Many years ago, Walton County set up a tuition reimbursement fund for employees to help them develop their skills and advance their careers. However, the program apparently stopped receiving budgetary funding allocations in 2012 and sat dormant until 2019.
Rumor has it that Commissioner Danny Glidewell worked with then HR Director Nathan Kervin to re-launch the program.
But don’t get too excited, as Glidewell wasn’t motivated by his desire to help Walton County employees.
Nope.
Wouldn’t you know it — Commissioner Glidewell and Kervin became the first two individuals to take advantage of the program.
Glidewell and Kervin gobbled up nearly $11,500 and $14,000 to get a master’s degree and a doctorate, respectively.
This data was gathered from a public information request that contained two separate files with information.
The first file contained tuition reimbursement amounts on the old accounting system and was presented to me via PDF. The reimbursement amounts go back to 2005 until they were halted in 2012 and it also includes the 2019 distributions to Glidewell and Kervin in 2019. You can view this data here.
The second file was an Excel spreadsheet containing reimbursements from 2020 through the end of August 2025. You can view that file here.
When you review the data you see that Glidewell and Kervin were the first and only two to receive a reimbursement in 2019. And they were the first two recipients in 2020.
Generally speaking, you don’t just sign up for a masters or doctorate program today and start taking classes tomorrow. It is almost like they knew these funds would be available and got the ball rolling in advance so that they could tap into these funds.
In Walton County, an elected official gets to pick and choose when it is convenient to be designated as an employee.
Now, I have never heard of an elected official being classified as an employee eligible to for a tuition reimbursement program in any other jurisdiction. If elected officials are getting reimbursements it is very rare.
But in Walton County, the grift is strong and many elected officials like Glidewell view you the taxpayer as their own personal ATM.
Don’t forget, Glidewell was dinged by the Director of Internal Audits at the Clerk of the Courts for having more than 100 credit card charges that were either lacking in documentation or consisted of unauthorized charges.
One comment