Seminole commission chairman alleges improper bonus payments to clerk and comptroller employees

ORLANDO, Fla. - Seminole County Clerk and Comptroller Grant Maloy, who is suing the county over nearly $1 million in disputed funding, denied commissioners’ claims that his office gave out bonuses, saying the questioned payments were for PTO buybacks and retention.

What we know:

Seminole County Clerk and Comptroller Grant Maloy explained to county commissioners last Tuesday that he felt the budget allocated by commissioners for his office was not enough to keep up with inflation.

Maloy was then questioned by County Commission Chairman Jay Zembower about alleged bonus payments to employees of the clerk's office that Zembower said the county had discovered.

Maloy denied the claim to commissioners last Tuesday. He denied the claim again Monday when asked by FOX 35 News if his office was giving out bonuses.

The county attorney said last week on the dais the money was listed as "other payments."

Maloy explained the "other payments" as "PTO buybacks" and "retention." He said his office could not afford to pay bonuses.

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The alleged bonuses caught the attention of Zembower, who said the county found the payments while looking over the clerk's budget during budget meetings as county leaders tried to make cuts to account for a $35 million dollar estimated shortfall for the next fiscal year.

Maloy is currently suing Seminole County. He claims the county is not paying for things at his office that state law requires. The fight dates back to last year. The lawsuit was filed by Maloy in February. It's still pending and costs Seminole County taxpayers money, as the county is defending against the claim.

Maloy said the goal of the lawsuit is to get a judge to rule on whether Seminole County needs to hand over close to $1 million to start paying bills Maloy claims it should have already been paying.

Zembower said he wants Maloy to be transparent. Maloy said he has not been contacted by Zembower personally and said he would welcome such a call.

What we don't know:

Zembower said the county is looking into how many people recieved bonus payments and for how much.

What they're saying:

"As we were going through and identifying any and all cuts we could make to alleviate the taxpayer’s burden, we came across an efficiency bonus or efficiency pay," Zembower said of the discovery of alleged bonus payments at the clerk's office."No, we don’t hand out bonuses," Maloy told FOX 35 News Monday. "If you look at the county, they do things like a bonus for cellphone, they do it for a car allowance, they sometimes do a hiring bonus, and we just don’t have the finances for that."

FOX 35 News asked Maloy about the alleged "other payments."

"Those types of payments could be PTO buy back, could be retention, but that’s about it," Maloy said.

Zembower said if it's true clerk's office employees recieve bonus checks, they would be the only employees to work for Seminole County that get bonuses.

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"We can identify no other employee in the county that receives some kind of bonus compensation as part of their pay," Zembower said.

Maloy said the commission could be retaliating against him.

"I think they are just having a lot of retaliation because I haven’t been in favor of a lot of the tax increases and this is political," Maloy said."

The optics are terrible," Zembower said of any alleged bonus payments. "If there’s a rational explanation for it, I certainly want to hear it.""I think they need to focus on their budgets not ours," Maloy said. "We’re doing a good job with less money."

What's next:

A judge still has to rule on the open lawsuit. The county has yet to reveal the findings of its investigation.