NCQC budget committee approves position

PRESCOTT – A full-time position will be added to the Nevada County Assessor’s Office, if it’s approved by the Nevada County Quorum Court at its December meeting on Dec. 12.

Pam Box, Nevada County Assessor, asked the court’s budget committee for a full-time position to help handle the Geological Information System (GIS) that will be installed next year. The GIS system deals with land and will require data to be downloaded into the system when it’s installed.

The budget committee approved the request, initially allowing Box to hire someone to work three days a week until the program is installed, then having them become full-time employees. The part-timer will primarily work on minerals for the office.

Nevada County Clerk Julie Oliver said the part-time position will be eliminated when the person becomes full-time, adding the money is in the budget for the extra salary. The new hire will begin in January 2018.

From there, the committee discussed making changes in proposed raises for courthouse and county employees. JP Bob Cummings pointed out the raises proposed will bring the employees to $9.85 per hour. He said the federal minimum wage will be going to $10 per hour next year and suggested going ahead and making the proposed raises $10 per hour, so it doesn’t appear the county is being miserly next year when it would raise the pay by 15 cents an hour to meet federal guidelines.

He added this can be done and the court would still be within the 90 percent of funds it can legally budget.

JP George Smith asked about the county’s personnel policy and suggested when new people are hired, it be done with a 60-90 day probationary period, so if they don’t work out it would be easier to replace them. He also suggested the court form a committee to address the county’s personnel policy.

Cummings agreed saying the policy needs to be brought up to date. He pointed out the state allows for 12 holidays per year, while the county has 13, as the county includes Columbus Day.

A part-time employee will be removed from the county’s insurance the first of the year. Susie Key, county treasurer, said one person working part time is on the county’s insurance and shouldn’t be. This person went from full-time to part time, but their insurance situation wasn’t addressed at that time.

Nevada County Judge Mark Glass agreed to have the person removed from the policy. He told the budget panel for around $17 per month extra the county can get a dental insurance policy added to its premium, and the cost would still be less than the county paid last year because of the rates going down. If the court approves this at its Dec. meeting, county employees would have medical, dental and vision insurance policies.