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Commissioner questions payments to company owned by trustee

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 8:19 PM Thursday, November 19, 2009

HAMILTON — Butler County Commissioner Charles Furmon is concerned the county has been paying a company for employee benefits for almost a year without proper approval.

That company is Performance Benefits Solutions, owned by West Chester Twp. Trustee George Lang, who says the whole issue is a misunderstanding.

Furmon said in a commission meeting Thursday, Nov. 19, that the company was supposed to be providing services at no charge to the county, but was instead charging through another company called Hauser Corporate Solutions.

“I have asked the prosecutor’s office to look into this and see if we can’t get some clarification on the matter,” Furmon said.

Citing poor customer service, a county advisory committee opted last October against keeping Lang’s company as the county’s sole manager of flexible spending accounts for employees.

A November 2008 commission resolution allows another company, Chard Snyder, to operate that service at a profit, and allows Performance Benefits Solutions to continue doing so “at no charge to Butler County.”

But county records suggest that Hauser, which Furmon calls an affiliate of Performance Benefits Solutions, charges the county roughly $979.15 monthly for the service. Lang said his company shares no ownership interests with Hauser.

Lang said his company paid Hauser fees until they lost their exclusive contract with the county. Now they only provide services paid for out of employee paychecks at their request.

“There’s no cost to the county for what we do,” he said. “It’s all voluntary products.”

The issue was the subject of scrutiny last year, when county leaders expressed concern that there was no system in place to determine which companies can offer employees insurance products.

At that time, former Lang business partner Mike Yoakum said Lang used his political contacts and “political pad money” to help secure the contract then stole the deal from Yoakum back in the 1990s. This was the subject of a lawsuit that the two parties settled.

Lang denied ever receiving any preferential treatment from the county. He said he bid for the contract and was chosen by a 20-plus member committee.

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