Butler County has paid the deputy controller $17,676 in owed compensatory time that covers a 25-year span.

Debbie Huth received the extra money during the last county pay period in September to cover 539 hours and 15 minutes at her salary, which breaks down to $32.78 an hour.

Huth still is owed an additional 240 hours of compensatory time. The federal Labor and Standards Act requires employees to be paid for any compensatory time exceeding 240 hours.

Huth turned in a comprehensive log recording those hours.

She said she did the work, and the payment was approved by the commissioners. “It was fully authorized,” Huth said.

Under federal law, compensatory time is paid at the employee’s current salary, not the amount earned when the compensatory time is accrued.

County solicitor Mike English said the amount of hours owed Huth made it impractical for her to use that time.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, said the county was obligated to pay the money.

“We have no choice,” McCarrier said.

Commissioner Dale Pinkerton agreed: “We’re just mandated to pay that.”

McCarrier said the amount of time Huth accumulated was a surprise.

“I was not aware of it,” McCarrier said.

Pinkerton said he knew there was compensatory time built up, but not the extent of it.

“I had no idea it was that kind of money,” Pinkerton said.

Commissioner Jim Eckstein said he had no issue with the reimbursement.

“It was for work done outside her department, so I don’t have a problem with that,” Eckstein said.

Huth’s supervisor, Controller Jack McMillin, said several factors, including Huth doing work for other areas of county government, caused the compensatory time to reach that level.

According to McMillin, prior commissioners would not increase Huth’s base salary — as was done with other county employees — to match the amount of work she was performing.

He said Huth also was not permitted to receive extra pay until the past 10 years.

“They wouldn’t let me pay overtime,” McMillin said.

Although Huth is a salaried employee, the commissioners over the past decade approved her overtime because of the work she did for other departments and offices.

The commissioners agreed with McMillin that Huth’s overtime pay was less costly than outsourcing some of the work she did.

Huth first got 33.25 hours of compensatory time in 1987 when she was an hourly employee.

She earned a total of 245 hours through 1993, which predates McMillin’s tenure as controller.

After becoming deputy controller in 1994, Huth’s compensatory time increased to a total of 613 hours.

McMillin said he couldn’t ask Huth to work weekends, late nights and holidays without extra compensation.

In 1998, Huth’s compensatory time spiked with an additional 323 hours bringing the total to 937 hours over the years.

McMillin explained Huth had taken on the work of a second position that year. “She was doing two jobs,” he said.

McMillin said Ann Brown’s unexpected transfer that year to the human services department left a lengthy vacancy in his office.

Beginning in 1999, there were either small increases or reductions in Huth’s compensatory time each year. The minimal increases were only in two years: 4.5 hours in 2003 and 19.25 hours in 2008.

By 2012, the total hours shrank to fewer than 780 hours.

McMillin stressed his office and Huth in particular have saved the county significant money over the years doing discretionary work, duties not required by law. “We do what other areas of county government can’t do,” he said.

After receiving public criticism earlier this year for the overtime expenses in the controller’s office, McMillin in February decided to stop doing discretionary work.

He cited another contributing factor to Huth’s overtime is researching information for media requests.

According to McMillin, the $17,676 payment has no impact on the budget because those hours were recorded as a liability in the county’s books in prior years.

He pointed out that Huth essentially lost money by not being paid sooner because money has depreciated over time.

According to McMillin, Huth saves the county by waiving county health care coverage.

He cited another $10,000 in savings by not retaining a row office solicitor.

McMillin stressed his office has among the lowest spending in county government.

According to independently audited numbers, the controller’s office expenses rose 5 percent from 2000 to 2012.

The recorder of deeds office was the only row office with a lower increase at 4 percent.

The highest increase for a row office during the same period was the coroner with 14 percent.

McMillin, who is retiring at the end of the year, requested Huth be paid for the compensatory time.

A former county employee also is seeking payment for compensatory time.

Bob Young, the former deputy director of emergency services who abruptly retired in June, is seeking payment for roughly 60 hours of compensatory time he claims is owed him.

A decision on whether to pay him for that time has yet to be made.

County officials won’t confirm whether Young supplied documentation for those 60 hours.

The commissioners in September adopted a new overtime policy setting a cap of 40 hours for employee compensatory time at any one time.

Under the previous policy, the maximum amount was 240 hours.

In determining which employees were owed compensatory time, the county found 21 employees had more than 40 hours compensatory time.

Along with Huth, who still has 240 hours, the only other employee with more than 100 hours is Christine Williams in the clerk of courts office with 158 hours.

Clerk of Courts Lisa Lotz said Williams accumulated that over time by staying with jury panels past business hours back when there were more trials in the county.

Lotz said Williams’ compensatory time is shrinking. “We’re dwindling that down,” Lotz said.

Amy Wilson, chief county clerk, said the commissioners and administration did not know how many hours of compensatory time were logged until earlier this year.

“The commissioners office was unaware of the extent of accrued compensatory time throughout the county until this spring,” Wilson said. “Once we became aware of it, we took steps to ensure we were in the compliance with the law.” She said the county now would ensure compensatory time and standard overtime are properly monitored and documented.