An audit confirmed that $6 million of excess health department revenues went into the county’s general fund, Halifax County Manager Dia Denton told commissioners Monday.

But four board members were not ready to accept management’s plan to take the money from the general fund to the health department’s budget over the next two to three fiscal years and instead agreed to table the matter. 

Jimmie Silver, Chenoa Davis, Sammy Webb, and Gary Redding all want to give the health department more time to come up with a plan, while Chairman Vernon Bryant and Commissioner Thomas Barrett wanted to go with management’s recommendation.

In a memo to the board, Denton reminded commissioners of the July 7, 2025, meeting where Health Director Cheyanna James had made a request to return $2.5 million in excess revenues to the health department.

Denton wrote that the completion of the June 30, 2025, audit confirmed that the current amount of excess health department revenues totals approximately $6 million. “County management, finance and legal all agree that the most reasonable way to proceed with the balance of the excess revenue is to use whatever amount is determined to be needed from the general fund to the health fund in the next two to three fiscal years' budgets.”

As an example, Denton said in the current fiscal year's budget, $3.1 million is appropriated from the general fund to the health fund.

Beginning in fiscal year 2026-2027, staff proposes to use the excess revenue in the health fund to cover the general fund's contribution over the next two to three fiscal years. “Therefore, all the funds will be used to support public health purposes.”

The health department said at the July meeting that the issue came down to a change in accounting methodology and that the previous reporting was inaccurate at best. When the methodology was modified, the department realized it had been profitable for the last seven years.

Before he made the motion to table the matter, Silver said he wanted to give the health department a chance to come up with a plan on how it would use “the money to improve the quality of life for Halifax County citizens because it’s not my money, it’s not your money — it’s the citizens’ money and we need to be about taking care of citizens because we are near the last place for healthcare.”

Silver said, “I think it’s a damn shame that we sit here with that much money and we’ve got people suffering in this county. We need to look out for our citizens and not play politics today.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, James told the board the money was an opportunity “for our agency to undo what had been over the past 20 years and to really give Halifax County an opportunity to move forward in the realms of health.”

James told the board that Halifax is one of the unhealthiest counties in the state. “This will give us the opportunity to revisit what it is we’re doing wrong and try to address this through programs and interventions.”

Denton said the biggest problem for her was the methodology and the lack of communication. “Quite honestly, they weren’t paying attention to the audits, which were provided every year.”

She said, “I don’t think we should treat this department differently than any other county department because nobody has that kind of pot of money sitting there. Everything should come through a central location for decision-making.”

Barrett said he believed that what management proposed “cleans the fiscal mess.”

He said the plan gives the health department the opportunity to come before the board and make requests. “If the health department then wants to expand and do the things they maybe should have been doing, they can come back in here and say we want to do this and we need this much money to do it. Then we can allot them if we feel it’s appropriate.”