| One of the last items
commissioner's dealt with at the last commission meeting was Loudon
County highway superintendent/Lenoir City councilman, Eddie Simpson's,
request for an additional $4,915.00 on top of his current $101,811.00
salary. I read Mr.
Simpson's own words from a recent News Herald story.
Simpson said
the removal is more about the principle than money.
“I thought
that was kind of dirty that they would do that, and I’m
looking for the future, it’s got nothing to do with
my wage,” Simpson said. “I’m serious when I say that.
The $5,000 don’t do anything for me. It was just the
principle of the whole thing. And it’s the future folks,
the person who’s going to be taking my job, whoever that
might be when I leave here, that his salary will be less
than my salary was for 12 years, that was the only
reason that. I just think or the people coming up behind
us they need to remain and not be below.” News Herald
I also read Sheriff Time
Guider's statement in the same News Herald story.
“I
guess it was the principle because I didn’t know about
that. Nobody shared that with me prior to (the vote),”
Guider said. “I didn’t know about that resolution until
(Aug. 16). I would have been fine if, ‘Hey, sheriff,
this is what we’re doing.’ But that never was done. ...
The mayor is in a predicament, too, because he doesn’t
want to seem like he’s (asking) because it affects his
salary. So they talked about it a little at the budget
meeting and said, ‘Well, we might be able to do it,’
because it does affect our retirement money, mine and
Eddie’s. They call it the ‘High-5,’ your last five years
is what they base your retirement on. Now I don’t know
what that is, how much that would affect my final
retirement, and I told them there at the end of the
budget meeting, I said, ‘I’m good. Whatever you all
decide, I’m good. It doesn’t matter’.” News Herald
Both Guider and Simpson
received copies of the proposed budget weeks before it was adopted.
I pointed out that both Guider
and Simpson and Mayor Buddy Bradshaw have said they didn't want the
money. and they apparently were OK without getting the extra supplement.
Simpson sitting on the front row said, "I never said I didn't want
it." I referred back again to his statement in the News Herald
again. Simpson said I was twisting things around. Guess I wasn't suppose
to read his own words.
Simpson has spent weeks calling
commissioners whining about not getting his extra $4,915. Apparently, it
worked. In the end, Simpson got his extra money as did the sheriff and
by default, so does the mayor. Simpson was fist bumping and hugging all
around after the vote. The new salary for the Guider and Simpson will be
$106,726.00 and the mayor will go to $112.238. The supplements will end
at the end of the fiscal year. The one year supplement will cost the tax
payers $17,000.00 to $18,000.00.
Click here to
watch the meeting at our Youtube channel
The supplement discussion
begins at 2:10:57
Previous Story
Never Enough
| Item 4 on the last
commission budget meeting was:
Discussion And Request:
Salary Supplement For Highway Superintendent-Eddie Simpson.
It's kind of simple,
Mr. Simpson wants more money, but it's a bit complicated how it
came about.
In 2009, under a
previous county administration and Highway Superintendent, a
decision was made to give the Highway Superintendent an
additional $4,915.00 on top of the state mandated salary.
At that time, commission added the title, "Highway Inspector" to
the Highway Superintendent's job title. Of course, that was just
a made up title to justify the supplement. At that time, the
sheriff was making $4,915.00 more than the Highway
Superintendent. The idea, for some reason, was to pay the
Highway Superintendent and the sheriff the same.
For 13 years, the
$4,915.00 salary supplement has remained tacked to the Highway
Superintendent's salary. During this years budget discussions,
we learned that Loudon County would be moving up to a class five
county based on the increase in population, 50,000-64,199. Along
with the new classification comes the state mandated increase in
elected official salaries, except for commissioners. Since the
Highway Superintendent would be getting a $4,995.00 raise just
due to the increased population, the budget committee voted to
eliminate the "Highway Inspector" $4,915.00 supplement. The new
salary for the "Highway Inspector" would be $101,811.00.
The budget was adopted on July 6th. You might think that a
county official who just got a $4,995.00 raise might be grateful
or if they had been overpaid $54,00.00 in eleven years they
bight be happy. Not necessarly.
Mr. Simpson, who
attended the meeting along with Sheriff Tim Guider, related the
history of the supplement and reasons he should continue to
receive it. Now it takes a little more history to fill in all
the blanks. In 1979, the commission at that time, voted to
convert the Justice Center to a workhouse. This was long before
Guider became sheriff. Ultimately, the requirements to operate a
workhouse were determined to be far too much to implement at our
jail so the workhouse was never developed. However, the
commission had already implemented a salary supplement for the
then sheriff with the title, "Workhouse Superintendent" which is
allowed under state law. (This is why the sheriff was making
more that the Highway Superintendent in 2009. While the
workhouse was never implemented, the salary supplement remained
in place for forty years. Last year, the commission rescinded
the workhouse designation. The sheriff's $4,915.00 supplement
was also eliminated in this year's budget as that salary was
increased likewise as the Highway Superintendent.
Sheriff Guider
explained that he had been asked by Mr. Simpson to attend the
budget meeting but ultimately said, he didn't care either way,
(if he got the supplement or not.) Not Simpson. He said he still
wanted his extra $4,915.00 and has been calling commissioners
lobbying for the money. It will be up to commission if Mr.
Simpson gets his extra $4,915.00.
By most accounts, Mr.
Simpson has personally done well financially. Along with his
$101,811.00 county Highway Superintendent salary, he also
receives $7,200.00 annually as a city councilman. He also
receives $4,800.00 as a LCUB board member along with
$16,340.00 in insurance benefits.
In speaking with
someone after the meeting, we were just scratching our heads on
the request. The other person said, I guess it's true, "the
more you have, the more you want" and it just never seems to
be enough. |
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