Personnel changes, pay hikes approved
Columbia County commissioners Tuesday adopted numerous personnel changes, including hiring more judges, transferring the animal control manager and granting raises.
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Commissioners agreed to hire Juvenile Court Judge Doug Flanagan full-time.
Since the county was willing to bolster Flanagan's annual salary by $17,500, Superior Court Chief Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet said he would sign off on permitting Flanagan to work exclusively in Columbia County, according to county Deputy Administrator Scott Johnson.
Starting next month, Flanagan will forego handling cases in Richmond and Burke counties to remain in Columbia County.
In another court-related personnel decision, officials agreed to hire an associate judge for Probate Court. The judge will work two days per month and be paid $24,000 per year, according to documents.
In Magistrate Court, the county will hire another deputy marshal at an annual salary of about $27,000.
In other meeting news, Animal Care and Control Manager Linda Fulmer will be reassigned to Emergency and Operations Division as an operations officer for Director Pam Tucker.
As operations officer, Fulmer will assist with research, development and administration of grants; coordinate day-to-day management activities; coordinate special projects for social service agencies; and more, according to county documents.
Animal Control no longer will operate under Emergency and Operations. Instead, it will merge with code compliance to create a new department under the control of Deputy Administrator Johnson. Code compliance officer Linda Glasscock will serve as Animal Control's supervisor.
The shift will save the county more than $18,000, according to county documents.
Much of those savings will be expended in merit raises for all county employees, though those will be limited this fiscal year to 2 percent.
The raise cap also will apply to county administrators and division directors, commissioners determined in their Tuesday meeting. In recent years, administrators and directors have received raises as high as 7 percent in a single year.
Raises will be included in employees' Jan. 20 paycheck.