Commission splits on budget

County commission passes new budget on 3-2 vote as Dickie and Reynolds balk on ending special road crew

The Escambia County (Ala.) Commission approved its fiscal year 2022-23 budget Monday on a 3-2 vote with Commissioners Steven Dickie and Karean Reynolds voting no due to the elimination of the road department’s special projects crew.

Commissioner Brandon Smith made the motion to approve the budget and Commissioner Scottie Stewart issued the second. Board Chairman Raymond Wiggins joined Smith and Stewart in voting yes, while Dickie and Reynolds voted no.

Dickie said he could not vote yes for the budget that eliminated the special projects road crew.

Reynolds agreed, noting that the special projects crew was created to help maintain and pave roads and said the county paved 64 miles of road with the crew in place.

“If we cut special projects it will be a detriment to the county,” Reynolds said. “I can’t, in good conscience, vote to eliminate the special projects crew. It will eliminate a critical part of our road department.”

Prior to being eliminated the special projects crew had two full-time employees and one part-time employee. Wiggins said the two full-time employees would continue to work with the road department and the part-time position would be eliminated, saving the county about $148,000.

Wiggins said the road department is short on employees and it’s hard to keep or hire new employees at the current pay level. The budget passed Monday gives an across-the-board raise of $1 per hour for all county employees.

“It’s hard to get good help with what we are paying,” Wiggins said. “If we cut this crew out we can use that money to help pay employees.”

Wiggins said the raise should help the county not only retain employees, but hire people to fill vacancies.

He did agree that eliminating the special projects crew would slow down some road work, noting the county simply didn’t have the manpower. Wiggins also said that County Engineer Bill Bridges was against eliminating the special projects crew.

Reynolds said the special projects crew was implemented in February, 2020, to help catch up on needed road work. He said he didn’t see any benefit in eliminating the crew because the county will still have the same vacancies in the road department. The road department is about seven to nine employees short at the present time.

Commissioner Smith said since 2008 the county has had a hard time getting any paving done and said the special projects crew has done work in his district. But he said it’s hard to get work done when the county can’t get employees or keep employees.

“We can’t afford to keep losing people,” Smith said.

Dickie said he felt like the commission was undermining the engineer’s authority, as a department head, by eliminating the special projects crew.

Reynolds also said the county “will be losing a very good employee with years and years of experience” once the special projects crew is eliminated”.

The budget passed Monday shows revenues of $26,510,000 and expenditures of $25,754,739.