Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406300078
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
When it's a hiring "policy."
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Monday changed the words "hiring freeze" in a June 20 motion to "hiring policy." Three members thought the board had already agreed to those changes, but they didn't show up in the official minutes.
Supervisor Henry Jablonski had sought the change to avoid the perception that the county was invoking a freeze in response to a fiscal crisis.
No members of the public were present for the late-night vote last week, which followed nearly four hours in closed session. A review of the tape recording of the brief public discussion of the issue was inconclusive, Chairman Larry Linkous said.
Supervisor Ira Long, who said he wouldn't have voted for the motion if he thought the word "freeze" was going to be used, conceded there's little difference in meaning between the two words. "It amounts to the same I guess," he said.
Nevertheless, the board agreed on Monday to change four references to a "freeze" in the motion to "policy."
By a 6-1 vote, the supervisors last week ordered that county bureaucrats hire no new employees without first bringing job descriptions and a "justification of the need for the positions" to them for approval.
Supervisor Joe Gorman proposed the measure to make sure there are justifications for all existing county jobs before creating new ones. He also wanted updated descriptions.
Gorman said there are county employees who believe they don't have enough to do, and it was better for the board to address it now rather than have an employee get disgruntled and file a grievance. He did not name any specific jobs or people, and said his motion wasn't aimed at anyone in particular.
Supervisor Jim Moore objected to the effort as micromanagement of county government by the board, which sets policy but is supposed to leave the minutia to the county administrator and her staff.
The first case of proposed hires coming before the board occurred Monday, when the supervisors gave the nod to hire nine mid- to low-level employees this summer, all of them for either vacancies or new positions already approved in the budget that takes effect Friday.
The chart listing the nine positions contained a column for job descriptions, but it was not filled out. It also did not include Data Processing Manager Irv Routt, who next month leaves his job of seven years to take a position with Richmond's Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse.
Deputy Assistant Administrator Randall Wertz, who is the county's personnel officer, told the board he has job descriptions on file and updated them with department heads to prepare for the meeting.
"As long as there's a job description on it, we need to proceed with it," Jablonski said.
The county has 140 employees. The action did not affect the much larger school division.
In other business Monday, the board agreed to allow Sheriff Ken Phipps to use $4,000 from leftover state funds to pay for an additional deputy to work at the county jail for the next two months. Without the authorization, Phipps said he would have had to lay off a jail employee as of Friday.
Meanwhile, the county and Phipps will look for other ways to pay for the $24,287-a-year position, which the state Compensation Board declined to fund this year. Phipps said he asked the state to pay for four new positions as recommended by the Corrections Department. Instead, the Compensation Board cut one existing position.
It was the second time this month the board agreed to such a supplementary budget request for a constitutional officer. On June 13, the board restored $21,510 to Treasurer Ellis Meredith's budget. The money will pay for a clerk who will specialize in delinquent tax collection efforts. Though the supervisors agreed to use contingency funds to pay the clerk's salary, they balked at using them for the jail position.
by CNB