County Considers Personnel Changes

BENTONVILLE — Benton County officials began their annual mid-year review of personnel and pay Thursday when elected officials and department heads presented their requests.

“This was for information,” said Justice of the Peace Shirley Sandlin, who heads the Personnel Committee. “All the different department heads had the opportunity to make their requests for additions or changes. On Tuesday we’ll discuss them and rank them in the order we feel is most critical for the county to address.”

Sandlin said the changes are being sought in the county’s 2012 budget, but any new positions or changes in positions will have to go through the Quorum Court process of going to the Finance Committee, Committee of 13 and the Quorum Court.

“Even if they put it on the fast track, it would be August before they could do any hiring,” Sandlin said.

The largest presentation concerned the Road Department. Scott Stober, the county public services administrator, presented a plan to reorganize the department that includes streamlining the administration of the department — going from four superintendents to one superintendent and one assistant — and setting up different grades for heavy equipment operators, truck drivers and welder/mechanic positions to reward employees for their performance.

Stober said the reorganization includes some reduction in grade or pay for some employees. Overall, he told the justices of the peace, the county will spend about $22,254 less on personnel in the department under the plan.

While Stober’s proposal garnered praise from the justices of the peace, some requests met with less favor. Requests to add to the janitorial staff and Juvenile Justice Center staff were criticized by Justice of the Peace Tom Allen, who said the justices of the peace had been told the staff requests in the 2012 budget were adequate to meet the needs of those departments.

“We did ask you and you said this was what you would need,” Allen told Dennis Cottrell, Juvenile Justice Center director. “At some point, we’ve got to live with what we’ve asked for. Everybody’s asking for a ‘modest increase.’ If you add all those modest increases together they add up to something huge.”

The justices of the peace also heard a plan to adjust the pay structure for some of the higher grade levels, Barb Ludwig, human resources director, said the changes probably wouldn’t affect any current employees, but would bring the pay scale more into line with comparable entities and could change the rate of pay for new hires.

What’s Next

Personnel Committee

The Personnel Committee of the Benton County Quorum Court will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Quorum Court meeting room in the county administration building. The committee will discuss requested changes in county personnel and rank the requests in order of their priority for possible approval.

Source: Staff Report