Even as it struggles to fill many vacant positions, Habersham County is creating more jobs to fill. The Habersham County Commission voted Monday night to add an emergency radio administrator and temporary part-time magistrate judge to its payroll. This after voting earlier this month to create a new position for a county airport manager.
Temporary magistrate judge
Magistrate Judge Amy Thomas says she needs the help as the only judge managing the magistrate courts in Habersham County.
“I’m working 24/7, I’m the only judge,” Thomas says. “With magistrate [court], we do all the warrants. We do all the arrest warrants, all the search warrants, we handle all civil [and] criminal hearings, preliminary hearings, county ordinances. We do it all.”
Magistrate Judge Gerald Johnson has been unavailable since the fall, and there has been no official word on why. The Georgia Judicial Qualifications Committee would not provide any information on Johnson’s absence or employment at Now Habersham’s request.
Thomas was appointed to be the magistrate clerk of court, as well as continue to serve in her capacity as judge, in October. She says while she has managed to avoid a case backlog so far, she is backlogged on paperwork.
“I’m having to learn that position, plus do the chief magistrate’s and my position,” she says. She says she could “absolutely” use all the help she can get.
The temporary magistrate judge’s pay will come out of the county’s “rainy day fund,” according to Habersham County Finance Director Tim Sims, and the taxpayers will not absorb the cost of the temporary judge.
The commissioners authorized a budget adjustment of $13,370 from the “rainy day fund” to the magistrate court’s budget to cover the costs of the judge for the current fiscal year.
Radio administrator
The county’s radio systems administrator would oversee the installation and management of the new E-911 radio system coming to the county. The position would be under the supervision of E-911 Director Lynn Smith.
County Manager Alicia Vaughn says the position is important to ensure the new radio system operates seamlessly for its size, with not only the county and municipalities using the system, but the county’s schools relying on the new radio system.
The administrator will be responsible for software and hardware upgrades, and other technical work, associated with keeping the system up and running. The salary for the position is estimated to cost between $57,000 and $85,388 and will be paid out of the radio system revenue fund.
That revenue fund would be funded by a yearly maintenance fee paid per-radio by the municipalities, county, schools and any other organizations that chose to use the system,
RELATED: Habersham cities planning for E-911 radio purchases, maintenance fees
“Any user on the system, all of the municipalities, the school system, whoever the external users are, and the county, all of the expenses of the system will be put in this special revenue fund,” Vaughn said. “It will be allocated to all the users based on how many radios they have on the system.”
