The DeKalb County Budget Committee has been hearing from public officials and department supervisors in recent weeks on funding requests for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The committee has already recommended some budgets be adopted by the full county commission later this summer.
One request that the budget committee has denied for this year came from County Clerk James L. (Jimmy) Poss who was seeking a fourth full time employee for his office.
In a recent budget committee meeting, Poss gave reasons for why he believes an additional employee is needed in his office. “After much consideration and researching our daily and monthly work flow going back to the beginning of 2013 to current, I definitely feel we have the need for another full time person”.
“When this office began printing new titles in December 2012 work flow all together increased. Our office currently processes an average of 87 titles and renewals per day. This does not include boat registrations, beer permit applications, completing business and marriage license, notaries, bookkeeping, assisting customers with the kiosk machine, etc.”
“In comparison, last year we completed 1,000 more transactions than Smith County. They are approximately 500 more in population and have five full time employees and one part time. They (Smith County) don’t lose anybody through the week and don’t work on Saturday. I’m not saying we have to operate their way. I’m just using this as an example of the amount of work we do,” said Poss
“I originally considered seeking a part time employee, but with time we have experienced increasing work flow and scheduling difficulties concerning the employees vacation time, sick time, comp time, and different things that are due them as well as their lunch hours. In order to maintain two employees in the office it requires a minimum of three people Monday through Friday every week just to assure each employee has their lunch break.”
“Current employee absences exceed 700 hours annually. The employees who work on Saturday are allotted time off during the same week in order to keep their 37 1/2 hours status quo with the other employees who do not work on Saturdays. This time alone accounts for the loss of one full time employee one day every week. Factor in employee sick time, vacation time, and take into consideration any bereavement or family leave if needed, the office will lose enough hours a year that certainly covers at least a part time position,” said Poss.
County Clerk Poss also stated that according to previous public statements made by the former administrator the need was anticipated even prior to his (Poss) taking office and he (former administrator) addressed the concern with the county legislative body during a monthly meeting on August 27, 2012 and again the following day in an interview with WJLE.
The projected costs of adding another position to the office is $23,024 plus benefits according to the county’s existing wage scale.
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