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Commissioners adopt overtime policy to let county participate in federal highway-safety grant
Summary
The board adopted a policy allowing salary employees to log grant-funded overtime so Hand County can participate in an 80/20 federal highway-safety overtime grant worth up to $16,000; the county will front payroll and seek reimbursement from the grant.
The Hand County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt a policy enabling county salary employees to participate in a federal highway-safety overtime grant that the county applied for.
The grant — a federal program to fund speed and DUI enforcement — covers 80% of overtime costs, with the county responsible for the remaining 20% match. The sheriff’s office representative (Shane) told the board the county applied for $16,000 for the October-to-September federal fiscal year; if approved, the county would pay overtime up-front and receive monthly or quarterly reimbursements afterward.
Shane described how officers would track time: staff would mark time spent on the federal enforcement tasks on a special timesheet that distinguishes federally funded hours from regular work. Salary employees would only claim overtime after they exceed 40 hours in a week; time worked on highway-safety activities that helps push total hours past 40 could be designated as grant overtime and later reimbursed.
Why it matters: The adopted policy lets the sheriff’s office deploy more enforcement activity while ensuring overtime expenses attributable to the federal program are reimbursed rather than charged wholly to county funds.
Discussion and details: Commissioners discussed how the program is recorded and reimbursed and whether the county expects to fully use the $16,000 allocation. Shane said the county typically fronts payroll and is reimbursed monthly; he also said deputies vary in whether they choose to do overtime but that a handful of deputies are interested in extra hours for enforcement work.
Board action: A motion to adopt the highway-safety overtime policy passed by voice vote. The policy specifically limits the grant overtime to grant-funded enforcement tasks and requires documentation and time records for reimbursement to the federal grant.
