Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9407200011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
With no members of the public present at 11:30 p.m. and limited discussion, the board approved a motion by Supervisor Joe Gorman that will permit new hires only "with the prior express consent of the Board of Supervisors."
Jim Moore cast the sole vote against the move. Moore objected because the matter hadn't been on the agenda. The supervisors had been in closed session for nearly four hours before returning to open session and taking up the hiring freeze proposal.
Moore said he also had some reservations about the supervisors micromanaging the county government.
The county has 140 employees. The freeze will not affect the school division, which has more than 600 teachers.
Though the board had to raise taxes this spring for the first time in three years, two supervisors said Tuesday the freeze does not come in response to a money crunch.
"What we're trying to do is make sure that every job in the county has a current job description," said supervisors Chairman Larry Linkous. The board also wants to make sure the descriptions are being fulfilled.
Linkous conceded such matters are normally under the purview of County Administrator Betty Thomas. From now on, Thomas will bring new job descriptions to the board, where members will have a chance to comment, Linkous said. He doesn't expect the board to be involved in specific hirings.
Only the two highest-paid employees, Thomas and County Attorney Roy Thorpe, are directly accountable to the Board of Supervisors.
"Sometimes in the past there's been folks doing jobs that some board members thought were not in their job description," Linkous said.
Gorman said the move was necessary because there "are people, I guess they feel like they don't have enough to do." He said the freeze is not directed at any one job, however.
"I'd hate to use it as micromanagement," Gorman said. "It's really to get the job descriptions updated."
The board created several exemptions to the freeze, including allowing for the hiring of a county purchasing agent, hires of hourly wage employees to fill vacancies and hires of seasonal hourly employees in the Recreation Department.
Thomas, a 22-year county employee who has been administrator since 1981, said the freeze is a follow-up to discussions during the spring budget process.
"I think they just want to analyze and know where we stand as relates to personnel," Thomas said. "To me, the board members are good managers."
The Board of Supervisors met Monday night in a special meeting to finish business left undone at a June 13 regular session that lasted until 1:10 a.m. June 14. The board had voted to go into closed session that night at 11:40 p.m.
The Monday vote on the hiring freeze came in open session after the board completed private annual reviews for Thomas and Thorpe and awarded them 21/2 percent raises, the same given all employees under the budget that takes effect July 1.
At Thomas and Thorpe's first, detailed performance reviews in three years, held in closed sessions in February and March, the supervisors said they wanted to see improved communications between the two.
Communication came up again Monday night. "We feel that issue is being addressed," Linkous said. "Hopefully things are on the road to improvement there."
With the raises, Thomas will now be paid $68,917 a year and Thorpe $64,043.
The board didn't spend all four hours in closed session Monday on the reviews. It also discussed legal issues, an industrial prospect and the possible purchase of property, all under exemptions to the state's open-meeting law.
After the discussion of the industrial prospect, the board returned briefly to public session and voted to extend an option agreement for HP Hydraulics Inc. to buy 3.78 acres in the Elliston-Lafayette Industrial Park. The original option was to have expired July 1. With the extension, the option will now run out at the end of September.
by CNB