• ‘You are becoming a training ground,’ Hunt warns.

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Whether or not employee benefits in Columbus County are too generous or lacking compared to other counties was not the main focus of commissioner workshops recently.

That didn’t stop some commissioners from hinting they would be suggesting changes to policies regarding everything from overtime to funeral leave.

Most county employees work 37.5-hour workweeks while others work 40-hour weeks, based on the type of work.

Office staff normally works 37.5-hour weeks while water department workers and meter readers work 40-hour workweeks, for example.

“If an employee gets paid for 40 hours they should work 40 hours,” Commissioner Ricky Bullard said. “If you are on salary you don’t get paid overtime.”

Personnel director Virginia Taylor explained certain positions were exempt from receiving overtime based on federal law and several years back the Department of Labor cited a number of problems with the county’s pay policies.

Commissioner Bill Memory wanted to know how many employees were paid by the hour. That question was met with no definite answer.

“(Former Administrator Billy Farmer) told me to put them on hourly even though they were salary,” Taylor said. “I just did what I was told.”

Some commissioners were curious about where the normal workweek hours came from.

Taylor said the workweek policy was in place when she first came to the county and she had nothing to do with it.

“I’m confused,” Commissioner Amon McKenzie said. “Where did it come from?”

Commissioner Lynwood Norris said he thought it had always been that way.

“We probably need to go back and explain that better,” Interim County Manager Leo Hunt told the board.

Bullard asked if the county would be “more productive” if all employees worked at least 40 hours instead of the 37.5.

“You are continuing to lose employees because of the amount of salaries,” Hunt declared. “If you are going to take something away you need to give something back.

“You are becoming a training ground at DSS, the health department and the sheriff’s department.”

Chairman James Prevatte said Wednesday that the board was concerned about losing employees but that he didn’t feel it was because of county policies and that for some time certain departments had started individuals in entry level positions. As they gained experience, some moved on to other counties or agencies.

“We’re concerned about that; we don’t want to lose employees but other agencies can offer more than what we can.”

Prevatte said he asked incoming manager Bill Clark to attend the workshop so he could get some background on the situation before Clark starts to work on Feb. 4.

Prevatte said he wants to get Clark involved in the discussion on policy and benefits as soon as he is on board.

Chairman James Prevatte said school clerical employees who work 37.5 hours per week only take half-hour lunches.

Employees on a “flex time” schedule with the county take only half hour lunches but most employees, regardless of 40-hour or 37.5-hour workweeks, get hour lunches.

“We need to put some clarification in here,” Commissioner Ronald Gore said. “We need to put that in black and white.”

Tax Administrator Richard Gore said during tax season the office staff may work late.

“I’ve seen us be there until 10 o’clock,” Richard Gore said. “Now we are usually out at least by 7.”

Gore said his staff gets compensatory time for overtime – meaning he might approve for them to leave early or come in late another day to compensate for the extra time.

“How do you know who works what?” Bullard asked, wanting clarification on which departments use what workweeks.

“It’s just what standard that department works under,” Public Utilities Director Leroy Sellers said.

Richard Gore pointed out in the late 1980s the county was on a 35-hour workweek for some employees.

“Somebody was getting shortchanged with 35 hours,” Prevatte said.

The discussion then turned to a recommendation by the personnel committee that employees not be paid for hours worked when traveling after normal work hours.

“If it is a mandate – I think they need to be compensated,’ Commissioner Gore said.

Jacobs said the county should pay for reasonable driving time.

Gore agreed.

Prevatte was concerned about how to define any type of compensation for business trips out of town. He pointed out although a person could be gone for days and overnight they were not necessarily in classes in the evening and had free time in the afternoon and at night.

“No matter how hard you try, you are going to have folks who beat the system,” Gore said.

Hunt pointed out that the personnel committee made up of department head selected by the county manager didn’t recommend paying employees for the time on trips.

While the committee came back with some strict recommendations such as no pay for after-hours trips, it did recommend more vacation time.

Paid annual leave now ranges from 10 days per year for employees with two or less years of time with the county to 21 days for employees with 15 or more years of service.

The recommendation would increase paid vacation time to 12 to 25.4 days per year based on years worked.

The committee has also recommended three days of paid funeral leave in addition to the county’s 12 paid days of sick leave earned per year and 14 hours of petty leave. “Basically, as I understand this, a person can take three sick days now for a funeral but this would allow funeral leave not deducted from sick leave,” Prevatte said.

Some board members were concerned in part that the definition of immediate family, which includes combinations of in-laws and step relations, was too broad.

“That covers everybody it sounds like to me,” Gore said. “I think we need to trim that some.”

“It needs to be the immediate family,” Bullard said.

McKenzie asked the committee why it was written the why it was.

“Truthfully, I don’t remember coming up with it,” Richard Gore said.

Memory gave the example of someone’s sister-in-law having a funeral out of state and that employee needing to go to the funeral.

“That’s my immediate family – my wife’s sister,” Jacobs said.

Hunt said the issue needs to be revisited to ensure every department handles it the same way since it is up to department heads to determine if the funeral is for an immediate family member.

“Who keeps track of all this accrued time?” Memory asked.

“We track it on time sheets,” Public Utilities Director Leroy Sellers said.

Hunt said Columbus County would be the first county he worked for that offered petty leave and pointed out it would give employees a chance to pick a child up from school one day, run an errand, or pick up medicine at a pharmacy that was about to close.

The time may be taken in 15-minute increments up to hours at the time with approval.

Hunt said it was becoming difficult to keep track of and differentiate between sick leave and annual leave.

“All of these are nice, but where is the stopping point to it?” Bullard asked.

“We are not facing the question of changing the policy,” Prevatte declared. “What we are looking at is how it will be accounted for.”

Prevatte said the items would be voted on one by one in future meetings.

On Wednesday following the workshop, Prevatte said things had gone well. He voiced no opinion on the current county employee benefits and when asked if he would suggest any changes, he was adamant that he was a moderator.

“I’m not suggesting any changes at all,” Prevatte said. “My job is to moderate.

“If the amendments do have changes I will have one vote whether to change it that way or not.”

He said such workshops were productive.

“I think our workshops went well – I’d like to continue these,” Prevatte said. “We need clarification about (subjects) before we get in a regular meeting.

“You have got to have a little bit of knowledge and get as much information as you can before you can make an educated vote.”

But at different times in the discussion some commissioners have been prevented from asking department heads questions if they are not on the selected committee. At one of the first workshops held Commissioner McKenzie was prevented from asking the social services director a question. He pointed out that at some point the board needed other department heads’ input.

Prevatte said Wednesday that the committee was supposed to be representative of the county as a whole and if individual department heads had concerns or questions they should address those with the personnel committee.

Department heads have an opportunity to speak at every regular commissioners meeting and can speak on any subject at the comment period for department heads, he added.

Employees who have suggestions can channel those through their department heads or speak during the regular public comments section at the beginning of regular commissioner meetings, Prevatte also suggested.

Clark, reached at his home on Wednesday, said the discussion of benefits was just one of many subjects the county will be dealing with in the near future.

“I don’t know what our turnover rate is – you can usually tell (if there is a problem) with salary or benefits by the turnover rate,” Clark said. “We need to do as much as we can to be competitive –we owe that to our employees but we also have limited resources. Your greatest asset is your employees but you also have a limited budget and cost to taxpayers (to consider).”