News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A move by Putnam County Clerk Wayne Nabors to use collected fees for employee bonuses drew the ire of several Putnam County Commissioners.
Nabors received commission approval to use some $20,000 in restricted money to provide bonuses to employees inside the County Clerk’s Office. Restricted funds are generated by the department and can only be used for certain purposes, based on state oversight. This particular money came from recent legislation allowing clerks to collect a $3 fee for title and registration transactions.
Commissioner Sam Sandlin said it was just not fair to do a bonus for one part of county government and not another. Commissioner Jonathan Williams agreed.
“If they’re given for one office, this body is going to receive a lot of blowback from other employees who did not get bonuses, who do not work for offices that are fee generating,” Williams said. “And they’re going to say, we work just as hard as they do. And I won’t be surprised if we don’t have department heads and other elected officials ask for one time money above and beyond whatever we’re going to hopefully do in terms of cost of living. If this passes, expect a lot of discontent among our county employees because one office is getting a better deal because they’re a fee office than everybody else.”
Commissioner Chris Cassetty said the commissioners just approved a salary increase for employees, based on a Salary Study. He said the commissioners should stick to that plan.
“As part of that approval, there were several elected officials, several department heads that had asked for specific raises for specific employees, and we took all those out of the budget as part of approving the salary study,” Cassetty said. “If these people deserve bonuses, it needs to be in the budget. And we had that opportunity this past year, and we voted the way we voted.”
Commissioner David Andrews said he did not necessarily agree with the bonuses, but he said the Commission should not interfere in the department run by an elected official.
Nabors said the new fee on residents created some $90,000 in new revenue. Nabors said he pays one employee salary through that additional funding.
“I stand behind the fact that I have the busiest office in Putnam County,” Nabors said. “We do probably 150,000 transactions. We are crazy busy every day.”
Commission Chair Ben Rodgers said the State Comptrollers Office changed its policy, asking that county commissions approve the use of such restricted funding. County Commissioners approved the bonus by a 19-5 vote.
