Sloan was the last remaining member of the three-member excise board who had been involved with Sequoyah County commissioners in litigation over the county budget.
Members Bill Burgess of Sallisaw and Dan Shamblin of Muldrow were asked to resign earlier this year. Burgess was removed by District 3 Commissioner Cleon Harrell. Shamblin was asked to resign by State Sen. Kenneth Corn (D-Poteau). The district 3 commissioner appoints one member, the state senator appoints a second and the district judge appoints the third.
Yvonne Nance of the Central area was appointed to replace Burgess and Dave Morgan of Muldrow was appointed to replace Shamblin.
Sloan said he submitted his resignation Monday by mail to District Judge John Garrett.
In his letter of resignation Sloan wrote, "Thank you for my appointment to the excise board and letting me do my job. I regret that I have served two years, and feel I no longer have a voice in the excise board."
Sloan wrote, "I feel I have put two hard years of work and research into the duties, obligations, and responsibilities and have no authority due to the appointments of other politicians. We are no longer a board that is a watchdog for the county as statutes set out the board to be. The other two appointees feel they should do what the commissioners want them to do, and I no longer want to be involved with that type of board."
Sloan said he would continue to serve on other boards and capacities in the county for "the betterment of Sequoyah County and the citizens of this county." Sloan is active in the Sequoyah County Farm Bureau and had served on the Vian School Board.
Sloan said the conflict between the excise board and county commissioners has "bothered me for a long time."
The two boards have fought over control of the county budget for the past three years, both in and out of court.
The excise board argued they make the final decision on the county budget, while the county commissioners argued with the excise board over how the budget was distributed. At the center of the argument was the amount of money budgeted for the county sheriff's office. Before the new county jail was built, the sheriff oversaw operations of both his office and the jail. The new jail is operated by a trust authority set up by the county commissioners, who get no money from the county for jail operation.
Sloan defended the excise board's budget for the sheriff's office, and said the sheriff's office has been able to control crime in Sequoyah County with the additional funding provided in the past three years.
The excise board members also argued their responsibility was to fund elective offices first, including the sheriff's office, which, according to a study done by Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, receives the most money of any county office.
Since the commissioners' version of the 2005-6 budget was approved by the excise board, by a vote of two to one, with Sloan the only dissenting vote, several officials have said they will have to lay employees off.
In the 2005-6 budget, all offices were cut about 35 percent. The commissioners said that if the budget wasn't cut, the county would run out of money before the end of the fiscal year.
The county commissioners included their salaries in this year's budget, which in previous years had been taken from funds designated for county roads. In making the change, Harrell said, "We may be doing the citizens a disservice by taking our salaries ($50,000 per year each) from the money designated for the roads." Harrell said state law allowed the salaries to be taken from the general budget.
Sloan said, "In my research I found the excise board has the authority to determine where the money for the county commissioners' salaries come from."
Sloan predicted that, with the county budget $150,000 short for commissioners' salaries, the county could run out of funds before June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
"I believe that is the first time the commissioners' salaries have ever been taken from the budget," Sloan said. "For the past two years the county has operated under our budget and only one account was short, and that was the general fund."
Sloan concluded, "It's like that old Kenny Rogers' song. You got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, and I'm foldin' 'em."
