Overtime or compensatory time? That is one question on Fayette County commissioners' minds as they ponder a proposed $48.6 million budget for fiscal year 2000.

“We do not have a consistent policy,” county administrator Billy Beckett told the board as they wrestled with requests for additional personnel in the human resources portion of the budget during a work session Monday.

Department heads are asking for 52 new employees, but some of those positions are part time. The “full-time equivalent” number of requested positions is 45.5. Beckett's recommendation to the commission is to approve 29 new jobs, or 23.4 full-time equivalent positions.

Full-time equivalent positions approved in last year's budget were 556.02.

But with turnover and seasonal work loads workers sometimes have to put in extra hours, and federal laws require that the county have a consistent policy by which workers can negotiate for overtime pay or more time off, said Beckett.

Many workers currently take comp time, he said, but that works a hardship in areas like the county's E911 dispatch center, where workers have to work so many holidays that they quickly accumulate more comp time than they can ever expect to take.

E911 director Cheryl Rogers asked for money in her budget request to give her workers their accumulated overtime, but commissioners balked at that. “Don't do this unless we have a policy,” said Commissioner Greg Dunn.

The group tentatively approved the budget request, reserving the right to consider the actual payment later. Meanwhile, Beckett promised to develop a policy as soon as possible. “We have got to get this issue resolved,” he said.

During a three-hour work session, commissioners tentatively approved budget requests for administration, finance, human resources, purchasing and contingency funds, setting the contingency at $494,474.

Also tentatively approved were budges for the Georgia Forestry Commission, building and grounds maintenance, and ten special revenue funds. Among the special funds were fire services — $4.95 million — and E911 — $1.51 million.

A $475,020 budget for the county library raised some eyebrows when it was discovered the facility's budget comes mostly from the special purpose local option sales tax that built it.

Approximately $2.4 million not spent in construction still is being used to fund the library, including interest payments of about $72,500 received on the money. But what happens when the SPLOST money runs out?

The county will have to fund the library with tax funds, Beckett informed the group, adding that this is nothing new. Additional facilities always increase the size of the county budget for staffing and maintaining the buildings, he said.

“The library added a significant amount of cost to the county, as did the E911 Center,” he said. As for the $2.4 million, “Once it's gone, the county has to fund it,” he said.

Commissioners put off a decision on whether to fund radios for commissioners. Board members currently are provided cell phones that double as pagers and triple as walkie talkies.

Commissioners Greg Dunn, Linda Wells and Harold Bost said the radios aren't necessary and indicated a desire to cut them from the budget, but Commissioner Glen Gosa objected. The cell phones don't have enough range to keep him in touch when he is out of town, he said. “You can't use it past Brooks.”

There was some confusion about how much it costs to include the radio function. Commissioners voted 3-1 with Commissioner Herb Frady abstaining to tentatively approve the commission's $455,004 budget, minus $4,000 for the radios, but promised to readdress the question after more information is provided.

The next work session will be at 4 p.m. Thursday, prior to the commission's regular business meeting at 7 p.m. All commission meetings are open to the public.

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