Athens County to pay OPERS penalty and seek employee repayment agreement after payroll error

Prosecutor Keller Blackburn told the Athens County Board of Commissioners that state retirement penalties tied to missed employee-withholding remittances are effectively unavoidable and that the county must remit the outstanding contribution and associated penalty to "mitigate damages." Commissioners confirmed they had paid the underlying contribution amount and voted to cover the penalty to avoid further fines.

Blackburn explained options for the employee portion that had not been withheld, including allowing the county to pay the employee's share and then recover it through a payroll-deduction repayment agreement, noting most employees lack a lump sum to cover an amount equivalent to roughly 10% of pay. Commissioners asked Blackburn to prepare a written, settlement-style agreement that specifies amount, duration and repayment details to be reviewed with the employee.

Commissioners discussed potential internal control failures that allowed the withholding to be missed and noted a monthly verification process had since been implemented in the Auditor's Office; they also said responsibility could be examined by the State Auditor during its review but declined to assign blame immediately. The board directed the prosecutor to prepare the repayment agreement and indicated intent to pay the penalty so the county meets its legal obligations.

Next steps: the prosecutor's office will draft the proposed repayment agreement and return with terms for commissioners to review and discuss with the affected employee. The board also indicated it would refer questions of ultimate responsibility to the State Auditor in the audit process.