Commissioners Court drew a full court room Tuesday, many of those in attendance were elected officials in the county. The Commissioners heard a motion from County Judge Brint Carlton to abolish the pay matrix for elected officials which would allow the Court to reset the salary for all elected officials. Carlton’s motion needed a second from one of the Commissioners before a vote could be taken on it, but did not receive a second. Commissioner David Dubose then made a motion for the Court to approve the salaries of elected officials first and then abolish the pay matrix. That motion passed unanimously. Carlton indicated that the Commissioners Court may consider setting the salaries in early August.
Overtime pay during disasters was discussed during a workshop Tuesday morning. During the regular Court session in the afternoon Judge Carlton recommended changing the current county policy for disaster pay. Carlton presented a draft with his proposal which would have employees getting regular pay for the first 40 hours during an emergency and then receive time and a half pay for time worked over that each week. The regular pay would go into effect at the start of each pay week before overtime could be earned during the time of a declared disaster. The judge said this would be fairer to tax payers in the county and would better insure the county getting reimbursed for this overtime by federal officials. The motion by Carlton passed 3-2 with Commissioners Dubose and John Banken opposing it. They favored certain employees getting double their salaries when working an emergency.
The Commissioners approved County Engineer Clark Slacum to replace six hydraulic jacks in his department at cost of close to $15,000. After much discussion the Court approved deleting the missing items from an inventory list completed by the Purchasing Department. The items totaled over $100,000. Many of the items have been missing since Hurricane Ike in 2008.
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