Ocilla council approves revised employee service awards after debate over fairness

The Ocilla City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve revised employee service awards, directing departments to fund awards for their staff following a short debate about fairness and scale.

Mayor Horace Hudgins called the Nov. 10 called meeting to order, confirmed a quorum and opened discussion on employee service awards after the council adopted its agenda. Councilwoman Claire Clayton-Stone proposed increasing awards for employees with 20 or more years of service to $1,250 and setting department-head awards at $1,500; Councilman Steven Hudson argued for returning to the pre-2021 award level of $750. Mayor Hudgins expressed concern that the proposed schedule would give the same award to employees with very different lengths of service and noted that awards for employees with less than one year of service would be prorated.

Councilwoman Mona Paulk moved to approve the awards as presented and was seconded by Councilwoman Claire Clayton-Stone. The motion to "award the employees the following" — with each department funding awards for its employees — carried, recorded as 4 yes, none opposed. The transcript does not reproduce the full award schedule in-line with the motion; the amounts discussed during debate were the $1,250 figure for 20-plus years and $1,500 for department heads as proposed by Councilwoman Clayton-Stone, and the $750 pre-2021 figure referenced by Councilman Hudson.

Standards and Compliance Director Joe Saxon was noted as present. Councilwoman Patrice Y.W. Manley, City Clerk Lucile Middlebrooks and City Attorney Warren Mixon were listed as absent. After handling the personnel item the council voted to adjourn; the adjournment motion carried 4-0.

The record shows the council adopted the meeting agenda, debated the award scale and approved an awards motion; the transcript does not list line-by-line award amounts attached to the final motion in the minutes provided.