Rutherford County DSS's financial report for the two months ended Aug. 31, 2025, and highlighted several lines driving variance from budget.
Price told the board the county contribution for administrative expenses was at 13.52% of budget, about 3.15 percentage points under target, while the contribution for programs was 9.06%, 7.61 points under budget. The DSS fund overall was shown at 16.39%, roughly 0.28 percentage points under budget.
Price explained several specific lines: the salaries-overtime line contains payments for staff "sitting with children" and totaled $5,703.57 for the two-month period; holiday pay accounted for a small portion (one holiday this year). The temporary-salaries line (used to pay contract workers) was shown at 30% and is over budget; Price said the department is using lapsed regular-salary funding (about $100,000 estimated in the meeting) to cover some temporary costs. The agency reported the professional-services (legal) line was over for the month because the department paid invoices for contract attorneys handling conflict cases and termination-of-parental-rights (TPR) matters.
Price also noted a day-sheet software invoice of $7,011.96 that was budgeted at $7,012, and adoption-assistance vendor payments that are over budget for the month but are typically about 75% reimbursed. Foster-care related lines showed higher spending (state foster care, kinship, and IV-E lines trending up) and staff asked the board to monitor those trends.
Price said the fiscal manual requires that positions claimed for state reimbursement be supervised and have an on-site presence; that requirement underpinned discussion of the sheriff MOU and Apex contract earlier in the meeting.
No board votes were taken on fiscal transfers or budgets at the meeting; staff indicated they can move funds between lines if needed within the agency and will continue to report monthly.
