Madison Co. Commission: Sheriff’s office policy change, school board appointee

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — It looks like sheriff’s office employees won’t be able to bank their holiday pay anymore. That was voted on in Monday’s county commission meeting.

“So it’s hard to get people to take their holiday pay,” Madison County Sheriff John Mehr stated.

Previously, employees who work on holidays could bank that time and cash out when they leave the department, when their pay is higher than when they earned it. The county still has $1.3 million they need to pay for this too.

“So it’s just a way to pay as we go so we don’t end up with a big lump sum we have to come up with at some point,” Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris said.

Starting July 1, employees will receive compensation for the pay period it was earned. Also, the sheriff’s office said the move-in date for the new jail got pushed back again.

“We’re talking about late November, early December, unless there is other changes with the weather,” Sheriff Mehr said. “Then hopefully around March, we’ll start actually moving in.”

Mehr says they are still also figuring up what the equipment cost is going to be, but they will get a final number when they are able to get inside the building.

“We’ve pretty well got an idea of where we’re going,” Mehr said.

Another thing the county commission talked about was where to put the new voting machines. The old ones are stacked floor to ceiling in offices in the election commission. But the new ones are going to be bigger and have strict storage requirements.

“It has to be climate controlled, have heating and air conditioning,” Mayor Harris said. “It has to have a security camera in it. It has to have two keys on it, because it’s the election commission, it has to have a Democrat key and Republican key.”

There was a bit of confusion when the commission discussed where the new machines will be stored. They’re recommending a smaller conference room — not the meeting room that’s used on a regular basis.

“It is a disruption in some of the things that were happening in the complex, but I think they can make arrangements to potentially hold a class in here, or hold a class in their conference room, or in their office. So on and so forth,” Mayor Harris said.

But they are hoping this will be a temporary solution, and that they will find something more permanent.

The commission also appointed Dr. Kenneth Newman to the school board. He is replacing O’Neal Henley, who recently decided to resign due to health reasons.