Performance Review

It's pretty common practice for most large business to conduct annual employee performance reviews. The purpose for the reviews is to evaluate an employees job performance over the previous year to determine if that employee has met, failed or exceeded their job expatiations. Depending on that review, an employee might expect advancement, demotion or maybe even dismissal.

This being an election year and Loudon County being, if not the largest, one of the largest employers in the county, it seems appropriate that we, the tax payers, as the employers of all county officials would have the right to have a performance review on our elected officials.

Of course we couldn't do a typical, annual review but we can look at certain factors that might tell us how our officials have preformed over the last four years or their term in office since the last election.

Were the county officials at work and on time? We'll assume so. Were the county officials helpful and work well with others? I can only say that every county official I've interacted with have been pleasant and helpful. So what's the real measure of how our county officials have preformed for the last four years? How did they spend our money.

Below are several tables with comparisons of actual expenditures from the county's 2010 state audit and the budgeted expenditures for 2014. You can see the increase or decrease and percentage difference for each department.

The first table is for the county commission and mayor's office then just below that are the major departments that are under the sole jurisdiction of the commission and mayor. 

Dept. 2010 Audit   2014 Budget   4 Year Difference   % Difference
Commission $143,068.00   $141,292.00   -$1,776.00   -1.24%
Mayor $162,324.00   $176,577.00   $14,253.00   8.78%
               
County Attorney $88,618.00   $155,000.00   $66,382.00   74.91%
Planning $358,260.00   $374,347.00   $16,087.00   4.49%
Finance Dept. $443,495.00   $542,365.00   $98,870.00   22.29%
Purchasing Dept. $174,715.00   $235,094.00   $60,379.00   34.56%
Data $67,537.00   $147,604.00   $80,067.00   118.55%
Civil defense $108,515.00   $156,472.00   $47,957.00   44.19%
Animal Shelter $327,750.00   $354,649.00   $26,899.00   8.21%
Visitor Center $104,453.00   $110,000.00   $5,547.00   5.31%
EDA $161,156.00   $171,430.00   $10,274.00   6.38%
Total Increase        
$424,939.00
   

This table shows the offices of the other elected officials and below these are the departments managed by the sheriff and highway superintendent. And finally, the total increase in the overall county general fund.

Dept. 2010 Audit   2014 Budget   4 Year Difference   % Difference
Register Of Deeds $309,181.00   $273,724.00   -$35,457.00   -11.47%
Property Assessor $366,294.00   $386,012.00   $19,718.00   5.38%
Trustee $289,089.00   $320,908.00   $31,819.00   11.01%
County Court Clerk $431,686.00   $511,720.00   $80,034.00   18.54%
Circuit Court Clerk $268,739.00   $330,795.00   $62,056.00   23.09%
General Sessions Clerk $446,869.00   $528,001.00   $81,132.00   18.16%
General Sessions Judge $264,628.00   $281,259.00   $16,631.00   6.28%
Chancery Court $200,759.00   $247,913.00   $47,154.00   23.49%
Total Increase        

$303,087.00

    
               
               
Sheriff $3,368,859.00   $4,113,140.00   $744,281.00   22.09%
Jail $1,300,026.00   $1,878,202.00   $578,176.00   44.47%
Total Increase        

$1,322,457.00

    
               
               
Highway Dept. $2,413,545.00   $2,724,392.00   $310,847.00   12.88%
               
               
Total General Fund $14,014,632.00   $15,946,580.00   $1,931,948.00   13.79%

I'm not going to say if these increases are appropriate or not. I'll let you make your own determination. I'm just presenting the facts and figures. You as the voters can decide if you think your employees have met, failed or exceeded their job expatiations and if they deserve advancement, demotion or maybe even dismissal.

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2/17/14