The Fannin County Board of Commissioners have postponed their discussion regarding hazard pay for law enforcement, fire, EMS and EMA employees for another two weeks after more discussion Tuesday, August 25.
The board was provided a list of potential employees who could receive the one-time payment, which included 35 full-time Fire/EMS employees, 10 full-time 911 operators, five part-time Fire/EMS employees, two part-time 911 operators, 17 uniformed patrol deputies and active volunteer firefighters.
Sheriff Dane Kirby said, “My recommendation was not just to give hazard pay to our uniformed patrol deputies, just so y’all know that. That was not my recommendation. My recommendation was if you’re going to give hazard pay to give it to everybody that was putting themselves in danger. In our office, that’s everybody except me, my admin staff and probably my chief deputy.
“When I was asked for this, I was told to put nobody on that list except our uniformed patrol deputies that are out here answering calls. I made it real clear that I didn’t think that was right. Those are not the only people in our office that deserve hazard pay if y’all are considering giving that to people.”
Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson asked how many employees Kirby’s actual request would include, and Kirby said, “You’re looking at a number closer to the high 40s.”
Finance Director Robin Gazaway explained that the uniformed patrol list was actually for a grant.
“That’s for salaries, not for hazard pay,” she said. “That’s not the list for hazard pay.”
Chairman Stan Helton told those in attendance that the state had changed the requirements used to qualify for hazard pay.
“This information was for us to provide to the state … the salaries that had been accumulated to qualify for the total amount that the state’s giving us back,” Helton said. “That’s where the disconnects at. If we need more time to look at this we can, because I think initially we were under the gun thinking we had to get this done by September 1. … If we’re clear enough on what we want to do on this, we don’t have to decide tonight on that.”
He suggested taking more time to look at the numbers since the deadline was no longer September 1.
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson wanted more guidelines to determine what exactly the county could be reimbursed for before making a final decision.
“I don’t want to make a decision who can get it or not,” he said. “I just want to follow the guidelines in which the state is setting forth, so we let them hurt whoever feelings can’t get it. Let the state be the one to decide that since it’s they’re money.”
Johnson explained that he personally felt many people were putting themselves in hazardous situations, but he wanted to ensure the proper guidelines were known by the board before a final decision was made.
The board voted to table the discussion until their next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, September 8.