11-3-15
File photo
(Cleveland)- Dedicated White County employees will see a nice increase in pay following action taken by the White County Board of Commissioners Monday. The board approved a FY 2016 Longevity based pay adjustments for county employees. Commission Chairman Travis Turner said, during the budget time last summer the board said it would take a look at compensation of employees based on the results of the county audit, and preliminary results of that audit show funds are there for the extra compensation.
Turner detailed the increases, “ employees with less than 5 years continuous service as of December first ( this year) will receive a 2.5 percent, or one step pay increase effective December first, employees with 5 years or more continuous service as of the same date, December first, will receive a 5 percent or two step increase effective the same date, and employees earning over $60,000 a year annually will be capped at a one step, which is a 2.5 percent increase, regardless of years of service.
White County Sheriff Neal Walden has been a long time champion for extra compensation for county employees, bringing the issue up before the commissioners several times in the past, and he said after the meeting Monday that this is exciting news. “ It’s been long coming and the board of commissioners has worked hard trying to come up with the monies to fund this, and as they said they’re going to try to look at a longevity package in the upcoming year, so I’m excited that we’re taking a look at this kind of stuff because I was loosing employees left and right,” said Walden.
One of the main pressure points that supported the increase, according to the commissioners was the county would take a new employee and train them and then because they could make more money elsewhere they would leave the county.
Commissioner Terry Goodger said, lots of credit for the money for these increases goes to county department leaders who have helped the county hold the line on spending.
