Surry County Finance Director Steve Morris appears to have left his role.

An April 10 draft of Surry County’s proposed 2-25-26 budget lists Carol Swindell as “interim finance director” in place of Morris. Morris was still listed on the county’s website as of last week though the site listed Swindell as of May 6.

Swindell previously held the role in 2022, though Morris had been hired by 2023, according to past budgets.

County Administrator Melissa Rollins did not respond to Times inquiries regarding Morris’ departure. Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Elliott, when contacted by the Times on April 3, said whether Morris was still employed was “a personnel matter” that he was not free to discuss. Supervisor Walter Hardy also declined to comment on “personnel matters.”

Payroll records from Jan. 1 through March 31, which the Times obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, show Morris was paid just over $5,600 every 15 days during that three-month window except for the last two weeks of March, during which he was paid one cent of pay classified under the code “RGFTEX” as of March 28, which refers to regular full-time exempt pay. Employees who are paid a fixed salary rather than an hourly wage are exempt from overtime pay requirements under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Morris’ net pay for March 16-31 is listed at $13,950.17, more than double the $5,603.19 he’d been paid for each prior pay period.

The number of hours Morris worked was redacted for each pay period except Feb. 16-28, which County Attorney Lola Perkins described as a clerical error, stating all total hours worked each pay period were intended to be redacted. Perkins cited Virginia Code 2.2-3705.1 for redacting the hours worked. The code states governing bodies are allowed, but not required, to redact payroll information except for “records of the name, position, job classification, official salary, or rate of pay of, and records of the allowances or reimbursements for expenses paid to, any officer, official, or employee of a public body; or the compensation or benefits paid by any corporation organized by the Virginia Retirement System or its officers or employees.”

According to Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a 2022 Virginia Supreme Court case, Hawkins v. Town of South Hill, set the state’s current precedent as to what is deemed “personnel information” that can be excluded from mandatory disclosure under FOIA. In that case, the court said the personnel exemption protects information “relating to a specific government employee” if the information “is in the possession of the entity solely because of the individual’s employment with the entity” and would be “private, but for the individual’s employment with the entity.” The information is allowed to remain private if it “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy to a reasonable person under the circumstances.”

Rhyne said she disagrees with applying the exemption to an employee’s number of hours worked.

“Hours worked is information in the possession of Surry because of the individual’s employment, but hours worked is not private, in my opinion,” Rhyne said. “It can’t be an ‘unwarranted invasion of personal privacy’ if their colleagues are … witnessing them working alongside them. A reasonable person would not think showing up for work is a private fact that must be kept from everyone — including their co-workers.”

An email from the Times sent to Morris’ Surry County email address on March 25 resulted in an automated response stating that the account “is currently not being monitored.”

The Times was unable to locate a current address or contact information for Morris.

Morris’ departure comes amid a delay in completing an independent audit of the county’s 2023-24 fiscal year. A county notice from Feb. 14 states an audit by the accounting firm Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates had not been completed by Dec. 30.

State law mandates an independent certified public accountant present a “detailed written report to the local governing body at a public session” by Dec. 31 for the prior fiscal year, and that every locality “contract for the performance of the annual audit not later than April 1 of each fiscal year.”

The Feb. 14 notice states Surry was “significantly delayed” in auditing its 2023-24 books “due to a conversion to a new financial software system” and had at the time estimated an April 1 completion date. An April 30 notice states the audit “is currently pending by the independent audit firm of Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates” and that the estimated completion date is now July 1 to “accommodate staffing requirements to complete the audit.”

The current draft of the fiscal year 2025-26 budget lists a financial software system replacement as having been funded in 2023 at $100,000. An additional tax billing software upgrade is budgeted for 2025-26.

By issuing the revised notice advertising the July 1 completion date, “we are currently in compliance with the requirements of Virginia code,” Perkins said at the Board of Supervisors’ May 1 meeting.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 1:01 p.m. on May 7 with County Attorney Lola Perkins’ reason for redacting the number of hours finance department employees worked.