Some on board lobby for workers
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 21, 2016 10:01 AM
Wayne County Commissioners Ray Mayo, Wayne Aycock and Joe Gurley say they will continue their efforts to reverse a Nov. 1 board decision not to pay certain county employees who lost time because of Hurricane Matthew.
The decision is not only unfair, but undermines county efforts to bolster employee morale, particularly in the Department of Social Services and Health Department, they said.
Under the current inclement weather policy, employees in the northern part of the county are required to use their vacation time if they are unable to make it to work, but Hurricane Matthew created certain issues that weren't accounted for in the policy -- such as lack of electricity and flooding for an extensive period of time.
The commissioners that are objecting to the decision to not pay employees contend it would be better for the board to work out a new policy while handling the issue as it has in the past in which the employees were paid.
"Let's go ahead and correct this situation," Mayo said.
"If you want to look at the policy in the future and make it more defined because the policy is open to interpretation .... It takes a lot more credibility for a CEO or anybody else to stand up and say, 'I should have done this differently. Let's see what we can do to fix it, and let's move on.' But that is not happening."
Wood sent out an email last month explaining the inclement weather policy for the county, Mayo said.
"What he said was, in a nutshell, is if you live south of the Neuse River, and it (bridges) is closed down that you will get paid under the inclement weather policy whether you go to work or not because you can't go to work," Mayo said. "People north of the Neuse River will only get paid if they went to work under which most circumstances would not be an issue."
Mayo said the issue that the county is met with now are that the Health Department and DSS employees reported for work at the Senior Center and County Office Building. Both facilities were without power and the County Office Building experienced some flooding, so the employees were summarily sent home under the assumption they would be compensated.
"But at a certain time later, and not all at one time, (DSS Director) Debbie Jones and Health Department director, Davin Madden -- and also George Wood -- was the one I understand who actually sent the people home from the Senior Center," Mayo said.
"They all collectively made a decision to, 'Hey, with technology and everything, we can't do anything. There isn't any power.' They sent everybody home. Now the question is, do we pay the employees, just the ones who had no power, not the other employees who came to work and had power and could do their jobs."
Employees who were logged in will get paid for the time they were logged in, Mayo said.
"But my point is they were sent home by their director and/or the county manager," Mayo said.
"Under the assumption they would be paid," Gurley added.
Whether it was right or wrong at least two directors, DSS and Health Department, were under the impression their employees would be covered under that policy in which case they would be paid, Mayo said.
Employees had to use vacation time to make up for the lost hours. Mayo said some had told him they lacked sufficient vacation hours to do so.
Mayo's motion at the Nov. 1 session was to also pay employees living north of the Neuse River who came to work between Oct. 10 and 13 in a county facility with no electricity and were later excused to go home.
Mayo, Gurley and Aycock voted for the motion, Commissioner Joe Daughtery, Bill Pate and Ed Cromartie voted no. Commissioner John Bell had left before the vote.
The 3-3 vote meant the motion failed.
Gurley said he was not being critical of Woods' interpretation of policy.
"But as much turmoil as there is right now with a split decision, the answer isn't right," he said.
"It is a moral issue of doing what is right," Mayo said.
Later, in an interview, Gurley flipped a light switch plunging the office into darkness.
"How are you going to work?" he said. "My point the whole time has been those buildings without electricity -- in today's environment, how could anybody come in and work?"