As more and more people learn about Commissioner Danny Glidewell’s raiding of the tuition reimbursement fund for employees to pay for his master’s degree, taxpayer anger and frustration grows.
Voters do not like it when elected officials seek office to enrich themselves at taxpayers’ expense and it is clear that Glidewell sought to do just that when he became the “first student” to take advantage of the program when it was re-launched in 2019.
Since 2019, he has soaked up about $11,500 of the funds that were earmarked to help employees.
Employee Tuition Reimbursement Timeline
With more people learning about this blatant abuse of taxpayer dollars, many have started asking questions about the origins of the program and its history.
Below is what we currently understand and believe to be true.
2005 to 2012
The first known tuition reimbursement occurred back in 2005. This is based on a financial report that was provided to us through a public information request. If you look at the cover sheet, the data pulled in the report goes back to the beginning of time according to the system and is denoted with a date range of 00/00/0000 thru 99/99/9999.
When you look at the report you see that the data stops in 2019 when the county switched over to a new accounting and reporting system.
Therefore, it is possible that tuition reimbursements were granted to employees prior to 2005 if that data was contained in an old system and the data was not subsequently transferred over.
After 2012, the program was apparently canceled presumably due to budgetary constraints.
2019 to Present
The employee tuition reimbursement program was apparently re-booted in 2019. It is believed by many that Commissioner Danny Glidewell and former HR Director Nathan Kervin activated the program to benefit themselves as they were the first and only recipients off funds in 2019 and the first two recipients in 2020.
At present, we are unaware of any agenda item that was voted upon by the BCC that would have allocated funds to it or authorized its re-boot. And we are unaware of what the current and historical funding levels for this program have been since its re-boot in 2019.
The report detailing tuition reimbursements from 2020 until August 2025 can be viewed here.
Policies Governing the Tuition Reimbursement Program
Two policies pertaining to the employee tuition reimbursement program were supplied to us via a public information request. They are as follows:
- Tuition Reimbursement Policy Updated 11-4-2018
- Tuition Reimbursement Policy Updated 4-12-2022
Presumably, a policy existed prior to 2018, but we do not have copy of it.
If you have any additional information about this program or any abuse of it, please leave a comment or send us an email.