The budget committee knew we would have to make serious cuts or be faced with a hefty property tax increase. One of the most important discussions was whether we would be able to afford raises for county employees. Raises for all employees would add about $250,000.00 to the budget.

Shortly into the budget process, budget members decided that either we would recommend raises for every employee or for no employees. Ultimately, when all was said and done, the money just wasn't there to give raises. Even at that, the adopted budget would be 1.5 million dollars in the red. The hope was that revenues would rebound in the next year and in the next budget cycle, the commission would be back on track and make up for the "no raises budget."

Several weeks after the budget was adopted, it was discovered that through an error, mistake or oversight, six elected officials were actually given hefty raises of nearly $3,000. At last weeks commission meeting, the budget committee had voted to recommend to the full commission to cease those raises. The county finance director advised that since the budget had been adopted and had already been approved by the state, resending the raises would be flagged as an audit finding. Personally, that was fine with some of us. We would save 30k and get an audit finding which has no penalty.  Ultimately, commissioners took no action to resend the 6 raises which left them as they were. This would leave the three highest paid county officials, Mayor, Sheriff and Highway Superintendent with no raises. This is when things got crazy.

In attendance at the meeting were Sheriff Tim Guider and Highway Superintendent Eddie Simpson. After commission chose to leave the 6 raises in the budget, Sheriff Guider was the first to speak. In essence, he felt that if the other elected officials were going to get their raises, he, the mayor and the highway superintended should get their raises.  Eddie Simpson was the next to speak accusing the commission of "taking money out of his pocket." At one point I honest to goodness thought Simpson was going to break into tears. Mayor Buddy Bradshaw made it clear, he was fine not getting any raise since no regular county employees got raises. After a very long discussion, commissioner David Meers made the motion seconded by commissioner Matthew Tinker to give the three their raises. The motion passed by an 8-2 vote.

The salaries are:

Mayor Bradshaw goes from $98,429.00 to $101,657.00, a $3,228.00 raise

Sheriff Guider goes from $93,742.00 to $96,816.00, a $3,074.00 raise

Highway Superintendent Simpson goes from $93,742.00 to $96,816.00, a $3,074.00 raise

We're not done yet.

In all the discussion from Sheriff Guider and Highway Superintendent Simpson, not once did either one of them mention a word or complain about their employees not getting raises. All they talked about was their raises.

The question I asked, after all the highest paid officials got their raises was, how could we possibly give tens of thousands of dollars in raises, to the highest paid county (elected) officials, and not give a cent to our rank and file county employees that actually do the work and keep the county running. I put forth a motion that all other county employees receive a 2.5% raise, retroactive to July 1st. My motion was seconded by commissioner Kelly Brewster. Ultimately, that motion passed.

When all was said and done, we did just what the budget committee's original plan was from back in April, either everyone gets a raise or no one gets a raise. Raises for all.

With a budget nearly two million dollars in the red now, we better pray the economy goes great and revenues keep growing.

Below is a video link for the full commission meeting. The raises discussion begins around the 16 minute mark

Commission Meeting 9/8/20