Robbinsville – Outgoing Graham County Manager Becky Garland further discussed her resignation at the end of the Graham County Department of Social Services meeting Tuesday night.
In an emotional address, Garland said she strived to never let her own political views dictate her work as county administrator, and also strived to keep her views out of the county’s hiring practices, despite alleged issues in the past. Garland announced her intention to resign to the board in closed session at its Jan. 18 meeting, and broke the news publicly in an interview with The Graham Star. A Democrat, Garland said that she was told by “some people” last summer that her presence as county manager would cost some of the board members their elections.
“Members of the board were overwhelmingly elected and supported, and I believe the people of this county looked at the record and decided to stay the course with this board,” Garland said. Did many vote ‘straight-ticket’ this election? I believe they did, but I would hope most voted their consciences.”
She added that she was often in contact with members of the solidly-Republican Graham County Board of Commissioners when making hiring decisions.
“Their affiliation is of no consequence to me, and should be of no consequence to the board, because they were elected to serve all people and not just their own party,” Garland said. “Have we always made good choices on hiring – no, but that’s why we have a straightforward system of evaluation.
“Would I have done things different, yeah, but I know that I make decisions using the best judgements and information I have at the time.”
She also said she was upset regarding the partisanship that was apparent at times in the county.
“It is my First Amendment right to express my beliefs, but it’s not my right to use those beliefs as a weapon against someone else or a ticket to a job,” Garland said.
She also spoke to her family’s long heritage as Democrats, including her own reckoning with some of her family members’ past as Dixiecrats and supporters of Jim Crow legislation.
“Mostly I’m saddened that my heritage and affiliation has become the talk of your private conversation groups,” Garland said. “My record speaks for itself. I have given this county way more of myself than anyone.
“I don’t see it as a job. I see it as a calling.”
Several members of the board lauded Garland for her service .
“I’ve heard a lot of things over the last few months that trouble me,” said Commissioner Dale Wiggins. “I have set by quietly – not saying anything, because I don’t want to have a ruckus with this board. We have important jobs to do, even though some days we don’t have a lot to do at these meetings, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that the public never sees.
“I think we have a very-efficiently run county government. This county is in the best financial condition that it has ever been in in its history and next year, this county will be 150 years old.”
Medicaid audit
Also at the meeting Tuesday, DSS Director Cris Weatherford said that starting in March and going on for 10 months, the county would be under the Recipient Eligibility Determination Audit (REDA) for its Medicaid illegibility cases. The audit will entail the state pulling 20 cases per month from Graham County and checking them for accuracy. The cases will then be returned to the county for any discrepancies the audit uncovers, to be corrected.
The county must maintain a 98.6 accuracy rating to pass the audit.
“It’s on a 3-year cycle, and it’s a very intense audit,” Weatherford said.
Tiffany Hicks – one of the individuals overseeing the audit for the department – further explained how it will work.
“They’ll audit those cases and as they get done with the audit, they’ll send those back to us, and we’ll have five days to react to them,” Hicks said. “We’ll correct those, and if we have any excuse with them – like if we have any reason to believe that they made an error – we have five days to review that, and then we have 20 days to correct the case.”
She said the program began in 2019 with the state’s larger counties, and that Graham was one of several smaller counties being audited this year.