The vote will be taken Tuesday during the regular meeting, but the discussion was done Monday during a workshop on whether the county should keep its policy of a six-weeks hiring freeze for new employees. The Commissioners Court discussed the four-year old policy with Human Resources Director Lori Ardoin during the workshop.
Ardoin informed that the hiring freeze policy came into effect in February 2014 when there were 25 county employees retiring in a very short time. Nine of those retirees were either elected officials or department heads.
The problem was the county was writing retirement compensation checks to those retirees, some as much as $20,000, and then hiring new employees to replace those that retired and paying them a salary. It caused a budget crunch.
The Commissioners Court implemented a six-weeks hiring freeze to fill vacant positions and created a Staffing Review Committee to follow up on department heads’ request to fill those vacancies. The part of the county Human Resources Manual discussed at Monday’s workshop is Section 3D of Policy 130, Recruiting and Selection.
Several department heads attended the workshop on Monday. Only Sabrina Gray who oversees the Parks Department and the Convention and Expo Center commented on the negative effects of the hiring freeze policy. Gray stated she is minus one full-time employee in Parks since the retirement of Mike Hill as the Park’s Superintendent about a month ago.
The Commissioners Court has an agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting concerning the hiring freeze policy. The Court will decide whether to keep the current policy while authorizing Ardoin to appoint members to the Staffing Review Committee or to abolish the hiring freeze policy altogether which would allow department heads to hire new employees whenever there is a vacancy.
The Commissioners Court will meet in its weekly session on Tuesday at 2:00 PM in the Administration Building. A workshop will be held prior to that meeting at 1:00 to discuss communication and public information strategy as requested by Commissioner John Gothia.
There will also be a budget workshop on Tuesday morning at 9:00. Four departments will present their budget needs and concerns to the Commissioners. Five departments will give their capital outlay requests during the workshop.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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