Commissioners Want Employee Salary Study

The Overton County Budget Committee wants to see a salary study completed on county employee compensation.

County Commissioners will consider a $2 raise for all county employees, the recommendation of the budget committee this week. Several Commissioners said the county could not afford more right now. Other Commissioners said they wanted to better understand how much less the county is paying than neighboring cities and counties.

The salary increase, the most contentious item in a controversial budget process, according to County Executive Steven Barlow.

“Trying to get together and work together was very difficult because constantly having to defend, either the crowd having to, trying to defend their self and the commission trying to defend their self, it just made it very difficult this time to, to make a decision,” Barlow said.

Committee Member Gregg Nivens said they need to get an understanding of their employees’ salaries so they can be prepared for next year’s budget. Barlow said he will contact CTAS or another company to come in and handle the study, but is unsure how long the process will take.

“We have a job description whenever we hire somebody, this is your job description,” Barlow said. “And so they’ll go by that job description and they’ll determine what it should be. That’s what they do. But I don’t – they’ll charge something, but I don’t know how much.”

Nivens made the motion for the raise and the salary study together, saying that a $2 raise was better than a $3 raise. The Overton County Salary Committee sent the budget committee proposals for a $2 and a $3 raise, meaning the budget committee had to choose between those two options or send them back and delay the process even further.