"I can see now that it was a mistake," she said. "I'm actually glad the (audit) happened because I think it will weed out people like me who weren't really serious about going" to college.

Payroll records indicate that from August 1996 to January 2001, Funderburk took $2,832 in county tuition assistance while repaying $1,475 — about half of the total. Except for one payment of $485 in 1999, and a two-year period during which she paid nothing, she repaid the county through a $15 deduction taken from her bi-weekly payroll check.

County policy requires any employee who has received tuition assistance to pay the money back within 30 days "unless otherwise reconciled." The person to reconcile with was Funderburk herself, making it easy for her to extend her own payments — so easy that she basically forgot about them, she said.

"The Tuition Coordinator was able to approve her own applications, authorize advances to herself, set her own payback schedule, and start and stop her payments whenever she saw fit," a county audit states. "The lack of oversight by the County Training Manager and the Personnel Director provided the opportunity for abuses by the Tuition Coordinator."

"She's in charge of the program," county Auditor Sean Thomas said in an interview. "If I need to travel, I have someone else in my office approve that, even though I'm over the office. I don't approve it myself."

Funderburk took her last county tuition payment (for $361) on June 30, 2001. Two days later, on July 2, she discontinued her payroll contributions. She owed the county more than $1,300 at the time.

It wasn't until January 2002, when another tuition coordinator took over (Funderburk resumed the position a year ago), that Funderburk began repayments again — this time in earnest. She paid $86 per pay period for a time, and then $95 until she had repaid all but seven cents.

"I remember going in and offering the seven cents to the tuition coordinator at the time and she said don't worry about it," Funderburk said.

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E-MAIL: aedwards@desnews.com