County officials want to fill open jobs

“It was probably a poor choice of words.”

Houston County Commission Chairman Mark Culver was referring to the county’s “hiring freeze” implemented earlier this fall during budget discussions.
On Thursday, the commission said maybe instead of a hiring freeze, they will change the terminology to “position freeze.” The change will allow department heads to fill empty positions but not create any new jobs.

“There are positions related to public safety that if they should become vacant, we have no choice but to fill. There are jobs like garbage picker-ups. The request here is to take that wording out and make it a position freeze,” Culver said.

The change, expected to be approved by county commissioners on Monday, would allow for two recent openings in the Revenue Department and the tag office of Probate Court, to be filled. Culver said officials realized that while they must be tight with expenditures, unfilled jobs could adversely affect service to the public.

“A hiring freeze is a hiring freeze,” Culver said. “Ours is really a slow down. After last week, and the potential for other positions coming available, we didn’t want to have this discussion every other week.”

Culver said the commission has been made aware of another pending opening that must be filled. “We realized this will come up all during the year and we deal in services that have to be provided.”

The county just hired Kelly Crowell as a part-time safety director. The cost of the position was justified, Culver said, when balanced with the need for a better safety program. The county has never had a safety director.

“We have a safety committee that has been working for years,” Culver said. “Our workman’s compensation costs have been up. All insurance costs are up, but we have had some claims and some accidents – not any one thing. We just felt it was time to get somebody on board to work on it.”

In terms of finances, October sales tax collections were flat, but Culver doesn’t see that as a bad thing. Flat is better than down, he said.

“We use sales tax as a gauge, but most of our revenues come from property taxes and we know exactly what we are getting. We are OK this year (financially), but no doubt next year will be difficult,” he said.

The county is depending on increased tourism and revenues coming in from the Country Crossing development, which opens Dec. 1, to help boost coffers.