Citizens filled the courtroom on Monday night to await the County Commission’s vote on whether or not county employees would be given bonus pay with American Rescue Plan Act funds. Commissioners Robert Brewer, Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Bobo were absent for the meeting.

Lewis Countian Kermit Harris addressed the commissioners during the allotted time for public input, concerning the bonus pay.

After thanking the County Mayor and Commissioners for the work they do, Harris said, “I may have been ill informed and please correct me if I have... I understand you have decided to include yourselves in this plan and give funds to county employees, part-time as well as full-time. Now, if that’s true, I’m not trying to be hostile... but if you do, this is a huge conflict of interest. Giving yourself a pay raise or a bonus, no matter what you call it, is wrong. Although not illegal. There’s nothing you can do that would justify using your powers to give yourself a bonus at the citizen’s expense. It’s wrong. To paraphrase a founding father, when you find out you can give yourself funds from the public trust, it will be the end of the republic. And with everything that’s going on right now, we don’t need more problems.”

When the resolution came before the commission, which would give full-time employees a bonus of $1,000 and part-time employees a bonus of $500 with two payment periods, several commissioners spoke up to remove themselves from the resolution.

Commissioner Austin Carroll spoke first and said, “As I understand it, this money is for two reasons. One is to lessen the impact on individuals during the pandemic and secondly it’s to stimulate the economy. I, myself, as one commissioner, don’t feel like I have been adversely affected in my duties as a commissioner and I have a problem with this money being provided to commissioners.”

Commissioner Carroll then proposed to amend the resolution to exclude county commissioners. Commissioner Wendell Kelley then addressed the Commission, suggesting to also exclude elected officials and those who have their salaries set by CTAS, meaning the county employees who have a state-mandated salary and also receive regular pay raises.

Commissioner Doug Jobbitt then asked Sheriff Dwayne Kilpatrick and Administrator of Elections Rusty Isbell how they felt about the amendment as they would be included in the group excluded from the bonus. The Sheriff responded that his exclusion was okay with him, and Isbell said, “I’m grateful for every dollar I get. I don’t have an issue with it... But I would rather see my part-time employee get the full $1,000 rather than for me to get anything out of it.”

Commissioner Brian Peery then asked Crystal Nash, Lewis County Public Librarian, how she felt about the amendment. She said that she would not be excluded because she’s not elected or appointed as she is hired by the Library Board. “Mr. Peery, just so the Commission knows, I have employees at the library with full four year bachelor degrees making $7.40 an hour. So yes, I’m in favor of my employees getting a little help.”

County Mayor Jonah Keltner then opened the floor to audience members.

One citizen said,”If it’s considered hazard pay, what’s the difference between part-time and full-time? There should be no difference. There are actually some employees at the dump that are full-time that I have more hours than.. but they’re going to get more of a bonus than me because they’re full-time.”

There was no response and the commission put the amendment to a roll call vote with Commissioners Kelley and Patrick Halfacre sponsoring the amendment.

Commissioners Aren Ragsdale, Jim Grinder, Peery and Larry Hensley passed. Commissioner T.J. Hinson voted no. Commissioners Jobbitt, Halfacre, Kelley, Tanner, Carroll, Larry Pigg, Jerry Ashmore, Bill Dyer, Caleb Feichtinger, and Timmie Hinson voted in favor of the amendment. Once all the commissioners had voted, those who passed were asked if they would like to change their vote. Commissioner Peery asked the County Mayor if they had carefully considered who the amendment would be affecting, and the mayor affirmed they had. Commissioners Peery, Grinder and Hensley changed their vote to yes, and Commissioner Ragsdale changed his vote to no.

The amended resolution was then put to a roll call vote where it passed unanimously.

Lewis County’s 2021 Voting Districts Changed

The Redistricting Committee has now completed the 2021 Voting District Maps. All districts have been changed whether the district lost or gained people. All elected officials were kept within their districts.

Austin Carroll spoke before the Commission as the head of the Redistricting Committee to explain why district boundaries had to be moved.

“What we had to do during the meetings was divide the districts into approximately the same populations. Since the last census, some areas gained or lost people and we had to get all districts within a five percent variance to equally distribute the population,” said Commissioner Carroll.

After some discussion, the new district lines were approved in a roll call vote with Commissioners Hensley, Halfacre, Dyer and Timmie Hinson voting against.

The new district maps can be seen on Page A•12. They include areas that were added and removed since Lewis County was last redistricted, which was in 2012.

The maps are not in their final stage. They had been pre-approved by the state before being shown to the commissioners on Monday night. Once the commission approved the maps, the next step is approval from Administrator of Elections and then it will be sent back to the state for its final approval. The Election Commissions Office will send out postcards to those who have been moved into a new district.

If you have any additional questions, then please contact the Election Commission Office.

Authorizing Purchase of New Tract Loader for Solid Waste Department

At last Monday’s county committee meetings, it was discussed that the Solid Waste Department was in dire need of a new tract loader. The old one tore up and is no longer in commission. As a result, trash has piled up in the pit and there is no way for the Solid Waste Department to move dirt to cover the trash without a loader. The county had to hire the Highway Department to go out to the dump and move the dirt for them at $28 per load.

Commissioners Peery and Carroll sponsored a resolution authorizing the county to purchase a brand new Caterpillar 953 Tract Loader from Thompson Machinery for $279,657.03 with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The resolution said the Lewis County Government would be awarded $2.8 million from the ARPA grant “in aid to counties across the nation to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, support economic recovery, and strengthen financial stability in their communities.”

It also stated that the use of such ARPA funds is very limited at this time; however, it is believed that the purchase of heavy equipment to manage the drastic increase of solid waste caused by the coronavirus pandemic is an eligible use, under the category of “Responding to Public Health Emergency,” as issued by the U.S. Treasury Department in its Interim Final Rule guidelines.

The commissioners could not come to an agreement on whether to spend that amount of money on one piece of equipment. Several said that they believed it would be better to purchase used equipment at a cheaper price to which Commissioner Tanner said, “Every time we’ve purchased used equipment, it’s come back to bite us,” urging the commission to approve the resolution.

Commissioner Carroll suggested that the county should let Commissioner Ashmore search for a tract loader, using the resources that are readily available to him due to his job where he regularly looks up used equipment. The other commissioners agreed and decided upon $125,000 as the budget.

Commissioner Jobbitt motioned to table the resolution authorizing the purchase of the new loader and allow Commissioner Ashmore to search for a used one with the given budget. Commissioner Kelley seconded the motion, and the new resolution was unanimously approved in a vote.

The County Commission report will be continued in next week’s issue of the Lewis County Herald.