OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – Efforts to hire an in-house county engineer have stretched on with little progress and no candidates, despite supervisors first setting aside funding for the position in October 2024.
Discussions about bringing engineering services in-house resurfaced during a March 2 board meeting when District 4 Supervisor Pattie Little said she has reached out to several engineering firms to drum up interest, though none have shown an appetite for the position’s approved $85,000 salary.
Meanwhile the county pays independent contractor Clyde Pritchard at least double, and some years nearly 10 times, that amount for engineering services.
“I’ve talked to some engineering folks, and … they’ve said that they’ve seen the job description, but the salary out there is nothing anybody is going to look at,” Little said during the meeting. “… I think the way our county is growing … we need somebody that can assist our road manager when he’s building a road, doing any of that stuff … because I can’t see our county not having anyone (with) the way we grow.”
Supervisors initially approved an $85,000 salary for a part-time county engineer for the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Although the position was later changed to full-time, the salary was never adjusted, Little said.
County Administrator Wayne Carpenter said he has received only one application, and the candidate was not a licensed civil engineer, which is required by state law.
Cost savings?
The conversation about hiring an in-house engineer dates back to 2022 under former District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller. However, the county has contracted with Pritchard Engineering to manage all engineering projects throughout the county for more than a decade.
Only halfway through this fiscal year, the county has already paid Pritchard Engineering about $618,000, more than seven times the budgeted salary for the full-time in-house position. In FY 2025, the firm received about $567,443, of which roughly $207,830 was for reimbursable State Aid projects.
In past years, that number has climbed to more than $800,000 in FY 2017 and dipped as low as $194,000 in FY 2021.
Following last month’s discussion, supervisors tasked Carpenter with conducting a salary study and developing a more detailed job description to replace the current general job posting online.
Carpenter said while his study will consider making potential savings for the county, it will not be a primary concern.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that … (the budgeted salary) is insufficient,” Carpenter told The Dispatch on Friday. “With that said, how much savings will there be? I think there will be some. I think that there will be a significant improvement in project oversight and project management. … So even if there’s not any savings, I think there’s tremendous advantages to having an in-house county engineer.”
Pritchard declined to comment to The Dispatch for this report.
Growing pains
A full-time, in-house county engineer would work exclusively on road and infrastructure projects. While the engineer would have to work with outside contractors to execute the projects, the focus of the engineer would be entirely on the county, in contrast to a private firm whose time is split among multiple clients.
Pritchard would remain on as the county’s state aid engineer and would likely work in tandem with whomever lands the in-house role, Carpenter said.
Board President and District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said one challenge in filling the position has been defining how the new role would fit with existing operations.
“I think it’s just been a matter of nailing down specifically how we want this position to work with our existing engineer, work with our road department … and so how do we marry this position with those two departments?” Howard told The Dispatch on Friday.
Carpenter said filling the position has been part of an effort to staff four departments assigned to him when he came on board. Those include information and technology, county engineering, human resources and planning and development.
“I’ve got two of the four done,” Carpenter said, referring to IT and HR. “Standing up four departments is a pretty big chore.”
Supervisors agree that having an in-house engineer could improve efficiency and communication, especially as the county continues to grow.
“The county’s growing tremendously,” District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams told The Dispatch on Monday. “A lot of projects are calling our attention … to be completed, and the way we’re doing it now may have worked previously, but because there’s so much growth that’s taking place, the previous way of doing it with our engineer and staff is no longer sufficient.”
District 1 Supervisor Ben Carver shared a similar sentiment and said an in-house engineer would allow the county to be more proactive with road projects.
“We want … somebody we can meet on site … and look at anything from road work issues to drainage issues,” he said. “That person would be the hands and feet of the board that goes out and learns where the problem areas are and gives us a long-term way to address them.”
Howard said the timeline for filling the position remains uncertain. “Which fire is the hottest,” he said, will determine how the board moves forward.
Carpenter told The Dispatch on Friday he did not have an estimate for when he would present the salary research and updated job description to the board.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
