Some Elmore County employees could make up to $8,400 a year each of the next three years thanks to a plan by the Elmore County Commission to distribute federal pandemic assistance funds.
The commission voted unanimously Monday night to create a “premium pay plan” for its lower and middle-income employees to alleviate struggles recruiting and retaining employees, particularly in the public safety and public works departments.
“Over the last year, y’all did a very good job providing leadership with the onset of Covid; but now we’re seeing after-effects on the job market and the way it’s affecting employees’ retention and recruitment,” said Chief Operating Officer Richie Beyer. “This will help our low to moderate-income employees and help stem off problems we are having in public safety and public works. Those are the two main areas we are really struggling to recruit and maintain employees.”
The three-year program will cost approximately $7 million, funded out of the $15.8 million in American Rescue Plan funds granted to Elmore County by the federal government to assist in pandemic recovery.
“The pandemic has altered the landscape of retaining employees and hiring employees and continuing operations as we need to to serve citizens of Elmore County,” said commission chairman Troy Stubbs. “Being fiscally responsible like we have the past few years has put us in the position to do something like this. We have deliberately taken time to evaluate how we could implement a program like this without putting ourselves in a position that it would be so temporary that it would not be a lasting change for the people of Elmore County. We’ve all seen some counties and municipalities who have given a one-time bonus to employees. We want this to be something that, over a three-year period … we can prepare financially to sustain these pay raises in year four and moving forward. It’s not our desire to give someone a quick inflow of one-time funds that they may not be able to budget properly, and then it goes away. We will build into our budget for year four and beyond so that we can be a competitive county in a very competitive world for employees.”
Beyer said the federal funding caps the max amount per employee at $25,000, which the program divvies up over three years to arrive at the maximum of $8,400 each year if the employees meet the benchmarks required by the government.
The commission wasn’t done rewarding employees for their efforts during the pandemic.
Employees are typically capped annually at 240 hours of leave, but Beyer said the needs of the pandemic have made it difficult for employees to be able to utilize those hours. With the year winding down and those benefits on the verge of being lost, Beyer said employees typically try to burn those hours off at the end of the year, causing complications for workflow. Or even worse, some employees would simply sacrifice those benefits out of a sense of duty.
“Most of these employees that are on this list are the ones that are here through thick and thin, they are the first ones who would be OK losing the time because they’re going to do their job and serve their departments well,” Beyer said.
Instead, Beyer recommended the county pay out those hours of excess to the employees to return them to the normal cycle.
The commission approved the measure unanimously.
The commission also took a step to resolve a decades-long issue concerning the area of Prattville in Elmore County which has seen an explosion of development over the past 20 years.
At that time, a special district was created by agreement between the City of Prattville and the Elmore County Commission with 20 percent of a 1 percent special sales tax from that district being obligated to be spent in that district.
“We’ve been working several years with the City of Prattville to modify the restrictions on which those sales tax dollars can be expended,” Stubbs said. “For nearly two decades the expectation was they were to be spent only in that district. We’ve come to a point where we feel, as with all other sales tax dollars, they are received and then they are expended, but not restricted to a geographic area.”
Stubbs stated that decisions made outside of that district, such as a fishing tournament, can have a positive impact on the district, so the funds generated should be able to be spent outside that district as well.
The commission unanimously approved to pursue local legislation through the Alabama Legislature in the upcoming session, but Beyer said they are waiting for the Prattville City Council to approve the same before crafting the final version of the bill, which should be available in the coming week.
The commission approved authorizing Stubbs and Beyer to execute necessary documents to assist the City of Wetumpka with master planning for the Hohenberg and Wetumpka Sports Complex facilities, with the county to participate in up to 50 percent of the costs of the master plan and design work.
“When the concept was being thrown out about a stadium that would be away from Hohenberg the discussion was that the city and the board of education wanted to repurpose Hohenberg and turn it into a soccer complex and then have further development of the Wetumpka sports complex,” Beyer said.
“Any time we make a transition of the use of a facility, we want to also have a plan to repurpose the existing facility ... before we abandon it,” Stubbs said. “This is a great opportunity to work with the city and board of education on this project.”
In other business, the commission:
● Appointed Samuel C. Turner to the Elmore County Health Care Authority/Elmore Community Hospital Board
● Authorized Stubbs and Beyer to serve as the awarding authority for the ACCA’s Investing in Alabama Counties (IAC) Joint Bidding Program
● Authorized Stubbs and Beyer to participate in the ACCA’s IAC Joint Bidding Program
● Approved Beyer as program director for the county’s ARP allocation
● Approved annual contribution to Liberty Learning Foundation
● Authorized Stubbs and Beyer to execute a three-year service plan with Johnson Controls for Elmore County Jail boilers
● Approved a contract addendum with Keet Consulting Services, LLC (KCS) to implement ArcGIS fabric parcel conversion and enterprise portal. Item to include necessary budget amendments for the expenditure from revenue project funds
● Approved the sheriff to execute three-year leases for Sheriff Department copiers off State Contract
● Approved a resolution to install guardrail, end anchors and pavement markers on Claud Fleahop Road from Alabama Highway 14 east 2.84 miles to South Fleahop Road
● Set a public hearing for 5 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2022 to consider the proposed vacation by adjoining land owner of a portion of Providence Road
Personnel Notifications:
● Notification of resignation of Barbara Self, office administrator, effective Nov. 18, 2021
● Notification of promotion of Michelle Williams, office administrator (replacing Self),
effective Dec. 6, 2021
● Notification of promotion of Brittany Smith-MacLean, engineer tech to assistant administrator, effective Dec. 6, 2021
● Notification of resignation of Joe Unger, corrections officer, effective Nov. 20, 2021
● Notification of promotion of Kameron Ricks, sergeant to lieutenant, effective Nov. 21, 2021
● Notification of promotion of Jesse Hill, sergeant, effective Nov. 21, 2021
● Notification of promotion of Tyrondia Heard, sergeant, effective Nov. 21, 2021
● Notification of promotion of Joshua Tidwell, sergeant, effective Nov. 21, 2021
● Notification of hire of Dylan Ammerman, PREA coordinator (replacing S. Dudley), effective Dec. 6, 2021
● Notification of reclassification of Sherri Markos, license specialist, effective Dec. 20, 2021
