News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Jackson County exploring the possibility of commissioners participating in the county’s Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System.
Mayor Randy Heady said the county budgeted to do a study to see if this is something that would be feasible. He said they also wanted to start the retirement plan with the current commission or include former commissioners.
“What would it cost for them to be able to buy back their years, and what would it be a cost to the county, and is that what we want to do or do we just want to start it now,” Heady said. “So we need to do the study to figure out what we want to do. The old commission had talked about this, we planned it.”
Heady said it takes five years to be vested, and there are some commissioners with more than 10 years of service. Heady said the study will help them decide to do what is best for everybody, including the community. He said they really need to know what it will cost the county to buy back years of service.
Heady said providing benefits like retirement could help inspire more community members to serve as a commissioner.
“A lot of counties, you know sometimes you have a hard time finding people willing to dedicate the time to be a commissioner,” Heady said. “It’s pretty demanding when you talking sub-committees, and county commission meetings, and then you’re going to be making decisions that are sometimes controversial and so then you get the phone calls. Sometimes there is not a ton of get back.”
