GROVETON — The Trinity County Commissioners Court enacted a hiring freeze and is seeking a 5 percent cut in expenses across the board for the FY 2025-26 budget year.
At a Sept. 4 special meeting Trinity County Commission, the court approved a freeze on hiring, promotions, transfers, capital outlay and equipment purchases to be effective Sept. 4.
Commissioners also directed County Judge Danny Martin to notify all department heads and elected officials that they will need to cut 5 percent from expenditures, and refrain from any unnecessary spending for the next 25 days, saying the budget is extremely tight, and will get tighter in the next year.
In seeking cuts, commissioners looked to pay off notes on equipment in this budget year.
One area of contention was salaries in many departments were over budget.
Commissioner Neal Smith pointed out that the jail is over budget $90,543 in salaries; the Sheriff’s Office is over $21,053; and the District Clerk’s Office is over $2,079, among others.
“How does it get that way?” he asked. “Is there a safeguard so the departments don’t go over budget?
While County Auditor Bonnie Kennedy said she can only do budget amendments in the event that there are not enough funds in a line item, County Treasurer Orrin Hargrave said the bigger challenge is that department heads are not following county policy.
“We’re hiring people before the Personnel Action Forms are approved, which is against county policy,” Hargrave said. “Regardless of what is in the budget, whatever is listed on the timesheets of the employees is what has to be paid.”
“If we’re fully staffed, there’s no reason for this overtime,” Smith said. “I’m not running no one’s department, I am watching this budget.”
County Judge Danny Martin said that paying for comp time is another issue; it should not be allowed to build up like it does since it is paid out a 1 ½ times the hourly rate.
Smith again said that every department has to stay in budget and pointed out that there is nothing in the employee handbook that directly addresses taking comp time.
Hargrave said there is a cap on comp time, but there is no policy that states that after a certain amount of time the employee is required to take comp time.
“It’s up to the elected official to bring these things to the court, and propose solutions,” he said. “We have to start following our policies. It will go a long way to solving some problems.”
