“The content of this release would — in normal times — maybe not rise to the level of a formal release,” wrote Union County Supervisor Tommy Sinclair on Monday.

But, as he put it, a county government needs absolute transparency and clarity of comment and intent and that’s why he is informing the residents of Union County of a few recent audits and decisions made at the courthouse.

Sinclair said a state audit of the county’s employee health insurance policies was recently completed and the state insurance auditor has found some discrepancies in 20 of the first 60 files reviewed.

The supervisor said some of those discrepancies were cases where an employee is currently covered by the county’s health insurance plan but is not paying enough for their coverage and others were cases of where county employees are paying for coverage but not receiving the full benefits of their plans.

Sinclair pointed out those differences could have been as little as a few dollars or, in some instances, somewhat larger.

The real reason for the audit was because of questions that arose about some individual employees’ insurance coverage and cost. The audit began several months ago after an internal audit of the county’s insurance policies by its benefits administrator.

“It’s not uncommon to do an audit,” Sinclair said, adding it became apparent one was needed when those questions arose. “It makes you want to do a 100 percent check and make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for.”

The audit will continue over the next several weeks until all of the county employee health insurance policies have been reviewed. The supervisor began notifying county employees of the discrepancies Monday.

“We are correcting those and are reviewing other employee coverages,” Sinclair said.

In a related matter, he reported the county will no longer extend health insurance coverage to county attorney Sammy Diamaduros effective with the next budget year which begins July 1.

Diamaduros is not directly employed by the county.

“He pretty much responds at will but by the technical insurance definition he is not a county employee,” Sinclair said.

Therefore, he cannot be covered by county health insurance. Sinclair reported it was a common practice in years past to offer county insurance to the county attorney but as the policy was reviewed he determined it could no longer take place.

The supervisor said he informed Diamaduros of the issue and had spoken with him twice already by Tuesday afternoon. The county is giving the attorney the time to find another policy, which Sinclair is confident he will.

“My expectation is he would cease having county insurance by June 30 at the end of this budget year,” Sinclair said.

In other matters, the supervisor is also consulting with an IRS agent to verify compliance of the county’s 10-99 processes after some brought rise to a few questions and the treasurer and clerk of court offices are about to undergo a validating audit.

“The audit is not because something is wrong but is the result of a random state process and is a continuation of the audit that started in January,” Sinclair said. “This will also serve as validation of recent internal audits and financial reconciliations among the offices in county government.”

The supervisor said all of these issues are being brought into the public realm to give residents of Union County an idea of what the county is trying to do to move forward. He thinks it is good public policy to make people aware of the happenings of county government and simply “wants the facts out there.”

Sinclair said the county is focused on the future but there are certain items and issues that have to be dealt with in order to do so.

“We’re certainly focused on the future but we certainly have to take care of the past before we can,” he said.