Proposal tabled on sheriff’s office leave
The Pulaski County Quorum Court tabled an ordinance until December to allow sheriff’s office employees to accrue over the maximum of 300 hours of vacation time from 2020 to 2021.
Some supporters of the ordinance, including lead sponsor Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood, argued that the tabling would hinder county employees planning their vacations by not knowing how much time they would actually have.
“I wish we could have settled it tonight,” Blackwood said. “I really do wish we could have gone through and done something for [county employees] tonight, because I know that they’re trying to plan their vacations. They’re trying to think whether they’re going to have those hours or not have those hours. So it would have been nice if we had taken care of it tonight.”
Emergency Ordinance 20I-79 did not make the deadline to be on the original budget sent out Friday and was sent out by the Quorum Court later that same day.
Furthermore, Justice of the Peace Staci Medlock introduced an amendment to the ordinance that would expand the protections for overtime to all county employees.
The swift release of the ordinance and the amendment led Justice of the Peace Luke McCoy to make a motion to table the ordinance until the next agenda meeting on Dec. 8.
“I have had literally the time we’ve sat here tonight to learn about this, and I am not prepared to support or oppose this amendment or the original proposing,” McCoy said. “And I implore my colleagues to support [the motion] because we need some time to digest all this and think.”
After a question from Justice of the Peace Donna Massey about if the sheriff’s office could wait, Sheriff Eric Higgins told Quorum Court members that the county employees are looking at whether they can use time. Higgins said later that the longtime employees may be worried about whether they would be able to save the vacation hours or have to use them before the end of December.
“These employees are dedicated to the sheriff’s office,” Higgins said. “They’ve been here. They have over 300 hours of vacation. It’s not like they’re running and trying to take as much vacation as they can. And we’re in a situation where we’re shorthanded and having to have people work overtime, and other people want to take vacation.”
Justice of the Peace Barry
Jefferson, a supporter of the ordinance, said he thought that it should focus on the sheriff ’s office employees instead of expanding the protections like the ordinance suggested because the sheriff ’s employees are in a different situation from other county employees.
“We want to protect the people that really do make a lot of sacrifices for this county,” Jefferson said. “Don’t get me wrong, I really care about the roads, bridges. They’ll tell you that. I talk to them all the time, but I care about people who make sacrifices.”
Medlock argued that her amendment would be best for helping all county employees.
“I feel like, as a body, we want to help with the impact the virus has had on everybody, so I just came up with an amendment that would ease the pain across the board,” Medlock said.