Plymouth County Commissioner Tim McMullen says he wants a county employee who was unlawfully awarded a pay raise to do the right thing and return the money to taxpayers – and Plymouth County Commissioners say they want answers from County Treasurer Tom O'Brien.

Commissioner McMullen says County Treasurer Tom O'Brien improperly awarded a $2,400 pay raise to accountant Mary Dundas, who works in O'Brien's office.

“Our legal counsel is saying that they don’t have recourse to get that $2,400 retro pay back and that worries me, because thats tax-payers money and it  was unauthorized by the commissioners, and yet the treasurer snuck it in,” said McMullen.

A County Commissioners meeting in Brockton yesterday discussed a number of payroll irregularities and said Treasurer Tom O'Brien seems to be overpaying some county employees and underpaying others.

McMullen says O'Brien miscalculated Dundas's raise, paying out an additional $600 to her in the last pay period.

"So now we’re about $3,000 out tax payer’s money and our legal counsel says that we have no recourse to get it back,” said McMullen. “I call upon the morality of this individual and get this money back to the tax-payers of Plymouth County.”

O'Brien and Dundas did not attend yesterday's meeting. O'Brien has since responded that neither he nor Dundas were informed that the topic would be discussed at the meeting. The issue was not listed on the meeting agenda, and Tom O'Brien says he is looking into possible Open Meeting Law violations on the part of Commissioners.

“We just want make sure that there’s no irregularities, if you know what I mean, to include any types of favoritism that might be going, we want to make sure that if that’s happening, that it's stopped and corrected,” said Commission Chairman Tony O’Brien.

County Administrator Gerald Chipman is leading an investigation of the payroll irregularities. Chipman is expected to report back to Commissioners when they meet again next Thursday. That will be at 4 p.m. in Plymouth.