NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors are deciding whether to give pay raises to county road department employees that are quitting “left and right” because of low salaries, depleting the county’s ability to maintain roads and provide other essential services.
“If we get much smaller, you are all going to be hollering,” Supervisor Kevin Wilson told his colleagues Monday. “If we don’t have a road department, we’re not going to have any roads.”
Board President Angela Hutchins said calculations will be made on how much the pay raises will cost the county so supervisors can make a decision later this month.
Adams County Road Manager Robbie Dollar has been pleading with county supervisors for months to increase his workers’ wages — which he says are much lower than what’s paid in other counties — while several are quitting for higher pay elsewhere. He expressed frustrations Monday that supervisors have not acted. “I’m tired of fighting this battle,” he said. “I’m tired of beating this horse.”
“We’re going to put this to a vote (Feb. 16) because I’m tired of it, too,” said Hutchins, pointing to the board’s next scheduled meeting.
Road department employees patch up county-owned roads, remove fallen trees blocking the byways and tend to other public-works projects. While supervisors acknowledged they are essential but underpaid, they’re trying to determine how expensive the wage increases will cost and whether the county has the money. “My only problem is how are we going to pay for it,” said Supervisor Ricky Gray.
A rough estimate made at the board’s Monday meeting had it costing about $200,000 a year to give the road department’s 30 or so employees a $2-an-hour boost in pay.
While the board’s discussion focused mainly on the road department, supervisors are weighing whether other county employees could also get pay raises.
The county supervisors on Monday did approve a pay raise for Adams County Judge Walt Brown — from $132,000 a year to $145,000. While the new salary amount is set and partially funded by the state, the county board must give approval for the increase to go into effect.
In other action Monday, the Adams County Board of Supervisors voted to appeal a circuit court judge’s order for paying public-defense attorneys for work representing indigent clients. Supervisors questioned whether the amounts being demanded exceed what’s allowed by state law. Several local attorneys in private practice are appointed by judges to represent criminal defendants who can’t afford to hire their own.
The county budget has the public-defense attorneys being paid about $2,000 a month, but the bill submitted to the board Monday could “blow up our budget,” Wilson said.
The board last year voted to establish a county office of public defenders with five lawyers and a budget of about $320,000 a year, but that plan got stalled amid questions about whether it’s legal for Adams County Circuit Judge Lillie Blackmon Sanders’ daughter and sister to be hired as two of the attorneys. The public defenders office is intended to replace the practice of retaining nine private attorneys the court randomly calls on to represent criminal defendants.
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