Discussion of Lowndes County’s summer youth work program turned into a debate between supervisors Leroy Brooks, Jeff Smith and Harry Sanders during the board’s meeting Monday.
After hearing County Administrator Ralph Billingsley’s update on the program and who would be in charge of supervising it after the retirement of community service coordinator Sylvester Harris, Brooks mentioned a number of county job positions were vacant, some for an extended period. Brooks asked Billingsley for a timetable on when the board could expect recommendations on who to hire to fill vacancies in departments, including emergency management and inventory.
Brooks claimed when county road manager Ronnie Burns asked the board to approve hiring employees for his department, his request was granted each time. Meanwhile, vacancies in other departments had been neglected, he said. Billingsley said no time table had been set to present candidates to the board.
“I don’t know what the thing is — to save money or whatever — but some of these are pressing. With the inventory clerk, every day equipment is purchased. We don’t want to get behind on that. I know we talked about building progress with (county building inspector) Charlie (Culpepper), but there is a very important component of what (former flood coordinator) Jim Mahaffey did and that is flood management. If that is not kept up to date you suffer the risk of your federal grants being eliminated,” Brooks said. “Emergency Management has been without a third person for almost a year. These employees have kind of gotten to the point that they don’t want to come and ask anymore when they really need to. I think there needs to be some sense of urgency the same way we do with Ronnie personally.”
Billingsley said he was in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of certain positions and seeking qualified candidates to fill others.
“We’re OK for short periods of time to handle those things, (but) not a long time on inventory,” he said. “We absolutely have to have that long term.”
“It hasn’t been a short term in emergency management,” Brooks replied. “It’s been almost a year. If you’re not going to hire them, you need to tell them, but they don’t need to be strung out. These people need their replacement and they play a vital role. I’m all for scaling back when necessary, but I don’t want to go down to the building department when the secretary is on vacation or something and here’s the head of the building department, which is a high-salary employee, answering the telephone. That’s not efficiency.”
Smith then asked Billingsley to set a timetable for presenting applicants.
“Can we set a timetable for that? Why are we dragging all this stuff out? I really want to know,” he said. “There’s some cases where we can’t an answer on anything and other things you come in here and you give us answers and some people know what’s going on and some people don’t. I’m going to keep saying that until I get blue in the face. I’m starting to get real frustrated with it.”
Sanders then said supervisors’ roles do not include “micromanaging the county administrator’s job.”
“The personnel manager for the county is the county administrator. Every one of those people work directly under him,” Sanders said. “I think it’s his decision to decide when he wants to get new employees or whether they need it or not.”
“Harry, he needs to be telling us, though. We’re his boss. He needs to tell us what he’s going to do,” Brooks said. “If Ralph has made up his mind he’s not going to replace these people, he doesn’t need to be pushing us around. Jeff and I have been in there. If you’re not going to hire anybody, go and tell them. All we’re saying is we know he’s the county administrator and we’re not trying to micromanage him, but Jeff and I sometimes feel that we don’t know what the hell is going on.”
After more discussion from Brooks, Sanders suggested the board move on to the next item on the agenda, to which Brooks refused, saying he was waiting for an answer from Billingsley.
“We met a couple of weeks ago. You and Jeff came in my office and went over (the latest information),” Billingsley told Brooks. “I told you we’re working on potentially going this way or going that way with it.
I don’t have a timetable on exactly when it is right now. I’ll let you know when I come up with that. I just don’t have it.”
Sanders said he hadn’t heard complaints from employees about being overworked.
“They stay away from you, Harry,” Brooks said. “They don’t want to talk to you. These people stay away from you and they’ve gotten to the point where they stay away from you because they feel like they’re getting the run-around, and the issue is the road department doesn’t get that. (Ronnie) just came in today and asked for a person. He’s hired about 10 people. These are county employees, too, but let’s move on. Ralph can do whatever the hell he wants to.”
“It’s called respect,” Smith added. “I don’t think I am disrespecting Ralph. We’ve got a good communication. I do have a question and I do have concerns. So, if I can’t get answers, the only venue it seems to allow me to ask those questions is here. I don’t enjoy that, but that’s the reality of it.”
Sanders reminded Brooks and Smith that road work is more seasonal in nature and that several employees in that department left and needed to be replaced in order for scheduled road work to continue.
“Ronnie didn’t hire anybody during the winter time because you don’t do as much work in the road department in the winter as you do in the summer. Recently in the spring, he replaced those people who quit for attrition purposes. Ronnie is the one who decides whether he needs anybody or not — not the board of supervisors,” Sanders said. “The same respect should be done to Ralph Billingsley. When he feels like he needs to replace somebody, he can come to the board and do that. We don’t go to him and tell him he needs to replace these people because that’s not our job. If he’s getting the job done with less people, more power to him. We’re not in the employment business here. That’s his call.”
Brooks then accused Sanders of distorting his original intent in asking for a timetable.
“We’ve got the same right to go in there and ask him and we have the right to expect an answer. If he’s made a decision after all these months that these people need to do all that work by themselves, first they need to be paid or he needs to tell them he’s not going to hire anybody,” Brooks said. “When Ronnie decides he’s thinking about hiring someone, he comes to us individually. We don’t go to him.”
“Well, don’t go to Ralph Billingsley then if you don’t go to (Burns),” Sanders replied.
“We’ve got a right to do that, Harry,” Brooks said. “We’ve got a right to go and ask him questions. You go in there almost every day. Y’all may talk about baseball and whatever. I don’t know what you talk about, but almost all of y’all go at least two or three times a week. I don’t know what the conversation is. My point is we’ve got the same right to go in there and ask him.”
Other board business
After more discussion, the two agreed to move on to the next item on the agenda, which was the appointment of two supervisors to an ad hoc committee that will discuss economic development ideas for the area just west of downtown commonly referred to as The Island. Parts of Brooks’ and Smith’s districts fall into that territory. Those two were unanimously appointed to represent the county on the committee. Two city councilmen, Gene Taylor and Kabir Karriem, have already been selected to represent the city of Columbus.
The board also:
■ Approved sending CAP loan and Community Development Block Grant applications to the Mississippi Development Authority for funds to purchase an existing speculative building and surrounding property for a sustainable building material manufacturer location. If approved, the $5.35 million, 20-year CAP loan and $1.25 million CDBG grant would be used to buy the land located in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park and finish the building to CalStar Products’ specifications. CalStar has until June 7 to provide a letter of commitment from lenders to provide the company $5 million in debt financing for additional funding to get the facility completed and open for operation.
■ Heard an annual report from Lowndes County Administrator for Community Counseling Lina Beale;
■ Approved one hire, one promotion and the June work schedule for the road department;
■ Authorized attorney Tim Hudson to draft a resolution recognizing New Hope High School’s Class 5A baseball state championship win.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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