Former County Administrator Katie Nunez signed a contract ($75 an hour) on August 29th, which is set to run until June 2017. Ms. Nunez received a $100,000 severance package last month. According to the county, Finance Director John Andrzejewski, currently the acting county administrator, requested Nunez be available to help the county prepare for the upcoming audit.
The Cape Charles Mirror was alerted that Ms. Nunez had been seen in and around County offices, however her official capacity was not confirmed until late this week. This led to several questions.
First, who made the decision to bring her back on, and were all the Supervisor’s aware of this? Also, does Ms. Nunez have any discretion with county spending (can she authorize expenditures), and if so, is there a limit on that. Is June 30th of next year a hard end date, or is there some wiggle room if she is needed further?
Queries to the County confirmed that acting County Administrator John Andrzejewski requested from the Chairman and Vice-Chairman that he be able to contract Katie Nunez as a consultant on financial issues and any other matters related to County Administrator duties. The request was approved with a cap of $7,500 and only for specific assistance in closing out FY 16 and audit preparation. The contract is through June 30, 2017 and no minimum hours are guaranteed. The county does not envision any extension to this work. Ms. Nunez will not have any county spending authority nor will she consult on county expenditures. “She has a wealth of corporate knowledge related to past financial activities, audits and reconciliations, and I intend to tap her knowledge,” John Andrzejewski said.
This contract work should have been made a part of the severances package that Nunez is currently receiving . Northampton needs to get a new administrator and as you can see by this latest action an entirely new board of supervisors/legal counsel.
krRaaaz Northampton County…
True! I thought it was an April fool’s joke. the joke is on the taxpayers—again!
Some of the people in this county clearly do not like this woman.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the people of this County not liking Ms. Nunez. It has to do with how the situation was handled. Did the Board of Supervisors or the few of them that approved her consulting contract, not realize that the Finance Director could not complete what needed to be done for the year end audit and it would require bringing her back? That is a big pill to swallow for the residents of this County when the high school is in such bad shape and the County can’t afford to borrow the money to build a new one which would be safer and built to separate middle school children from high school children but we have money to give such a nice parting gift to Ms. Nunez and Mr. Tucker, who was not under contract! I don’t get why the “parting” gift was ever made a part of her contract! There again, spending money where there is none to spend! Further, I think it is despicable that this decision was made without the input of ALL the other Board members!