Marion County commissioners debate pay-scale top‑out, table pay increase; approve engineer hires and property transfers

Marion County commissioners debated changes to the county employee pay scale and whether to shorten the length of service required to reach top pay, agreed to postpone an immediate across‑the‑board pay increase for all staff until after a work session, and approved several personnel hires and property transfers at their Sept. 2 meeting in Hamilton.

The commission devoted the meeting’s longest discussion to the county’s pay scale, where one commissioner argued that the current top‑out period — currently set at 25 years under the existing pay plan — makes recruitment and retention difficult. The commissioner said the county should shorten the period at which employees “top out” so long‑time employees and newer hires see more timely increases. Several commissioners said they wanted to study alternatives and the fiscal impact before acting.

Commissioners scheduled a work session for 9 a.m. the following day to continue the pay discussion and voted to table a motion to approve an across‑the‑board pay increase until after that work session. A commissioner who asked that the raise be discussed later moved to table the pay‑increase motion; the motion received a second and passed.

The commission approved multiple administrative actions with little debate. Commissioners moved to hire Wesley Hallman as county engineer; to approve a short‑term contract with Lynn Mitchell as assistant county engineer through December; and to appoint Anne West to the Marion County Department of Human Resource Board. Each of those recommendations was moved, seconded and approved by the commission.

The commission also approved transfers of county‑owned parcels to local volunteer fire departments to enable those organizations to access grant funding and expand use of the land. Scott (county staff) explained that the first property—identified as the Craft Volunteer Fire Department parcel—was originally owned by the board of education and had been obtained by the county in exchange for bus property; the county planned to deed it to the Craft Volunteer Fire Department and then enter a lease that would allow the precinct to continue voting at that location. Scott said, “The first one is Craft. That property is originally owned by the board of education. We just reached the agreement with the board of education to obtain that property in exchange for the bus property.”

During public comment on one road‑closure item, a resident who lives at a dead end on County Road 414 said he crosses a neighbor’s property to reach his home and worried that vacating or condemning the road would leave him landlocked. The resident said, “I live at the dead end... I just don’t…