KINGWOOD — The Preston County clerk and assessor blasted county commissioners Tuesday for giving only commission employees a raise.
County Clerk Linda Huggins and Assessor Connie Ervin spoke to Commissioners Dave Price, Don Smith and Samantha Stone at the commission meeting.
Huggins said that “COVID came along,” while the commission was working on the 2020-2021 budget, and she was dealing with elections.
“I should have been more adamant to bring this forward and talk about it, but I was dealing with other things. I can’t handle a lot of issues at one time; I had to focus on the election,” Huggins said.
But, she said, commissioners gave most employees under them raises while enforcing a hiring freeze on other offices.
“All of these offices are the working of county government,” she said. “Not just this office.”
It’s the first time she’s seen only commission employees get a raise, the clerk said, and she wants to sit down and find a way to give all county workers a raise.
Some raises were approved for commission employees but without adding additional money to the commission budget, Stone said. Huggins said she didn’t have that option.
“They are the nuts and bolts that keep all of our offices working, so that we have a good place to work, a functional place,” Stone said.
Commission employees include janitorial and maintenance staff, IT, the county administrator and the animal shelter.
“I feel like it’s insulting that you do not see that all the county offices are very vital. Equally,” Huggins said.
Smith said he was not denying that. “There is a apart to be played by every piece,” to make the county work, he said.
Huggins noted the office worked throughout the COVID-19 lock down, “and we were essential staff.” (Offices were closed to walk-in traffic from March until May.)
“Just because you think you know what goes on in our offices doesn’t mean you were right, and I think you were wrong to give raises across the board.”
Price said raises for employees are important. “At the same time there have been times when you had some extra money and you’ve given raises on your own, in your office. It works both ways here,” he said.
Huggins asked if he wanted to compare hourly wages and years of experience?
“I hope that it is possible to do something to reward the really, really, really dedicated employees,” Price said. “But we’re going to have to study this.”
It’s insulting to say some employees are better, Huggins told him. It’s insulting when an office holder gives employees to their people and to certain people, giving more to some than others, Price replied.
“We are front line workers. We do talk to these people every day, and we talked to these people every day during COVID,” Ervin “We were on the phone, we were on the computer, we were on email, anything we could do to communicate to these people we did.”
Her workers have not had a raise in more than two years and she lost an employee who left for a better salary and fewer hours, Ervin said.
She gave commissioners examples of what her office does, including setting property values on more than 50,000 pieces of property, processing dog taxes, handling managed timberland, doing tax supplementals and answering taxpayers’ questions.
“These people work hard. They deserve a raise,” Ervin said.
Part of that money could come from the supplemental taxes that her office is able to collect, she said. Those are tax bills sent out that weren’t initially billed for various reasons.
Stone said it’s not that commissioners didn’t want to give raises.
“Just know that we are trying our best to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars and we want to make sure that we are making the right decision,” Stone said. She thanked the two for the information.
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