County Pay Raises
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 24, 2012
*Budget action by Panola
County supervisors:
•”Yes” vote for non-elected county employees to receive $75 monthly pay raise.
•”Yes” vote to add constables to county health insurance.
•”No” vote for sheriff’s department to adjust deputies’ pay according to experience.
•”Yes” vote for sheriff’s department to purchase six automobiles and hire one deputy.
•”No” vote for three pay raises at Panola County EMA (civil defense) office.
•”No” vote for new employee in tax collector’s office.
*All decisions tentative until budget is passed.
By Billy Davis
Panola County supervisors verbally agreed Tuesday to include a $75 monthly pay raise for county employees during the coming fiscal year.
The fiscal year begins October 1 and the Board of Supervisors is working against a September 15 deadline to approve a budget and set the county millage rate for 2012-2013.
Supervisors have yet to see final numbers for the proposed annual budget. Those numbers will presumably come Monday morning from County Administrator Kelley Magee.
A comparison of current budgets versus proposed budgets was unavailable, too, and Magee blamed a new software system for the lack of data when a reporter asked to compare the sheriff’s budget.
Supervisors met Tuesday for an all-day budget meeting, their second such meeting in August, to review proposed budgets for the sheriff’s department and jail, and civil defense.
The county board will return Monday morning at 8:30 in Sardis to continue its work.
Supervisors said more than once during the budget meeting that the proposed raise is just that — a proposal — and hoped employees understand it’s still uncertain until budget figures are reviewed Monday.
“We don’t want (county employees) to think we’re approving a raise. We’re not,” said Board President Kelly Morris.
At first the county board discussed a $50 monthly raise but supervisors suggested there would be little left after taxes and other deductions.
The last pay raise for county employees was a $50 monthly raise in 2010, the only raise in four years, Chancery Clerk Jim Pitcock told supervisors.
Pitcock advised supervisors Tuesday there may be too little money for a raise in a year, later telling The Panolian he was referring to the loss of tax revenue from bankrupt energy supplier LSP Energy.
“We’re funding lots of things but we need to care of our employees,” said Supervisor Vernice Avant.
“I agree,” Pitcock said. “We can do without some things to take care of our people.”
Responding to their suggestions, Morris advised pulling a project to pave the courthouse parking lot in Batesville and use that money for pay raises.
At first the county board discussed allowing individual departments to set pay raises “in house” for their employees if the raises stay within the department’s current budget.
The sheriff’s department and civil defense office brought such requests, and supervisors discussed pay raises in the road department, where there are current job openings.
Sheriff Dennis Darby is proposing pay raises based on patrol deputies’ years of experience, and Panola EMA director Daniel Cole returned for a second year to request pay raises for three employees.
During discussion of the department requests, Morris suggested the raises can be done “in-house” but department heads would have to cut their budgets to allow it.
Supervisor James Birge seconded that suggestion more than once.
Minutes later, however, supervisors had switched the idea to an across-the-board pay raise for non-elected employees, an idea trumpeted by Supervisor John Thomas.
“I think we give raises to everybody or nobody,” Thomas told his colleagues.
“I think the employees will be glad for $75,” Magee agreed.
In other budget discussions:
•Supervisors tentatively approved county health insurance for constables Raye Hawkins and Eric “Buck” Harris. The cost of the insurance for both constables is approximately $13,000 annually.
Hawkins has been requesting health insurance for several years, citing the danger of serving papers and serving as bailiff during sometimes-raucous justice court sessions.
•Supervisors turned down a new employee in the tax collector’s office, suggesting there is enough manpower to man the windows for customers.
Tax Assessor/Collector David Garner had requested the new hire because a current employee is overloaded with bankruptcy paperwork that has increased in recent months.
•Supervisors tentatively approved the lease-purchase of six automobiles and hiring a new deputy for the sheriff’s department.
The department had requested three new hirings, six new automobiles, and pay adjustments for patrol deputies.
The pay adjustments were also OK’d during board discussion but later scrapped for across-the-board pay raises.
It was not clear if supervisors kept the single hiring, since Morris suggested the pay raises and new automobiles while Thomas argued for all three requests.
•In the civil defense budget, supervisors eyed cutting approximately $76,000 from four line items, with plans to apply the money toward across-the-board pay raises.
The county board zeroed in on Cole’s equipment budget, which was also cut last year and in 2009 to save money.
“In an emergency, if he needs that equipment we can approve it,” Thomas suggested. “He doesn’t need that much in his budget.”
“You’re only leaving Daniel with $8,000,” Supervisor Cole Flint pointed out. “He is going to be hot.”
Thomas suggested leaving $20,000 but jokingly suggested that Cole hold an auction to sell off some of his equipment.
Cole was also asking for pay raises for three employees, including a $5,900 raise for deputy director Terry Bryant.
“I think that’s outrageous,” Thomas said of the requested pay raise.
A letter Cole shared with supervisors Tuesday stated that Magee suggested that Bryant begin at a lower salary that would eventually increase if he remained as deputy director. He was hired in 2010.