Commissioners order rewrite of county cellphone reimbursement and clarify overtime rules after extended discussion

Decatur County commissioners discussed county cellphone reimbursement and overtime rules at length on April 7, directing staff to revise the cellphone handbook language and asking human resources to prepare clearer overtime policy language for a future meeting.

Lede: The board moved a cellphone-policy item up the agenda at the sheriff’s request and spent substantial time examining how reimbursements are applied, who is eligible and whether one person can receive both a line subsidy and a data subsidy. Commissioners and department leaders agreed the county handbook lacks clarity and directed staff to draft amendments that (1) explicitly limit an employee to one reimbursement per person, (2) define eligible positions (for example on-call supervisors, highway supervisors, probation officers who must respond off-hours), and (3) set a single monthly reimbursement rate rather than separate call and…