Board approves ordinance allowing county staff bonuses, pools county PIA funds for equal distribution

The King William County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved Ordinance 07-25, adopting local authorization for one-time monetary bonuses for county employees and directing county staff to pool county-side Personnel Incentive Allotments (PIA) into a single fund for equal distribution.

County attorney Mr. Zhang told the board the ordinance implements Virginia Code §15.2-1508, which authorizes local governing bodies to provide monetary bonuses to officers and employees and requires such pay be authorized by ordinance. He said the change was prompted by a Department of Social Services memo requiring local adoption for DSS employees to be eligible for bonuses.

Interim HR Director Miss Gooden recommended creating one pool for county-side funds (excluding constitutional officers) and distributing equal one-time bonuses to eligible full-time staff. Gooden estimated roughly 38–40 county employees would be eligible (about 82 total employees including constitutional-office staff across the locality) and said that, based on rough math, an equal distribution could yield bonuses in the neighborhood of $1,500 per eligible employee if all county allotments were combined.

Board members asked about eligibility and tax treatment; Gooden confirmed part-time employees would not be included and recommended distributing the bonuses outside the regular payroll schedule to reduce tax withholding impacts.

Chair Catlett called for the motion to approve the ordinance with the staff-recommended amendments. The motion passed on roll call: Miss Bancroft — Aye; Mr. Hodges — Aye; Mr. Edwards — Aye; Miss Robinson — Aye; Chair Catlett — Aye.

The board recorded the ordinance as approved and directed staff to implement the distribution under the amendments the board adopted.