Three department heads spoke to the Commissioners Court on Thursday during a workshop on requests for reclassification of certain county employees. Since it was only a workshop any decision on the reclassifications will be done during a regular weekly meeting of the Commissioners.
Each department head had multiple requests for employees to be reclassified. All the requests were submitted to Human Resources Director Lori Ardoin in advance before they were forwarded to the Commissioners and the County Judge.
Clark Slacum over the Road and Bridge Department spoke first. He had two requested reclassifications. Slacum asked that his office manager be changed in classification to an NE-5 and possibly be retitled an Assistant Road and Bridge Director. Slacum wanted the office manager to be at the same classification as the operators in his department.
Ardoin informed that there are currently four office manager positions in the county and all are NE-4s. The concern expressed by multiple members of the Commissioners Court was if they changed that one office manager to a higher level that would eventually have to do it for all of them.
The other position Slacum wanted reclassified was a tire changer who also does general maintenance on vehicles in the Road and Bridge Department. He suggested calling the employee a Preventive Maintenance Tech and making him a NE-3.
Emergency Management Coordinator Joel Ardoin who is also the director of Environmental Health had three requests for reclassification. He wants to change one of his Health Inspectors to a Deputy Director and be reclassified as a NE-7.
The other two positions were a reclassification for the Flood Plane Coordinator and raise a Secretary 3 position to an office manager who would oversee answering the phones for both the Environmental Health office and the Emergency Management Office which are both housed in the Orange County Convention and Expo Center.
Last to present her requests was Sabrina Gray with the Parks Department and the Convention and Expo Center. Within the Parks Department Gray was wanting to restructure the employees to have a Superintendent position reclassified down to a NE-5 and two Park Maintenance employees classified at NE-2. She would also retain her three part-time employees. Commissioner Johnny Trahan calculated that the changes would net a $2500 reduction in payroll.
In the Expo Center there is only one employee in addition to Gray who works there exclusively. That employee is paid through Hotel Occupancy Tax funds. Gray believes the classification of that employee should be raised to a NE-2 because he does maintenance, janitorial, some grounds keeping, and sets up for all the events at the center.
County Judge Dean Crooks opened the workshop by saying any reclassification needs to be based on a change in responsibility for the position, not just a change or increase in job duties. “The Commissioners would like some time to deliberate on this individually, so it will probably be a couple weeks and then we’ll have it on that agenda,” Crooks summarized.
On Friday, the Commissioners Court will hold its second budget workshop for department heads to give their needs and concerns for next year’s budget. On the agenda for Friday are the county’s Collection Station, the Parks Department, the County Judge, and the Mailroom. Three departments will also give their capital outlay requests. Those departments are Management Information Systems, Road and Bridge, and Parks. The budget workshop on Friday will be at 9:00 AM in the Commissioners Courtroom.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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