The courtroom was "standing room only" at Monday night's county commission meeting. But it was not the proposed Hotel/Motel tax, or the discussion by Tanyard Road blueberry farm owner Gail Haggard warning of the danger to property values and the environment that Cobb-Vantress contract chicken houses present that brought out the large crowd.
It was political "turf disputes," employee pay scales and wages in different county offices that brought out the crowd, and a heated back and forth between Sheriff Mark Gammons, Circuit Court Clerk Rick Gann, County Mayor Shelvy Linville, and former County Mayor Glen Donoho.
The "politics" was so deep you needed hip waders and still wouldn't have kept dry.
The discussion began with Sheriff Gammons, who noted that there were no raises for employees included in the 2008-09 budget, and asked for a uniform pay scale for jobs like secretary or clerk in the different county offices.
County Commissioner Anna Dean Carter commented that "that had been tried more than once, and elected officials had ignored" the guidelines.
Circuit Court Clerk Rick Gann then joined the fray, asking if it was fair for a clerk or secretary in one county office to make several thousand dollars a year more than someone doing the same job in another county office?
Gann then asked the commissioners to let him revise his budget in the salary line from $146,502 up to $182,906 to equalize his ten employees rate of pay with the three working in the county mayors office.
Mayor Linville pointed out that Gann's deputy clerks each took a Thursday off, in turn, one each week, getting paid for five days when they only worked four.
This back and forth continued with Gann stating that this was just once every seven weeks for each employee, and that they were taking "comp time," that had accumulated in previous months.
Linville then asked Gann if he wanted to raise county property taxes to give these "equalization" raises, and Gann responded, "yes, if it's necessary."
Sheriff Gammons interjected with a statement asserting again that one secretary shouldn't be worth more than another, and that the county had to "get it on a scale and make (county office holders) go by it."
The mayor stated that "you are using my office as a whipping block and I don't appreciate it," having noted earlier that his predecessor had given the mayor's then four office employees, including his own daughter, a 15-percent raise in November 2005, ten months before Linville took office in 2006.
The politics got even thicker as Linville accused Donoho, sitting on the front row of the courtroom, of having instigated the controversy, noting that Donoho had requested the pay scale of employees in the mayors office, and his wife had picked them up, the same week a federal court dismissed his (Donoho's) daughter's lawsuit again Linville and the county.
On taking office Mayor Linville had reduced his staff by one woman, and not retained his predecessor's daughter as a county employee when he took office.
A SERIES OF COUNTY EMPLOYEES began to raise their hands, and as they were recognized argued for a pay increase (which is not in the current budget) to help offset the raise in the cost of health insurance (offered to county employees last year) and the general cost of living increase, especially gasoline.
The discussion finally ended with Commissioner David Vester suggesting that a committee be set up to "get the department heads together to try to set up a workable solution to the controversy." The motion was seconded by Scott Gammons and passed on a voice vote.
ALL IN ALL it was a bitter and distastful discussion. You might get a "blow by blow" account of the exchanges from the other newspaper, as they taped the meeting.
But honestly, this reporter wouldn't have the stomach to listen to it all again.
The Hotel/Motel tax issue will be discussed further at the August 18 meeting and voted up or down after hearing all three Red Boiling Springs hotel owners say this Monday night they believe it will hurt their business more than tourism promotion would help it.
Go figure.
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