Employees showed up en masse at the Habersham County Commission’s special called meeting Thursday night. The jury room at the courthouse where they met was standing room only with many people having to stand in the hall to hear the meeting. The employees were there in support of the Evergreen Pay Study that was on the agenda last night. They were encouraged to attend by the commissioners, administration, and department heads. However, the employees had to wait with anticipation for over an hour and a half to see if the Commission would vote to implement the pay study and, with it, county employee pay raises.
The first action taken by chairman Bruce Palmer was to recommend “suspending the rules” to allow employees the opportunity to speak to the commission about the pay study. Policy dictates that employees are not allowed to address commissioners during a commission meeting. Chairman Palmer stated, “I would like to make a motion; normally we don’t allow County employees to make public comment at the commission meeting. I would like to make a motion to suspend the rules to allow our employees to make comments because the agenda items tonight are very relevant to our employees.”
The motion was seconded by commissioner Ty Akins and commissioner Dustin Mealor was the approving vote.
Several citizens of the community signed up to comment on the agenda items. All were in support of the pay increases but some questioned the manner in which it was done.
Larry Shedd stated that there was $800,000 in the budget for pay raises and that the employees should get it, and they deserved it. However, “they (commissioners) kind of went about it backwards.
“We are against how they handled it. They should have gone within a five-county area and looked at the average of salaries and gone at it from that perspective,” Shedd said. “We are opposed to the misuse of that money.”
Shedd spoke about the Habersham County Recreation Department as well. The Recreation Department was the second item on the agenda for the addition of seven employees.
“The Recreation Department is already budgeted. It is a 17.69% increase over last year’s budget. The budget has been set for recreation, so where are you getting the money?”
Carol Means addressed the commission and thanked the employees for what they do. However, she questioned the commission about the timing of the meeting and the needs of the Recreation Department.
“I’m just wondering why we had to have a special called meeting tonight to do that? I think maybe five business days have passed since that meeting, and I am not counting Thanksgiving Day and the day after Thanksgiving, and the weekend there. So, I am just kinda wondering why we had to have this, and this could not be addressed at the upcoming next commission meeting later on in the month. Maybe it would give the citizens a little bit more time to kinda look through some of this information,” Means said.
She continued, “I do agree with the pay study being done, but the pocketbook is the pocketbook, and if the pocketbook is getting pretty low, then maybe you need to look at some ways of taking money from over there to take care of these people out here.” She also stated, “I am kinda wondering about the upper salaries of some of the folks that are working for us. Are they in line with like counties across the state of Georgia? Has that been considered?”
Means addressed the commission about the Rec. Department as well.
“The timing was pretty bad to ask for seven new salaries in the Recreation Department with all of the economic things that are going on today. Maybe in time that could take place.”
The commission heard from several employees that signed up to speak in favor of the salary study and some spoke in favor of the additional positions at the Recreation Department.
After the public comments section ended, Habersham County Chief Financial Officer Tim Sims went into the presentation of the pay study.
During his presentation Sims stated, “I just wanted to point out that 92.4% of this salary adjustment is for entry-level to mid-level employees. Only 7.6% are for department heads and higher.”
The cost to implement the salary adjustments from the pay study for the remainder of the fiscal year will be $412,436 and the cost to distribute the 3% cost of living adjustment to the remaining employees that have not received it will be $381,222 for a total of $793,658.
The pay adjustments and raises will go into effect after the first of January.
After Sims’ presentation, the commissioners thanked the employees for everything they do in the county and thanked the leadership staff as well. Commissioner Mealor made the motion to approve the implementation of the pay study, the pay tables, the reclassifications and funding for its implementation. That motion was seconded by Akins and approved by Palmer.
After 1 hour, 48 minutes, and 29 seconds, the employees had their answer about pay raises and erupted in standing applause after the vote.
The second item on the agenda was the request from Habersham County Recreation Department Director Brooke Whitmire for additional personnel. At the commissioners’ November 21 meeting, Whitmire asked for seven new hires with an anticipated cost of approximately $180,000. At last night’s meeting, Sims clarified her request and corrected the confusion from the previous meeting over how much the measure would cost.
Whitmire’s figures put the cost for new hires at around $180,000. However, Sims explained that by reorganizing the department, they could trim that cost.
The Recreation Department currently has two full-time budgeted positions that have been vacant this year, but the salaries and benefits remain in the budget. The two vacant positions are the Parks & Rec. Specialist and the Athletics Specialist. Combined with benefits, both positions have been allocated $83,317 in the existing budget. Those positions will be reclassified as the Aquatics Manager and the Athletic Manager. That changed Whitmire’s request from three new full-time positions to only one since the other positions were previously approved. Whitmire also requested four part-time Parks Supervisors. With the reclassification of positions and the new hires, the new total cost is reduced from $185,486 to $118,147.
It is anticipated that having an Athletics Director will allow the county to bring in-house the Habersham County Youth League instead of outsourcing that service. By bringing that in-house, the county anticipates it will collect at least $55,000 to help cover the additional employee costs.
Commissioner Akins motioned to dissolve the two specialist positions and create a full-time Aquatics Manager, Athletics Manager, and Administrative Assistant and four part-time Park Supervisors. He also moved to amend the budget to support those changes. Mealor seconded the moved, and Palmer cast the deciding vote.
Commissioners Bruce Harkness and Jimmy Tench did not attend Thursday’s called meeting. Harkness was out of town on business and had informed the chairman he would not be able to attend. A citizen informed the board that Tench was sick and unable to attend.
