Employees denied raise for extra work

Bedford County Financial Management Committee split on whether or not to approve a salary supplement for two sheriff's department employees who have added dispatching to their secretarial duties.

A motion to recommend the supplement and pass it on to Bedford County Board of Commissioners for approval failed 3-1-2, with Highway Superintendent Stanley Smotherman, Bobby Vannatta and Janice Brothers voting in favor; J.D. "Bo" Wilson opposed; County Mayor Eugene Ray and newly-elected committee chair Joe Tillett not voting. School Superintendent Ed Gray was absent.

The sheriff's department had first asked for the supplement back in April, saying that two employees hired as secretaries have now taken on additional dispatch duties, and the committee said at that time to make it a part of the department's 2008-2009 budget request. But an unusually-tight budget year meant that many department budgets were cut from their 2007-2008 spending levels.

Tony Barrett, a sheriff's deputy and a member of the county commission, brought the request back Tuesday night, saying that the sheriff's department has enough extra money in its budget to fund the request because of some employee turnover which replaced veteran employees with entry-level ones making less.

"There's no doubt in my mind that it's fair to these ladies," said Barrett.

Finance committee members, however, questioned whether other county departments would object given the tight budget situation.

In other discussion Tuesday night:

Fuel costs

County Finance Director Robert Daniel reviewed the July gasoline, diesel and maintenance costs for county departments as requested by the committee. However, some of the figures weren't very useful; some county departments had topped off their own in-house fuel tanks before the end of the 2007-2008 fiscal year and didn't spend anything on gasoline or diesel during the month of July.

The committee discussed the relative merits of departments maintaining their own fuel tanks versus contracting with a fleet management fuel provider like Pacific Pride. Fleet management helps safeguard against theft or misuse, but for some outlying schools or emergency departments the cost of driving into town for fuel makes it less attractive.

Daniel noted that a new tank being installed at Bedford County Emergency Medical Services' airport station features the best of both worlds -- it has electronic controls which require a login and which generate records like those of fleet management fuel providers.

New chairman

Because of the death of finance committee chairman Roger Brothers, a new chairman had to be elected. Vice-chair Gray, who was not present Tuesday night, had declined the job, so Wilson nominated Tillett, who was elected.

"It's big shoes that I come to try to fill," said Tillett.

Bobby Vannatta was elected as vice-chair.

Tuesday was the first finance committee meeting for member Janice Brothers, who succeeded her late husband on the county commission and was appointed to the same committees on which he had served.

Direct deposit

Daniel noted that, because county paychecks will be issued this Friday but the Board of Education office will be closed that day, the school system's personnel director will keep special office hours Friday from 8 a.m. until noon in order to hand out paychecks.

This led to a discussion of requiring that all county employees receive their pay by direct deposit. Several possibilities were discussed, including allowing current employees to be grandfathered in but requiring direct deposit for new hires, or requiring direct deposit after a designated phase-in period. It was claimed that eliminating paychecks would save the county money in check printing costs.

Tillett suggested that Daniel prepare a proposed change to the county's personnel policy and that the issue be discussed with the school board.

Fire funding

Volunteer Fire Services Inc. chief Mark Thomas, who is also a county commissioner, said he is still looking at funding possibilities for VFSI. The tight budget year has led the committee to ask for possibilities for funding VFSI that do not place a burden on city taxpayers who don't normally benefit from VFSI service.

Thomas said he "really would hate to see" a fire tax district, one of the proposed solutions, and said a fire tax district would likely be detrimental to VFSI's community fund-raising, since donors being taxed for the service might not want to donate to it as well.

Insurance meeting

Jim Allison of Duck River Electric Membership Corp. will discuss DREMC's experience with self-insured employee health insurance during a meeting with county officials on Tuesday. The county wants to see whether it could save money through a self-insurance program.