The Commissioners Court held a workshop Tuesday morning and then debated further the policy for four employee benefits during its regular meeting in the afternoon. The Court voted to take no action on the sick time policy for exempt employees and vacation accumulation until they could get a written recommendation from the Human Resources Department. Commissioner Barry Burton made a motion that the county policy for buying back sick leave time be frozen at the current number of hours and at the current salary rate of employees. Burton stated that the sick leave buy back policy is like a savings account for county employees which they count on and hope to use when their retirement comes about. Burton believes this is the fair way to handle the policy. Commissioner Burton admitted the sick time buy back policy may not be the proper thing to do for the county, but with the policy approved Tuesday by the Commissioners it still gives employees close to retirement a chance to actually plan for the future with sick leave accumulated to this point, while phasing out the policy for new employees since it no longer affects them.
The Commissioners approved keeping the current policy for longevity pay unchanged except that longevity would be earned on the hiring date of the employee not just the same month they were hired.
Commissioners approved renewing the contract with Member’s Building Maintenance for janitorial services at the courthouse. The contract was a slight increase to $139,649 from $127,415, but actually represented the true cost of the previous contract that was used for the first year. The lone commissioner opposed to approving the contract was David Dubose. Commissioner Dubose said he had received numerous emails from the County Maintenance Department of shortcomings by Member’s work at the courthouse. Dubose added that he liked using county employees who he could call if his office needed cleaning and it got done. Dubose believes the county is not getting its money’s worth out of the contract with Member’s Building Maintenance.
In other business the Court tabled any action on going to an automated switchboard. The Commissioners approved changing the day of the regular weekly Commissioners Court meetings from Monday to Tuesday to give Commissioners more time to discuss agenda items with department heads prior to meetings.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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