County approves salary assistance grants

• County approves salary assistance grants

State grants for salary assistance and radio system upgrades dominated the Shelby County Commissioners’ Court meeting Wednesday, March 27.

Salary Assistance Grants The county received three salary assistance grants in March from the state through Senate Bill 22. The grants, earmarked for the sheriff ’s office, the district attorney’s office and the county attorney’s office, were received at the beginning of March and required action to avoid returning unused funds to the state.

According to County Au- ditor Clint Porterfield, the $350,000 in grants can be used for four things. First to provide minimum salaries for specified individual. “You have to provide a minimum of $75,000 salary for the sheriff before you can do number 4,” he said. “You have to provide a $45,000 minimum salary for each deputy who conducts motor vehicle stops in the course of their duties, and a $40,000 minimum salary for each jailer whose duties include safety, keeping of prisoners, security of jail, so forth.”

Porterfield said once number 1 is fulfilled, then 2, 3 or 4 can be addressed. He also noted that when the budget was adopted, the salary for the sheriff was set at $75,600, including benefits, to ensure that the county would be compliant with the grant. Plus pointing out that the deputies and jailers already made the minimum required by the grant.

Commissioners Lout, Smith and Bellmyer voted to approve it, while McSwain voted against it. “I’m going to say that I voted no,” said McSwain. “Because I don’t think it’s appropriate to move forward with this. I would like to have discussed more about the deputy pay and things like that in weeks to come, but it’s the court’s decision. I’m not voting against giving the sheriff a raise at the appropriate time,” he stressed.

“I would like to have seen some of these funds used to increase the salary of the deputies,” McSwain added. “A beginning law officer in the Longview PD is $64,000 now. We’re still not gonna attract people at the rate we’re paying. Even when we’re above the minimum.”

After discussion, Porterfield concluded, “I’d just like to make a recommendation for a motion to be made to approve the rural prosecutor salary assistance program grant, to increase the salary of the assistant DA for a date to be determined by the district attorney, to increase the salary of the victim assistance coordinator effective March 25 and to approve possible additional staff of an assistant DA and adjust the budget accordingly.”

Despite his stated reservations, McSwain made the motion to approve the grant, which was passed with the agreement of the other commissioners.

The salary assistance grant for the county attorney’s office followed the same guidelines as the one for the district attorney. It included proposals to increase the salary of the current DA/CA investigator by $20,000, to increase the pay of the victim assistance coordinator by $15,000, to hire an additional part time staff at $18,000 and the possible hiring of an assistant county attorney for $85,000. For a total payroll of $138,000 grossed up $171,000, with benefits.

McSwain moved to approve this grant, as well, which was also passed.

Radio System The court was scheduled to discuss updates to the county’s radio system with Josh Tipton, Constable Pct. 5, and a representative of Bob Cat but the item was tabled at a request from Tipton received before the meeting began. Several area emergency management officials and some members of DETCOG were already on hand, however, and were invited to share with the court some information on the status of the radio communications network in the region.

Annex Roof Repair Regarding repairs to the courthouse annex roof, the court voted to proceed with requesting bids for the project with the bids due by May 1.

Internet The county also approved switching internet providers for the sheriff ’s office and Justice of the Peace 1 office. The action anticipated a savings in cost with better internet service.

The court also approved April 1 as the start date for the new 911 Addressing Coordinator- Commissioners’ secretary, approved the purchase of a work truck and 32’ tandem axle trailer for Precinct 4, the sale of a 2007 GMC 2500 HD truck by Precinct 2 and paid the weekly expenses and the current payroll.