Commission to Consider ARP Funded Bonuses for County Employees

June 25, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Full and part time county employees may soon be getting premium pay (bonuses) for their service during the height of the pandemic from American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The proposal to pay these bonuses using ARP money will be presented to the county commission for final approval during Monday night’s regular monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multi-Purpose Center.

The budget committee earlier this month voted to recommend to the county commission that full time county general employees each get a bonus of $2,500 and that part time staff each receive $1,250. Although they too are county employees, the proposal did not include the current 26 workers of the DeKalb County Highway Department nor the current 400 employees of DeKalb County School District. The Highway Department and School System, along with the County General operation which includes courthouse, sheriff’s department, county complex, solid waste department employees, offices of most elected and appointed county officials, libraries, senior center directors, etc. all operate under the umbrella of county government, but each (Highway Department, School System, County General) have their own separate budgets, subject to approval by the county commission. Originally, the budget committee specified that in order to get the full $2,500 bonus, county general employees must have worked for the county at any time during the fifteen-and-a-half-month period of March 13, 2020 to June 30, 2021 and they must still be employed by the county. However they revised the proposal last Wednesday, June 22 in one respect and that is to prorate the pay for full time employees who only worked a portion of the fifteen-and-a-half-month period or for those who went from working part time to full time or vice versa. Employees who work for more than one county department would not be allowed to double dip on bonus pay.

The proposal specifies that part time EMS staff must have worked a minimum of 400 hours to get the part time bonus pay of $1,250. All other part timers must have put in at least 250 hours during the fifteen-and-a-half-month period. Twenty-nine volunteer firefighters who met the criteria would get a bonus.
Firefighters who made 75% training attendance would qualify for a $300 bonus and those with 100% training attendance would receive a $350 bonus for the period from March 13, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Two county funded employees and eight employed by the state at the DeKalb County Health Department would also be included in the ARP bonus plan.

During a committee meeting of the whole Thursday night, members of the county commission requested that employees of the DeKalb County Highway Department and volunteers of the non-profit Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad who meet the requirements also be included in the ARP bonus plan proposal, subject to approval by the full commission.

Road Supervisor Danny Hale Thursday night asked the county commission that his staff not be left out.

“We didn’t get any relief from nowhere. We (highway department employees) worked every day (during the pandemic). We would like to have something,” said Road Supervisor Danny Hale.

“We (budget committee) did not intentionally leave anyone out. We were just following the pattern of what counties around us had done,” said budget committee member Anita Puckett.

June 25, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Budget Committee has revised its new wage scale proposal for county general employees. Although this plan was adopted Wednesday night, June 22 by the budget committee to be included in the 2022-23 fiscal year budget, an amendment was made for the two employees of the county mayor’s office.

Under a plan presented to the budget committee two weeks ago by Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin on behalf of her office and the offices of Trustee, Register of Deeds, County Clerk, Assessor of Property, Clerk and Master, and Administer of Elections, employees would receive step raises at a percentage of $82,396 per year, which is what all these public officials will earn next year except for the county mayor who is paid more and the administrator of elections who is paid less. The starting pay in year one for new employees would be at $32,134 and top out after 30 years at $46,142. In addition to the scheduled step increases, salaries of all employees of these offices would automatically increase at the same percentage as their employer (office holder) when he or she gets a raise by the state.

According to a motion made by budget committee member Beth Pafford Wednesday night, the two county mayor’s employees would receive step raises at a percentage of $95,168 which is what the salary of the county mayor will be next year and top out after 30 years. As with the other employees, the county mayor’s staff would automatically receive the same percentage increase in pay by the county as the county mayor’s percentage salary increase when he gets a raise by the state.

“I would make a motion that we base their (county mayor employees) salaries off the county mayor. We are fortunate that the county does not have to pay for a financial administrator to do the line items (because of the work of these employees),” said Commissioner Pafford.

Commissioner Scott Little offered a second to the motion and it was adopted on a 4-1 vote. Budget committee members Sabrina Farler and Anita Puckett joined Pafford and Little in voting for it. Commissioner Jeff Barnes voted against it. Budget committee members Jenny Trapp and Julie Young were absent.

A similar proposal was adopted six years ago by the county commission but was changed two years later after several county officials complained that the plan was unfair in that the county mayor’s staff was being paid more than their clerks.

The sheriff’s department and DeKalb EMS currently operate under their own pay scale systems previously established by the county and would not be affected by the proposal adopted by the budget committee Wednesday night.

The budget committee also updated the wage scale for full time library employees, the senior citizens center directors, and custodians.

Under this plan, these employees would receive step raises at a percentage of $82,396 per year and get the same percentage increase in pay by the county as the percentage given to county office holders by the state.

These pay plans are subject to final approval by the county commission.

June 25, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Election Office has announced since no candidate qualified for the 4th District Constable vacancy, the office will be on the ballot again in November.

Initially, Eric Ervin, a qualified candidate for school board, had also filed a write-in request with the election office to be a candidate for constable as well.

However, state law prohibits a candidate from seeking two county constitutional offices at the same time, and as a result, the constable vacancy remains.

“I had a few conversations with our state office about this issue and the bottom line is, since Ervin is a qualified candidate for school board, his request to be a write-in candidate also for constable for the August election cannot be approved,” said Dennis Stanley, Administrator of Elections. “Should Ervin lose the school board race, which is obviously an unknown at this point, he would be eligible to seek the constable office in November.”

“Due to the timeframe, both political parties can select a constable nominee for the November ballot by the convention process, or candidates can run as an independent through the petition process,” Stanley said. The qualifying deadline in either process would be Noon, September 14, 2022.”

Candidates for the 4th District School Board race in the August election are Ervin, a Republican nominee; Scott Little, Democrat nominee; and Tony Poss, Independent.

The 4th District Constable became vacant with the death of Paul Cantrell.

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