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Clerk: Weddings a financial loser
| Friday, Jun 13 2008 8:11 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jun 16 2008 8:41 AM
County Clerk Ann Barnett released figures Friday showing her office lost $18,000 in the past year performing civil marriage ceremonies.
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Barnett released numbers 4:50 p.m. Friday to back up her contention that performing weddings is a cost sink for the county.
The numbers raised several questions and differed from those in a Californian analysis earlier this week. But Barnett’s staff wasn’t available to answer those questions or help explain the differing conclusions.
Here’s what Barnett says:
• County Clerk staff costs, on average, are $41.23 an hour, including benefits.
• County Clerk supervisorial staff, on average, costs $51.76 an hour, including benefits.
• Barnett increased both rates by 22.34 percent to reflect administrative costs. She didn’t explain what the figure covers.
The rate was “audited and approved by State Controller,” she said. That took staff costs to $50.44 an hour, and supervisor costs to $63.32 an hour.
• Barnett estimated the average ceremony takes 25 minutes, and is done by clerk staff at $50 an hour. She said it takes 10 minutes for a “supervisor review of license” at $63 an hour.
• She also included $13,269 a year in “Auditor-Controller supervisorial support.” It’s not clear what that is.
She also apparently divided it by the estimated 2,100 weddings a year to come up with $6.76 per wedding. But $13,269 divided by 2,100 weddings is $6.32.
• Barnett also threw in a line-item for “System Tech support,” and said that’s not calculated.
• That brings the cost per wedding to $38.71, Barnett figures, while the couple is only charged $30. At 2,100 weddings a year, that means the county is subsidizing weddings at a cost of $18,297 a year.
The Californian requested cost and revenue numbers on civil marriage ceremonies from several Kern County departments. When there was a question about how much something cost, we used the highest possible cost the county might incur to provide the service.
What we don’t have
Kern County Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett contacted The Californian by e-mail late Thursday and indicated that the newspaper’s calculations appear not to include employee benefit and administrative costs. Benefit numbers were included in our calculations. Her office was unable to quantify administrative costs on Thursday.
Overhead
Wedding chapel operations costs — $10,022.
How we got it: General Services Department Director Jeff Frapwell said he multiplied the per-square-foot cost of utilities, custodial work, maintenance, security and depreciation for the Kern County Administrative Building by the size of the two wedding chapels maintained by the county clerk’s office there.
How we used it: We assumed the two rooms are never used for any other purpose and assigned all of the $10,022 cost to wedding ceremonies.
Reality check: At least one of the rooms is used as staff work space on election nights.
Staff costs
Salary and benefits — Clerks who perform weddings cost the county an estimated $34.85 an hour
How we got it: We asked the county Personnel Department for salary and benefit costs for a 30-year county employee at the top scale of pay for the highest classification of front-line employee in the county clerk’s office — an office services specialist.
We got an annual base salary of $36,866 and various benefit formulas for the county’s share of longevity pay, taxes, retirement and health care.
How we used it: We executed the formulas and added up the annual cost ($72,483) then divided it by 52 weeks and then by 40 hours.
Time element
Time to perform a ceremony — 30 minutes.
How we got it: Clerks estimated that was the longest period it took to prepare for and conduct a civil ceremony.
How we used it: We used that number to estimate the final cost of a wedding ceremony to the county.
Reality check: A recent wedding attended by The Californian lasted for seven minutes — not including staff preparation time.
Profit
County profit — $7.78 per ceremony
How we got it: We added up all the county costs and subtracted them from the $30 fee the county charges to perform each marriage ceremony.
How we used it: We multiplied it by the 1,962 civil marriages conducted between July 2007 and May 2008 to get an annual profit of $15,264.
Photos:
Newlyweds Albert Tester, left, and Tenley Tester, right, walk out of the crowded county clerk's office after they finished with their ceremony. The office ended its marriage ceremony service Friday.
Friends and family watch as newlyweds Michelle Sital, left, and Jerry Sital, right, share a kiss during their ceremony, which was performed by the county clerk's office. There will no longer be ceremonies performed by the office.
Barnett cited the high cost of solemnizing marriages as a reason for ending them, a decision announced last week after the California Supreme Court stood by its legalization of gay marriage.
Despite the financial drain, Barnett did not suggest eliminating ceremonies earlier this year when all county departments were instructed to reduce expenditures 20 percent in the face of a general fund shortfall of more than $47 million.
When asked Friday why she didn’t consider cutting the ceremonies earlier, Barnett said only: “We’ll discuss that in (upcoming) budget talks with (county administrators).”
Barnett’s numbers and conclusions differed from those in a Californian analysis of figures provided by other departments that have knowledge of costs associated with the operation of her department. Officials in her office wouldn’t make themselves available to explain the data and why it differed from the newspaper’s.
Assistant Auditor-Controller-County Clerk Glenn Spencer said he’d call the paper Monday.
Barnett’s motives for ending office-performed marriages have been questioned since The Californian reported that Barnett repeatedly tried to avoid licensing and performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples.
She sought legal protection for her decision from a Christian-based group that opposed gay marriage, had county lawyers file documents in support of delaying the issuance of marriage licenses to gay couples and sought to resign the county clerk's office without giving up other portions of her job.
BARNETT SPEAKS
In her first extended comments to The Californian, Barnett was tight-lipped Friday about her decision to end ceremonies and referred most questions to the Alliance Defense Fund. She said Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group opposed to gay marriage, was defending her for free.
“The bottom line is that (Barnett) has the discretion not to perform wedding ceremonies under the law ... she doesn't need to justify her decision,” Alliance Defense Fund attorney Brian Raum said. “We've advised her that she has the right under the law to make the decision she's made.”
The organization also notified the county’s top attorney, County Counsel Bernard Barmann, Friday that it would represent Barnett in all matters related to marriage license and ceremonies.
It’s doing so, Raum said, because Barmann violated attorney-client privilege by releasing to The Californian e-mails showing Barnett’s office asked Alliance Defense Fund for legal representation if she ended civil marriages.
Barmann produced the e-mails last week in response to a public records request from the newspaper. Friday he said the e-mails were not confidential because they only involved a request for representation.
Barmann, who previously advised Barnett that stopping ceremonies in a discriminatory fashion could invite a lawsuit against the county, said Alliance Defense Fund’s representation of Barnett presented some concerns.
“For me that creates a real problem because I don't know what advice they're giving her,” Barmann said.
Barnett, as a county official, is supposed to rely on the county’s attorney unless a conflict is present, Barmann said.
“There's reasons for that because we have to defend her at the public's expense,” he said.
BLOCKED ACCESS
Barmann said he had also advised Barnett to accommodate news media who wanted to attend clerk-performed ceremonies of wedding couples who gave their permission. But her office initially barred Californian reporters from attending a ceremony Friday morning. Reporters were allowed in later in the day.
On Thursday, county workers called the police on two journalists from KBAK Channel 29, according to the station.
The station said video showed reporter Jose Gaspar and photojournalist Chuck Dennis stopped at the door when told they could not enter the wedding chapel.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times published an interview with Barnett Friday.
In it, Barnett is quoted as saying she always tries to do the right thing in her religious, family and official life and is “bewildered” by the outrage thrown at her since ending the ceremony service.
“I'm just a county clerk trying to do my job,” Barnett told the Times. “I wasn't out to make a statement.”
The Times said Barnett wouldn’t talk about how her religious beliefs shaped her official decisions.
LAST 'I DOS'
Meanwhile Friday, the clerk’s office was abuzz with 47 couples who were among the last to have their weddings officiated at the county clerk’s office for $30. Starting Monday, no more ceremonies will be performed at the office, though it will issue marriage licenses to gay and straight couples.
Alma Estrada and Ramon Negrete cited the low cost in explaining their decision to exchange vows at the office. Their plans for a traditional wedding had spiraled to tens of thousands of dollars.
“Later on down the road we’ll have the bigger wedding we really want,” Estrada said, adding that “it’s a shame” other couples can no longer take advantage of the low-cost marriages.
“We don’t have the money,” said Natasha Bayze, another bride-to-be, when asked why she and her fiance opted for a clerk’s office ceremony.
“Funding” was all another bridegroom said.
Asked to respond, Barnett said “people can do it for free” by finding a friend or relative ordained to officiate weddings.
“There’s Web sites you can go to (in order) to become ordained to do weddings,” Barnett said. “Free is better than $30.”