Salary rates scaled back at 2 agencies
The Quorum Court on Tuesday approved reducing the pay scales of two county department heads, just two months after it approved pay grade increases for the positions and just weeks after a new department head was appointed.
The measure was approved 14-0, with District 9 Justice of the Peace Judy Green, D-Little Rock, absent from the meeting.
During the county's 2015 budget talks in the fall, justices of the peace approved an increase in Community Services Director Laverne Paige's annual salary to $83,424, along with a change in classification of her position that moved the entry pay range between $77,101 and $113,904 annually. Paige earned $80,214.94 as community services director in 2014.
Justices of the peace also approved the same reclassification and $80,185 in annual pay for youth services Director Charles Mobley. The changes were made at the request of the departments and recommended by Buddy Villines, who was then county judge.
The ordinance before the Quorum Court this month, proposed by County Judge Barry Hyde and sponsored by several justices of the peace, changes the classification of the positions back to where they were in 2014: a U-19 position with an entry salary range between $69,741 and $78,445. Raises for county employees had bumped Paige's salary above that, county Comptroller Mike Hutchens said.
Hyde said he believed the salaries were more "appropriate" for the positions, given the number of employees supervised.
On Jan. 5, Hyde appointed grants administrator Frederick Love, who is also a state representative in his second term, to director of community services.
Love will make $70,500 as community services director in 2015.
$355,500 to fund emergency gear
The Quorum Court approved Tuesday the Office of Emergency Management's receipt of $355,500 in grant funds for new equipment.
The funds will pay for gas-detection equipment for the county's Hazardous Materials Response Team, SWAT equipment for the sheriff's office and a new urban search-and-rescue trailer.
The Quorum Court approved the money with a 14-0 vote.
Precincts exceeding cap being redrawn
The county Election Commission is redrawing several voting precincts to have fewer than 3,000 registered voters in them, Election Director Bryan Poe said.
Act 1211 of 2013, passed by the Legislature, placed a cap on the number of registered voters in each precinct.
The county has 11 precincts with 3,000 or more registered voters, Poe said, mostly in the central-west portions.
The commission did not redraw precincts in 2014, when the law went into effect, Poe said, because the county had too many elections spread out during the year, not allowing enough time between to redraw precincts.
Voters would remain in the same voting districts but would simply vote at another location, Poe said.
Metro on 01/29/2015