3% Raise For County Employees?

County employees may pay more on insurance than the 3% raise they receive.

County employees will receive a 3% raise. After weeks of discussion finally last Thursday night at the BOC meeting Post Commissioner Danny Hall made a motion to give the county employees a 3% raise.
The room was silent waiting on a second. Chair Commissioner JC Sanford looked at Dallas Miller and asked if he was going to second the motion. Miller made it known early that day in a workshop that he agreed with the raise. Miller would not second the motion because Sanford and Hall are running against each other for the Chair position and he wanted Sanford to make a public stand on employee raises. Sanford stalled, saying his only problem was it does not go far enough, the county employees deserve more. After stalling Sanford finally reluctantly seconded the motion. All voted yes. The county will adjust the salary and wage area of the budget for all departments and offices up 3%.

Earlier that day in the workshop Sanford surprised the post commissioners with new employee insurance policy options. As usual the post commissioners had no time to review the policies to make a decision. The best I could understand if an employee kept the same coverage with the same deductible it would cost an additional $80 each pay period. Plan B was a higher deductible to keep the same premium.

Some County employees were in the room and were outraged. The explanation was so unclear that Frank Copeland with the Sheriff’s Department told the commissioner that he has investigated scams for years and this was a scam. The Post commissioners refused to make a decision on such short notice with no time to review information. And as usual, because the decision has to be made immediately since it goes into effect July 1, a special called meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday at 9am in the Commissioner’s Conference Room to finalize the county employee insurance plans.