Oktibbeha County Road Manager Victor Collins’ recent request for slight pay increases for eight of his workers could lead supervisors to discuss the county’s overall policies on raises next month.
Collins’ initial request came at the Nov. 7 meeting, but supervisors delayed action on the matter after paperwork showed no justification for the increases. Two of the employees were moving off of 90-day probationary periods after their recent hires — those transitions, District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said, traditionally carry with them a slight raise. But the other requests asked for additional money after some workers, who are already off probationary periods, had already received the county’s annual 3-percent cost-of-living adjustment or were set to receive the raise next year.
Supervisors again declined action on the payroll changes Monday after District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery and District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller previously questioned taking action on the requests without documented justification or before taking a broader look at how supervisors approve pay increases.
Oktibbeha County previously received two studies regarding its road department’s structure, salaries and other hiring practices in 2014 and 2015. Miller, who developed a worksheet based on the two studies, said many recommendations made in the 2014 study were previously addressed and the county is currently staying within suggested pay ranges for its employees, but many starting salaries are above the midpoint.
Supervisors previously did not adopt 2015’s John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development’s salary range recommendations but could consider that action in the future.
The two reports and the approximate amount of pay increases requested for road workers were unavailable Friday as county offices were closed after Thanksgiving.
“The level of cooperation and respect among this board has allowed tremendous progress. I look forward to hearing the suggestions of my fellow board members as we address the issue,” Miller said.
Trainer advocated for paying county employees a fair salary that will keep them employed with the county and said turnover in the road department is difficult to combat with current salary levels.
“Providing a salary is the greatest thing we can do for our employees since we can’t give bonuses and are limited on what we can do by law. We expect so much out of them, and the county invests so much in them with training. It gets to the point where we’re just trying to fill a void, because once they get trained, they leave and go somewhere else,” he said. “Bricklee is trying to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars by saying we shouldn’t be giving arbitrary raises and we should be getting the most bang for our buck, but it puts Victor in a very difficult position. He does the hiring and firing, and he knows more about his staff than we do.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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