Court approves policy regarding comp-time hours
The Lavaca County Commissioners’ Court met in a regular meeting Monday morning, July 24 and approved a policy regarding compensation time accrued by county employees.
According to County Judge Keith Mudd, an adhoc committee made up of department heads and officials including himself, Shana Opela, Karen Bludau, Lori Wenske, Deborah Sevcik, Barbara Steffek, Micah Harmon, Tim Decker, Kenny Siegel and Kyle Denney, was formed recently and composed the policy to be presented to the court for approval.
The committee formulated three policies that included:
• Any overtime or comp time hours worked, allowed, accrued or paid out, must be approved in advance by the immediate supervisor, and there must be sufficient budget within the department to either pay out overtime in the pay period for which it occurred, or sufficient budget to cover the cost of accumulating comp time should the employee fail to use their comp time in the given fiscal year.
• Any unpaid overtime, aka comp time, must be used by the end of the fiscal year in which the comp time occurred. Unless otherwise approved by the court, all employees should have zero balance of comp time to start the new fiscal year.
• Approve payment, on payroll check dated Sept. 29, 2023 , of accrued comp time for all Lavaca County employees.
At the July 11, commissioners’ court meeting, with the sheriff ’s office having the funding in its budget, the court approved payment of accrued comp time to the sheriff ’s office employees.
At Monday’s meeting, county auditor, Shana Opela said currently each department has enough funds to pay off their own comp times that have been accrued.
Mudd said some of the comp times in the different departments have been accrued over multiple fiscal years.
“There have been multiple other departments who have had turnovers and when an employee quits, or resigns, and we cannot hire back quick enough, the work load falls back on the employees in the system,” Mudd said. “So, they have been asked to work overtime, also known as comp time and it has been accumulating. This policy will take care of it and make comp time issues either from overtime or comp time, to be used within the given fiscal year it was accrued.”
Short-term Detention of Juvenile Offenders Contract:
The court approved contracts for secure short term Detention of Juvenile Offenders between the Lavaca County Juvenile Probation Department and the Brazos County Juvenile Justice Center, the San Patricio County Juvenile Justice Center, the Guadalupe County Juvenile Services Center, the Victoria County Justice Detention Facility, the Hays County Juvenile Center and the Atascosa County Juvenile Center.
Tracy Darilek with the 2nd 25th District Court said the contracts are reviewed each year and have one-year renewal for the court to approve, unless the rates go up per each center.
Exemption for Subdivisions:
The court addressed certificates of exemption from subdivision requirements in regards to four subdivisions.
Certificates of exemption from subdivision requirements were approved for Keith and Allison Kubenka in Pct. 2, Leanne Wilden, Gary Cooper in Pct. 4 and Tramer, while the court tabled the exemption for Gilbert and Evelyn Mozisek.
Chiller/AC Compressor:
The court discussed the matter of one of the chillers that supplies air conditioning to the courthouse.
According to Mudd, the courthouse has two chillers with each chiller containing four compressors. He said one of the chillers recently shut down causing cooling and other problems in the courthouse.
“One day, a couple of weeks ago, I came to the courthouse early and one of the chillers had shut down. It was 81 degrees inside the building, high humidity and water on the floor,” Mudd said. “Had this happen on a Friday night and we went home, come Monday it would have been a disaster.”
He said he called Daikin who came and serviced the chiller and they advised the county to replace two of the compressors on one of the chillers.
The cost for replacing the two compressors amounts to $21,160. 49 and with Daikin being the only company, who services the chillers, the court approved the quote.
In other action taken by the court:
• Accepted a donation from Rocky Creek Resources to Pct. 3 for road repairs in the amount of $43,601.29.
• Approved the Vehicle Inventory Tax budget for 2023-24.
• Approve all consent agenda items.
County Judge Keith Mudd presided over the meeting with commissioners Edward Pustka, Wayne Faircloth and Kenny Siegel present for the meeting