Dale County Commission Meeting For February 25, 2013

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
Date: Feb 25 2013 5:51 PM

OZARK:   The Dale County Commission met this evening for their regular scheduled meeting. This is the first time I have joined the county commission for one of their meetings.

They Dale County Commission begins at 4:30 PM in the County Commission Complex, Highway 231 and Highway 123 intersection. The commissioners meet in an Administrative or pre meeting prior to the regular scheduled meeting at 5:30 PM.

Until 2013 the Dale County Probate Judge served as Dale County Commission Chairman. Beginning this year the Dale County Commission Chairman and the Dale County Probate Judge offices were separated.

Former Ozark City Councilman Mark Blakenship was elected as Dale County Commission Chairman. He took office mid January. Serving with Chairman Blakenship, District One Commissioner Douglas Williamson, District Two Commissioner Steve McKinnon, District Three Commissioner Charles Gary, and District Four Commissioner James Strickland.

The pre meeting is held in a small conference room in the Dale County Commission Complex. The regular meeting is held in a larger meeting room in the Dale County Commission Complex.

New Business

1. Appointments

The Dale County Commission will make appointment to the Ozark Technology Center Advisory Board. The request is for the incubator and to place a representative on the board. They review the leases for all who desire to be a part of the incubator and the use is as intended. The board meets bi-monthly. Chairman BLakenship will be the representative to serve.

      Employment Recommendations

A:  Tag and Title Clerk, a full time classified board: Begins at $ 8.36 per hour and due to a promotion in the department.

B: Jail, a full time classified position: This position will replace a jailer and begins at $ 10.00 per hour.

 Approval of $ 2.00 mail in fee on tag renewals

The commission has looked at ways to decrease the lines of the revenue commissioner and have decided to delite the fee for people to mail in for tag renewals. This includes the elimination of mobile home fees. There will be no mail in fees for tag renewals in Dale County.

 

1. Approval of County Levies for Alcohol Licensing

Chairman Blakenship said this amount is set at the maximum fee.

 

1. Approval of Partial Closure of Landfill 

REMOVAL FROM THE REGULAR AGENDA AT THIS TIME – NO ACTION TAKEN

Chairman Blakenship said he has been talking with the County Engineer. The fee to close the landfill is a lot higher than expected. The Chairman and Engineer said they are looking at different options. The item is taken from the agenda for further discussion and thoughts.

1. Travel requests


2. Memorandum of Warrants – paying of the bills.

 

Added to the Agenda

 

1. Added to the agenda is changing the salary pay scale of the Chief Jailer of the Dale County Jail. Currently $ 42,352.80 is the salary the Jail Administrator, Lt. Ron Nelson, from a grade 9 to a grade 12. This is the amount Nelson makes to include overtime. The commission said people should remain in the their grade, however, things happen when they are paid with cost of living raises, and etc.

The Chief Jailer will make the same salary as the Chief Deputy.

Nelson has been with the Dale County Sheriff Department for 20 years. They will make a Grade 12 pay range.

The Commission made it clear Lt. Nelson is a 20 year employee and they will not reduce his pay.

1. Health Insurance – Chairman Blakenship said the county is no longer under the preferred rate. This was addressed prior to Chairman Blakenship coming on the commission. If this cost is passed on to the employee it will cost $ 1.70 per pay period, or $ 44.00 per month per family. Chairman Blakenship thinks they will be in the preferred rate in January. For the county to pay it the cost will be $ 44,000.00 for the rest of the year.

Commissioners were opposed to passing the amount on the employee. However, the Commission said they will have to look at this issue the next fiscal year.

1. Chairman Blakenship said a work request for the men and womens bathroom the vent system sets over the Auburn Extension. The vent system dumps it in the rear and the extension has always turned the power off. Chairman Blakenship said Hagler looked at it and will put fans over the bathroom and it will be a pushing system rather than a vacuum system. Chairman Blakenship said this was something that needed to be done with all of the people in the building. With Driver License and Veterans in the building they are required to do. The cost is $ 1,500.00.


2. Chairman Blakenship said they looked at RSVP, Driver License, Veteran Affairs a others to the sign. They recommend placing the letters and painting them black. The cost is $ 800.00


3. The County Personnel Appeal Board election and Tina is the lucky person.


4. The Judges are requesting names to appoint to the County Personnel.


5. Chairman Blakenship passed out a vehicle policy. There is a change about take home vehicle procedure. The IRS Code was pulled and the language was taken directly from the IRS Code. The accountability and purchasing of vehicles was the issue. Chairman Blakenship said they would like to post for 10 days and review. The change is on page 2 about the qualified take home use.

In the work session the commission said they will post the guidelines for two weeks. However moments later in the meeting there was a motion to post the item but it failed for the lack of a second.

What exactly happens next is not known. However this policy will probably appear on the next commission agenda.

1. Chairman Blakenship said Newton Elementary School is the only work request to dig out for drainage and the cost is about $ 230.00.

 Discussion

One Commissioner addressed the vehicle policy and have issues where county employees are taking their personal vehicle for errands like to the post office and bank. The Commissioner is concerned about how their insurance covers that when they are using their personal vehicle but on errands for the county.

It was discussed to ask the Alabama Association of County Commissioners about the issue

Chairman Blakenship said when new vehicles are purchased a system needs to be established on getting rid of the old vehicles and insurance is paid on it. Chairman Blakenship said if a vehicle sits beside the building and forgotten about, should the vehicle be used and there was an accident, with no maintenance records on the vehicle, it could be a liability on the county.

Chairman Blakenship said the vehicle policy is not meant to penalize anyone but to get  vehicle policy in place.

Executive Session

Following the regular meeting, which lasted a total of 6 minutes, the commission voted at 5:36 PM to enter into an Executive Session. It was announced industrial recruitment and pending legal issues as to the reason for the Executive Session.

With that said the commission went into Executive Session.

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