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County Council takes questionable votes, Department heads get requested funds

web posted September 6, 2006

EDGEFIELD – The Edgefield County Council held their September meeting Tuesday night with an extended agenda that took nearly two hours to cover. Several agencies in the county spoke to the County Council to have additional funds provided for budgetary items not covered in the present budget or items that were deleted from the budget submitted. The meeting was not conducted according to the agenda and items were added or ignored at the Chairman’s will.

The first items of question came when the required public hearing on the ordinance amending the 2006-2007 budget was addressed. Rather than conduct a public hearing Chairman Monroe Kneece asked for a vote to pass Ordinance 05-06-581 which was given a motion and a second and passed unanimously.  No mention of when the council would actually conduct the required public hearing was given.

The Council then passed a third reading of an ordinance to implement values for property for tax purposes unanimously.

Chairman Kneece then directed the council to ordinance 05-06-581 again. The agenda read that Department heads were to address council prior to the second reading, which now became the third reading, having been voted on just minutes before instead of the public hearing. A motion and second was recorded and the ordinance passed again. Chairman Kneece then asked for a motion on the ordinance as amended and it too passed again.

Outgoing Administrator Wayne Adams interjected when the department heads were given the floor that the amended ordinance did not include the requests that were to be considered before passage.

Jewel Plaxco addressed the county council over salary ranges for paramedics. Edgefield County has lost three paramedics over the last few months to counties offering higher pay. Two positions have been open for over two months and the last one became open when a third left for a starting pay in Saluda County that was $13,500 higher than Edgefield County’s offered for an eleven year veteran. EMS Director Plaxco stated in Aiken County a basic EMT started out at $27,551, “That’s what a paramedic starts off here,” in Edgefield County she said.

The additional funds, $142,000 in total would be spread out among all levels of EMS personnel to bring the pay ranges into a competitive range to boarding counties. The council voted to allow the staff to run an average of surrounding counties throwing out the highest and lowest paying counties to reach the acceptable average. That motion was passed.

Trish Glenn was next to address the county council requesting three line items; $1,500 for a cabinet for the storage of microfilm, reinstating a part-time employee, and a phone line to be added in the Archive area. Councilman Kitchens balked at the idea of adding the part-time position and voted against it. Chairman Kneece asked why a part-time employee would receive benefits. Mr. Adams reminded the council they voted to extend the benefits to the employee when she retired. A second motion and vote by councilman Hudson to rehire the employee drew the nay vote from councilman Kitchens.

EMA Director Mike Casey addressed the council for $8,000 to purchase a Disaster Relief trailer that would house EMA and EMS equipment that would be used in the event of a mass causality or disaster event in the county. A covered trailer with most of the items required had been located for sale in the county for $5,000 and the additional funds would be used to outfit the remaining needed equipment and supplies. That request was also granted.

Lt. Polly Hall and Lt. Karen Jaggers represent Sheriff Dobey, who was away at a training session, to recover items that were deleted from his original budget before it was presented to the County Council. Lt. Jaggers called the removal of the line items as “drastic cuts,” which drew the ire of Administrator Adams, who also denied removing the line items from the Sheriff’s budget before it was presented to council. Council questioned why the items were removed from the budget before it was presented. Mr. Adams keyed in on one or two of the many items as being new so that justified him claiming he did not remove line items from the budget.

The County Council stated that the items removed were indeed required items and passed the request to amend the budget to reflect those items.

Also passed was an ordinance to allow a fee in lieu of taxes for Southern Felt, which will be making an additional investment in their operation with an expansion exceeding five million dollars which would be set at a 6% rate.

The county council also accepted the low bid of $8,875 by Cullum Electrical and Mechanical, of Greenwood, for maintenance of HVAC units in the county buildings.

 

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