Budget Committee Recommends Bonuses for Full and Part Time County Employees with ARP Funds

June 16, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Full and part time county employees may soon be getting a bonus for their service during the height of the pandemic from American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The budget committee last week voted to recommend to the county commission that full time employees each get a bonus of $2,500 and that part time staff each receive $1,250. In order to get the bonus, these 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. No matter if a full time employee worked for the county during the entire period or only part of that time, he or she would get the full $2,500 bonus. The amount would not be prorated. 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.

The proposal to pay these bonuses using ARP money will be presented to the county commission for final approval.

The budget committee took this action after hearing from Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin who, speaking on behalf of herself and other county officials present, requested that some amount of ARP funding be given to their employees.

In addition to Circuit Court Clerk Martin, other county officials at that meeting in support were Trustee Sean Driver, County Clerk James L. “Jimmy” Poss, Clerk and Master Debra Malone, and Administer of Elections Dennis Stanley.

“When its time to allocate this ARP money I would like for you to seriously consider a bonus for employees. My employees are valuable to me. They keep us going,” said Martin.

At that meeting, Martin had not requested a pay raise for employees but expressed concerns about retaining staff during this time due to other places compensating their employees because of rising prices/ inflation.

Fourth district commissioner Dr. Scott Little, who voted for giving the bonuses, asked why Martin did not ask for more employee pay saying that a one time bonus would not address her worries about staff leaving for other jobs.

“Why not” (seek pay raise for employees), “ asked Commissioner Little. “What is the issue going to be next year? Have you solved anything?. We could give a one-time bonus but that doesn’t help you next year,” he said.

Trustee Sean Driver suggested to the committee that the bonus pay using ARP funds should have already been addressed.

“Before we ever talked about what to do with this (ARP) money, we ought to invest in people. That’s an investment. Good people. When we are competing with Hardees and McDonalds we are not investing in our people. That’s what we are missing for the whole county. If they are giving money we should have never thought about where to place it until we took care of people,” said Driver.

June 16, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Several county officials have come up with a proposal to pay their employees more and they presented that plan to the budget committee for consideration Wednesday night. No action has yet been taken.

Pay Plan

During the meeting, Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin, speaking on behalf of herself and other county officials present, asked that employees of their offices be given the same percentage pay increase by the county going forward as the percentage given to them (office holders) by the state when their pay is increased which this year is 5.2% and that the employees step wage scale be changed to reflect it.

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.

Other county officials at the meeting with Circuit Court Clerk Martin Wednesday night were Trustee Sean Driver, County Clerk James L (Jimmy) Poss, Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell, and Clerk and Master Debra Malone.

Last week Martin, on behalf of herself and fellow county officials, asked the budget committee to recommend to the county commission that their employees be given bonuses from American Rescue Plan grant funds. In addition to Circuit Court Clerk Martin, other county officials at that meeting in support were Trustee Driver, County Clerk Poss, Clerk and Master Malone, and Administer of Elections Dennis Stanley. The request was granted. However, before that move, Fourth District Commissioner Dr. Scott Little asked why the county officials were requesting bonuses rather than pay raises suggesting that raises would make more sense than a one-time bonus. Apparently taking their cue from Dr. Little, Martin, Driver, Poss, Malone and Cantrell followed up with this latest request.

Under their plan, employees of the offices of County Mayor, Trustee, Register of Deeds, County Clerk, Assessor of Property, Circuit Court Clerk, Clerk and Master, and Administer of Elections 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. 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.

County Mayor Tim Stribling, unaware that these officials were coming to present this plan Wednesday night, said the proposal would have to be studied before being adopted to determine the impact on next year’s budget.

The proposal will most likely be considered at the next budget committee meeting set for Wednesday, June 22 at 5:00 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom of the courthouse.

Last year the county increased the base pay of county employees who fall under two separate wage scales already in place. Both are 13-tiered plans including an administrative employee pay scale which tops out at 20 years and applies mainly to employees who work for elected and appointed county officials at the courthouse and county complex. The other plan tops out at 13 years and is for full-time library staff and senior center directors.

Under the 20-year plan, the pay increases last year were to have ranged from $3,744 to $4,896 annually depending on years of service, while raises for those in the 13-year plan were to have jumped by $2,976 to $4,128. The total amount of the proposed pay hikes, including benefits, were to have added $129,703 in new spending to the county budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

The sheriff’s department currently operates under its own pay scale system previously established by the county and would not be affected by the proposal presented to the budget committee Wednesday night. Sheriff’s department staff get pay raises under a six-tier scale and are paid at a percentage of the sheriff’s salary. In addition to the scale, sheriff’s department employees also get the same percentage increase in pay by the county as the pay hike percentage given to the sheriff by the state when he gets a raise.

June 15, 2022
By:

Head coach Mark McEntire has hired former Blue Raider Payne Denman of Smithville as the next assistant coach for Middle Tennessee men’s golf.

“One of the things we were looking for was that our players wanted a good player,” McEntire said of the search for a new assistant. “And we found one. He’s got really good ties to the Grove, really good ties to Stones River, and all of our alumni. I think he’s going to do a really good job for us.”

Denman played for MT from 2012-2015 after transferring from Florida, making his mark on the program record book. His career scoring average of 74.04 was 2.21 strokes above par, the 12th -best mark in Blue Raider history. He finished with 26 rounds of par or better, tied for 15th in the career rankings.

“What a great day for the men’s golf program,” said Whit Turnbow, Payne’s coach at MTSU and the current president of the Tennessee Golf Foundation. “Payne is not only a fantastic player, but also a great human and proud alum. HIs impact on the program will be felt immediately, and I look forward to watching his coaching career blossom under Coach McEntire.”

As a Blue Raider, Denman finished first or second on the team in scoring average in each of his three seasons. He finished in the top 15 of nine tournaments, including a seventh-place finish at the 2015 Conference USA Championship. His collegiate accomplishments include 2013 Second Team All-Sun Belt Conference honors and leading a team bid to the 2014 NCAA Columbia Regional.

After a stint in the professional ranks, Denman currently holds amateur status as a player. His return to MT marks his first foray into coaching.

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