BENTONVILLE -- Benton County elected officials want to add more than a dozen new employees at midyear, but some justices of the peace would rather they wait until work begins on next year's budget.
"I've always said the vast majority of personnel requests need to be handled as part of the normal budget process," said Barry Moehring, justice of the peace. "If there's some emergency situation or some extraordinary circumstances, then those are certainly worth considering. But midyear requests ought to be few and far between."
The Personnel Committee was to consider the requests when it met Tuesday (after press time). Barb Ludwig, county human resources administrator, was working on the requests Friday.
"The sheriff is asking for six new Jailer I positions," Ludwig said. "That's because of the new jail space that's coming on."
The new space being built to house another 45 to 50 misdemeanor inmates prompted the request for the new jailers, Sheriff Meyer Gilbert said. The ground work on the addition is done, and work on the foundation is set to begin June 27. If the new positions are approved, Gilbert hopes to have at least half of them filled by mid-August.
"It takes about four weeks to train them," Gilbert said. "So we want to get them now to get them trained and up and going before the end of the year."
Lynn Hahn, jail captain, said the Sheriff's Office has had several vacancies at the jail, but now he has enough applicants to fill those slots, independent of the new positions being sought. Bringing on the new jailers before the addition is open will be beneficial, Hahn said.
"This way they can get some actual experience with real inmates in the pods," Hahn said.
There also were requests for two IT support specialists and six new positions for the Road Department. Both of those requests were in the 2016 budget request but were not approved, Ludwig said.
County Judge Bob Clinard said the new positions in the Road Department and Information Technology Department are being proposed again because they remain necessary.
"I think they should have been approved in the budget process," Clinard said. "We don't ask for things unless we need them. We are short-handed in the Road Department. We have the equipment, but we don't have the manpower to do all the work that is before us. Adding new manpower is going to be far less expensive than subcontracting the work."
The county is increasingly dependent on technology, as is nearly every other part of American life, Clinard said. With that reliance on technology, the county needs to hire and retain people to provide the services and maintenance required, he said.
"It was needed when we asked for it last year during the budget, and it's needed now," he said.
Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace and chairman of the Personnel Committee, said midyear personnel requests have become something of a tradition. Justices of the peace have said in the past that once the county's revenue trends can be determined, typically by May or June, the Quorum Court has considered adding personnel and other requests that were cut during the budget process in the fall, she said.
"It would be one thing if they were told during the budget process, 'You're going to have to live with this for the entire year,'" Sandlin said. "But if they're told, 'You can always come back at midyear,' I have no real grief with that. We don't know what the revenue stream is going to be, and we have to wait and see. If the revenue is there, I have no real grief with it at midyear. I do not like it when they come back to us in February, which has been done, but midyear adjustments I can live with."
Kurt Moore, justice of the peace, has argued against midyear personnel requests.
"I think we need to try and avoid it unless it's an emergency," Moore said. "But the only way to discourage it is to say 'No,' and we haven't done that. They're going to have to prove to me it really is an emergency situation, and it really can't wait until next year."
General News on 06/22/2016