Commissioners approve temporary building official job description, direct HR to post

The Columbia County Board of Commissioners on July 14 approved a temporary building official/fire marshal job description that will be posted for at least 24 hours and is intended as a four-month conditional appointment. Commissioners and HR staff said the temporary description is the same as the regular full-time job description but with a fixed start and end date to avoid benefit complexities.

Human Resources staff explained the temporary posting retains the full skill requirements of the regular position but limits the appointment to four months; the position offers only a nominal sick benefit (one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked). HR said they had a candidate the department had informally interviewed and that the candidate could potentially extend beyond the temporary term if a full-time hiring process showed they were a fit.

A commissioner moved to approve the job description for the temporary building official/fire marshal to be compensated at level T4, pay grade 11; the motion was called and the vote carried. Commissioners discussed the administrative process for adding a salary line with finance (Will and Rochelle were named) and agreed to ask finance to add the salary line for formal payroll setup at the next routine approval cycle.

Staff said they would post the temporary position online and proceed with the hiring steps while coordinating with finance to ensure payroll lines and salary classification are in place if the candidate is selected.

No action to permanently hire anyone was taken at the meeting; the record shows approval only of the job description and the posting process.