County employees to get $750 bonuses

At Tuesday’s meeting, county commissioners authorized a one-time $750 bonus for all county employees.

Commissioner Bevin Putnal suggested the bonus. “Every county in Florida gave their employees a 3 percent raise or bonus except for two, us and Liberty County,” he said. “”Morale is so bad in a lot of departments.”

Commissioner Noah Lockley moved to award the workers the 3 percent raise. Chairman Pinki Jackel then asked, “Do y’all know how much that is?”

Director of Administrative Services Alan Pierce and Clerk of Courts Marcia Johnson both said they were uncertain because they had not come to the meeting prepared to discuss the topic.

Jackel said she was unsure whether some of the constitutional officers had already awarded bonuses and wanted to find out. Lockley restated his motion.

“Are you willing to make a decision without knowing where the money is coming from or how much?” asked Jackel

Lockley suggested it could be taken out of reserve funding. Johnson said the county has $1 million in reserves. She also said no one in her office had received a bonus.

The commissioners instructed Johnson to have Erin Griffith in the finance office find out how much a 3 percent raise would cost. At the end of the meeting, Pierce told commissioners Griffith estimated the cost of a roughly 3 percent across-the-board raise, to employees for both the county and constitutional officers, would be at least $150,000 and would have involved an adjustment to other factors, such as retirement costs, etc.

The commissioenrs opted instead to support a $750 across-the-board bonus, which totaled $145,000.

“I think we certainly always try to look after our folks and do the best we can,” said Jackel. “We certainly would like to do more and better. But this will certainly be a help and appreciated.”

The commission voted unanimously to award the bonus with Commissioner Smokey Parrish absent.