GRAYSON — The mood was tense again the fiscal court room in Carter County on Tuesday as court members, various public officials and citizen sparred over a number of county issues ranging from the conduct of court members and attendees to the status of a rate increase for housing federal prisoners.

During the meeting, Judge-Executive Charles Wallace and Jailer R.W. Boggs openly disagreed about how the process of requesting a per diem rate increase from the U.S. Marshal Service was being handled.

Wallace insisted Boggs stepped outside his legal authority in working with the service to submit a request for a rate increase. The fiscal court, Wallace insisted, must approve all monetary contracts within the county government and, to date, Boggs had not presented them with anything to approve.

Boggs countered the increase was initiated by the fiscal court last year and that the process is done “all online,” producing no physical paperwork for him to show the court.

“They said they want to vote on a contract. We are already under a contract. This is a rate modification,” Boggs explained.  

According to minutes of a special called meeting in July 2011, the court voted unanimously to raise the rates for housing federal prisoners by a minimum of $10.

The jail now receives about $42 a day for housing federal inmates.

“We could reasonably expect a good raise, $8 and up. That is a lot of money that we desperately need,” Boggs said, of the increase he’d been working on for months.

“It takes a long time because you have to compute all the numbers for the current year and all the numbers for the following year. We’re at the end of it right now.”

Boggs told the court he would attempt to produce documentation for them as soon as possible and, while they were in a closed executive session, attempted to do so but was unable to get into the online system. He attributed this to the judge meddling in the process.

 “The only thing that has been done by the judge here is to slow the process down or potentially stop it,” Boggs said. “We’re looking at the potential of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the county. I’ve been informed by the Marshals service that the rate modification has been stopped. It has been canceled.”

After the meeting Wallace accused Boggs of “lying.” He said he believed Boggs already had a new rate but wasn’t sharing it with the court. He also questioned the length of time Boggs has been working on the request.

Following the meeting, Wallace called David Musel, acting assistant director of prisoner operations division of the U.S. Marshall service, who confirmed that “someone from your county initiated the rate increase.”

Musel told Wallace he was not privy to the details and “the information is there within your county to be able to find out who submitted it and what the requested rate was.”

When pressed by Wallace for the paperwork for the court to approve, Musel added, “It feels like you are trying to place us in the middle of a conflict between officials in your county ... so I’m trying very carefully to stay out of any conflict that seems to be brewing in your county.”

Wallace denied that was the situation before hanging up.

“Where is this paperwork at if it has been submitted?” said Wallace, questioning why Boggs could produce no hard copies of the request. “We’ve been misled here every time I turn around.”

In other business, Wallace also disputed news reports funds had been taken out of a county fund to pay salaries of child support office staff and used to pay independent legal counsel as “false. That is not true,” he said.

He explained a “clerical error” was responsible and the court corrected it on Tuesday. Wallace denied the mistake was motivated by “retaliation” for actions by the County Attorney Patrick Flannery, who is suing the fiscal court for an alleged open-meetings violation.

The county also transferred $40,000 on Tuesday into an account for legal services. Wallace said those funds would be used to pay independent legal counsel  for representing the county.

 Wallace also threatened to remove a number of people from the courtroom for "disruption," and ordered the reading of the KRS statute giving him authority to do so. Shortly after, he threatened resident   Mignon Colley, who Wallace told to stop laughing and smiling or risk being removed.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.