When Sequoyah County employees — from the offices of the sheriff to the court clerk to the county assessor and beyond — are required to attend in-person classes and training to receive and/or maintain certification and accreditation, many of the expenses associated with periodic training are paid by the county.

But restrictions limited some reimbursements, specifically meals when training required overnight stays.

Sequoyah County Commissioners took care of that hurdle during their weekly meeting last Monday, amending the county’s travel policy for those employees engaged in required training or county business.

“Our policy says if you don’t go out of the county and stay all night, you don’t get reimbursed for your meals,” explained District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts, who serves as the board’s chair. “I never did like it personally, but I never did say much.”

Amending the county’s meal reimbursement policy to more closely align with Oklahoma statute comes just in time for several county offices. The sheriff ’s office has personnel scheduled to attend Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) for 17 weeks.

Prior to Monday’s meeting, those involved in CLEET training “were coming home every night,” Watts said. “So I called ACCO (Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma), and he checked with the auditor’s office. It’s never been illegal to do it, so we can pay for those meals through the day now, if we pass this policy.

“We pulled the state statute. It says traveling expenses means reimbursement for mileage, meals, lodging, toll roads, fees, parking, telephone and other ordinary expenses encumbered, except meals and lodging incurred within the county, unless the meals were during a county association, school seminar or training. So you can pay for the county if it’s a school or class or any of that,” Watts told his colleagues.

“My feeling on it is, if we’re going to send them, they can’t take their lunch, we need to pay for their meals, what’s the difference in paying for their meals if they stay all night? That never made sense to me.

“The only thing I would like to do is put a cap on how much we would spend. You may get somebody down the road that thinks they need a ribeye every night.”

State statute authorizes reimbursement for “actual and necessary” travel expenses, and addresses per-day reimbursement limits.

Likewise, staff for the county assessor’s office will attend the state’s annual educational conference August 1-4. According to the county assessor’s website, the conference is a major requirement for all assessor offices. Each deputy within the county office must have 30 hours of continuing education, and the annual conference affords the best opportunity for staff to record those hours.

Court Clerk Melanie Edgmon said the limitation was also impacting her office.

“I was running into that, too, with my girls, trying to get our accreditation hours in,” Edgmon told the commissioners. “You’re driving 2½ hours, you’re sitting in class 6 hours and then you’re driving 2½ hours back. It’s an allday thing. They’re having to be out $30 or $40 for meals.”

County Clerk Julie Haywood assured the commissioners that “the auditor’s office has never had a problem with it, ever. They just say be careful on what’s taxable and what’s not.”

District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers, who serves as president of ACCO, supported the amendment, but suggested specific limits to meal reimbursement.

“If we change this, we change this to where it would be at the commissioners’ discretion,” Rogers recommended. “If they’re going to training — it’s an all-day thing — I don’t think we can say, ‘Well, if you’re going to be gone until noon or 1 o’clock,’ I think it’s a whole different ballgame.”

Watts was not inclined to agree with the recommendation.

The amendment, which does not require an overnight stay to qualify for meal reimbursement as long as it is associated with county business and adheres to state statute, passed unanimously.

Other business

In other business, the commissioners approved the appointments of:

• Larry Lane and Charles House as requisitioning agents for the sheriff’s office

• Sherrel Henry and Lavonn Stites as receiving officers for the sheriff ’s office

• Julie Haywood and John Preset as requisitioning agents for Nicut Rural Fire Department

• E.W. Johnson as receiving agent for Nicut Rural Fire Department (NRFD)

• Dennis Armer as tax board representative and John Preset as alternate for NRFD

• Lester Keathley as tax board representative with Justin Ohl as alternate for Gore Fire Department The commissioners also approved:

• An updated disaster recovery plan for fiscal year 2025-26 for the sheriff’s office

• Depositing $13,123.39 from the county’s deductible fund into the sheriff’s service fee account for damages to a 2024 Ford F-150

• Surplussing and transferring a 2017 Chevy Silverado from the sheriff’s office to District 1

• Transfer of appropriations in the amount of $25,000 from District 1 to the sheriff’s office for the purchase of the 2017 Chevy Silverado

• Payment of invoices totaling $1,036.37 from fiscal year 2024-25 with fiscal year 2025-26 funds, as approved by Assistant District Attorney Andy Williams