Members of the Walker County Board of Commissioners want more information from Board Chair Shannon Whitfield regarding the creation of new staff positions.
Stanley Matthews, a Chickamauga resident, started a discussion at a board meeting last week in LaFayette. The board’s chair is allowed to spend no more than $25,000 without authorization of the county’s Board of Commissioners, and Matthews said he thinks that should include adding new government positions.
He was referring to an executive administrative assistant position created late last year and a maintenance supervisor position created within the past two years. Annually, the administrative assistant earns $42,000 and the facilities manager earns $61,400, according to Joe Legge, the county’s public relations director.
“I believe that you’ve created a couple of jobs on your own, and that makes no sense to me,” Matthews said at the meeting, according to a video on the county’s social media page.
The chair is allowed to hire personnel, Whitfield said at the meeting, if the position is in the budget and the job is posted publicly. He added that before he assumed the chair position in 2017, county jobs weren’t posted publicly.
Whitfield said the county received 40 or 50 resumes from people who applied for the county’s most recent hire, an administrative assistant.
After questioning, he said only one candidate was interviewed because he said they were the only one to meet the position’s qualifications.
Commissioner Mark Askew, who represents the district that includes Chickamauga, said at the meeting the county’s enabling act is very clear about the chair’s spending limit. Granted by the state, the county’s enabling legislation describes the roles and responsibility of local government entities.
“It’s kind of outside the box,” Askew said, referring to creating new positions and the $25,000 spending limit. “And we’d like to be involved in that. And when you don’t, it creates confusion, just like what we’re dealing with right now.”
Personnel and day-to-day operations of the county are handled by the chair, Whitfield said, but Askew said those roles could be adjusted if there are any issues. Discussing issues on the front end would avoid problems, Askew said.
Whitfield said each department head does their own hiring, but if people want every potential county employee to come before the board, that can be discussed.
Commissioner Robert Stultz said at the meeting he’s heard the county’s new executive assistant is doing a good job, but he would have liked to know about her background and training before she was hired.
The executive administrative assistant, hired in November, reports directly to the board’s chair, Legge said. Stultz said he hasn’t met the new administrative assistant, and Askew said that’s the gist of the problem because the board needs to be better informed about the county’s administrative business.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.