Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Certification raise issue

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 03:55:18 -0400

Certification raise issue

By Matthew Cook
Baytown Sun

Published August 26, 2003

The question of certification raises is
not one that will be answered easily or
quickly, Chambers County
Commissioners said Monday.

As the 2003-04 $20.3 million county
budget nears completion,
commissioners grappled with the
potential problems caused by
certification raises — a raise given to
an employee upon the completion of a
certification.

Commissioners said the Chambers
County Sheriff’s Office is the main
department that requests certification
raises for employees, as they move
from basic peace officer to advanced
peace officer, or when a dispatcher
obtains a jailer certification.

Other employees aren’t able to obtain
such certifications and the resulting
raises, Commissioner Buddy Irby said.

“The question is, is it fair to the other
departments in the county,” he asked.
“My secretary’s gotten two
certifications in the past two months.”

Judge Jimmy Sylvia said an answer to
the problem wasn’t immediately
apparent.

“I don’t have an answer for this,” he
said. “We’ll try to address it before
the first of the year.”

Commissioners are expected to adopt
the budget and set the county tax rate
at the next Commissioners Court
meeting, tentatively scheduled for
Sept. 8.

Commissioners are projecting a
1.7-cent drop in the county tax rate,
from 53.484 cents per $100 of property
valuation to 51.784 cents.

Also Monday, Commissioners did
renew a contract for Nextel cell phones
for Chambers County sheriff’s
deputies.

Sheriff Monroe Kreuzer requested that
a government contract with the
company be renewed so that deputies
could continue to use cell phones.

Commissioners referred Kreuzer’s
request to a telecommunications
committee for review.

County Auditor Jerry Sparks said the
county changed its policy regarding
cell phones. Instead of paying for the
costs directly, the county now offers
reimbursements as part of salary.
Sparks said there were concerns about
the county spending public funds to
pay for personal cell phone calls.

“The bottom line of what we tried to
do was to get the county out of the
cell phone business,” Sparks said. “I
don’t see how we can keep people
from having a cell phone and using it
for personal use.”

Kreuzer said that the cell phones
provided numerous benefits to
deputies while in the field. He said he
was concerned that some deputies
may not have the credit to obtain a
cellular phone, or they may not be
able to afford one.

The sheriff’s department’s phones are
scheduled to be shut off Aug. 31.

Also Monday, commissioners voted to
seek bids to construct a new cell in
the county landfill.

Solid Waste Director Jimmy Kahla said
the cell would be necessary to dispose
of waste that cannot be incinerated,
as well as ash from the county
incinerator.

Sylvia said that because ash requires
only 10 percent of the space of normal
solid waste, the new cell should last a
long time.

Kahla said the last cell was
constructed for $181,000 in 2000.

Also Monday, Commissioners approved
police patrols in the Plantation
subdivision, which consists of private
roads. The decision was based on a
request from Plantation residents, who
were concerned about the lack of
enforcement of traffic laws in the
subdivision.

Also Monday, Tax Assessor-Collector
Margie Henry said the county had a 95
percent collection rate of the 2002
taxes. There are still $239,000 in
uncollected taxes owed to the county

 http://web.baytownsun.com/story.lasso?WCD=12573

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