QC includes bonuses for elected officials in budget proposal

SFC’s 11 Justices to receive $2,500 each

The St. Francis County Quorum Court Budget Committee on Tuesday voted in favor of recommending a onetime bonus of $5,000 for fulltime county elected officials and $2,500 to part-time county elected officials, which includes Justices.

Members of the Court’s budget committee also discussed a requested salary increase from coroner Miles Kimble, voted in favor of providing county employees with a bonus of $500 for full-time employees and $250 for parttime employees, and agreed to present the budget to the full Quorum Court for approval at the group’s meeting on Nov. 15.

St. Francis County Judge Gary Hughes said that during a meeting last week, for which the Times-Herald was not notified, committee members discussed several matters.

"I just want to review what we did last week," said Hughes. "We reviewed the 2023 budget and we looked at the fact that to balance the budget, we needed to transfer $1.1 million. We voted to take $800,000 from the jail maintenance account and $314,000 from the American Rescue Funds and move them into the county general account. You all also received a $10,000 salary increase budget request from the coroner. Then you all passed a motion to give the fulltime county employees a bonus of $500 and the part-time employees a bonus of $250. You all then passed a motion to give the full-time courthouse elected officials a one-time bonus of $5,000. You all also voted to draw up a resolution that an employee could not make more than an elected official, excluding medical employees."

According to Justice Ernestine Weaver, rather than giving a pay increase to only the coroners office, a bonus should be given to all elected officials.

"We talked about this and I know the coroner isn't here yet, but we couldn't give him, in my

(Continued from Page 1) opinion, $10,000 and leave the other people out," said Weaver. "I recommend giving a $5,000 one-time bonus to full time elected officials and a $2,500 bonus to part-time elected officials."

"We already voted on giving $5,000 to full-time elected officials during the last meeting," said Hughes.

"Well, I make the motion we give $2,500 to part-time elected officials," said Weaver.

"How many part-time elected officials do we have?” asked Justice Roy Winfrey.

"We have 11 Quorum Court members and the coroner," said Hughes. "So we have 12. Constables are elected officials, but they are not currently compensated, so I am assuming you are wanting to exclude those."

"If they are not already compensated, we are only talking about people who are already compensated," said Weaver.

Justice Regan Hill said he is not in favor of giving bonuses and a salary increase to county elected officials and that the funding for the bonuses would not come out of the county’s general account.

"I want to clarify this," said Hill. "We discussed at some point last week about salary increases, which we are definitely not going that direction. I am definitely not in favor of doing both. We are going with this one-time pay versus any kind of salary increase? The money will not be coming out of county general."

"The reason I brought that up is because it has been at least 20 years since any of us have been compensated," said Weaver. "The judge said he was on the Quorum Court 19 years ago and he doesn't remember them being compensated. We campaign every two years, we go into our areas and do our jobs and see what is going on. It is costing us. I believe we are the only entity that has to run every two years."

Justices are currently paid about $6,000 annually.

Committee members Hill, Weaver, Winfrey and Chris Ray voted in favor of the one-time bonus for part-time elected officials. Justice Greg Gray voted against the bonus.

Hughes told the committee that Kimble said he would be in attendance at the meeting to further explain his request for a $10,000 salary increase in his budget.

"The coroner put a $10,000 increase under the salary line on his budget for next year," said Hughes. "I asked him to be here personally and he told me that he would be. He is not here, but it is time to pass the budget."

"I spoke with Mr. Kimble, which he is a friend of mine, but I do not let friendship interfere with what I think is best for the county," said Hill. "As I told him, $10,000 is too much money. I felt personally that it was too much at one time. In our speaking, I explained to him at that time, a $5,000 increase in his budget would allow him to basically be paid $1,250 each month. Out of that $1,250, he would have to pay for any help, which he does most of it himself. If he has a need, he has come before this Court and this Court has done what it could to help. If I was going to make a recommendation, it would be that we lower the budget $5,000 in the salary aspect and pass that in the budget."

"I think the question is, are you all going to deal with just one person for an increase," said Hughes. "We have 100 employees here, are you only going to deal with one?"

"He was included in the parttime bonus," said Weaver.

"Is anyone in favor of giving him the increase of $10,000?” asked committee chair Charles Jones. "I do not think there is. It appears to me that simply no one is in favor of this."

"I move that we leave his budget for 2023 the same as it was for 2022," said Hill.

The committee unanimously voted in favor of the motion.

According to Hughes, in 2021 an ordinance was adopted to change the amount of the Christmas bonuses for county employees from $300 to $500 for full-time employees and $150 to $250 for part-time employees.

"I brought the ordinance that we did last year in regards to the employee incentive bonus that we normally give every year," said Hughes. "If we did what we did last year, it would be a $500 bonus for full-time employees and $250 for part-time employees. Last year, we took the funds for this from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which are funds we received in 2020. We received about $800,000 that year and we still have $75,000 in that account. If we gave these bonuses from that account, we would have enough to cover them. If you choose to do nothing, what we currently have in the budget is a $300 bonus for full-time employees and $150 bonus for part-time employees."

Committee voted to approve the budget for next year and send it to the full Court for final approval.

“…I make a motion we give $2,500 to parttime elected officials.”

– JP Earnestine Weaver