In her last months in office, Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell gave 15 employees $600,000 (£483,169) in retirement bonuses.
Heiskell first offered the early retirement packages in June, five months before she lost her re-election bid. As part of the offer, obtained last week through an open records request, Heiskell told her workers they would get extra money if they closed out their pension plans.
The size of the bonus depended on how long the employee worked for the county and his or her average salary. But in total, county records show, the local government paid 15 employees $3 million (£2.42 million) — about $600,000 (£483169) more than they would have received had they retired without the bonus.