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County leaders OK health department overtime inspections
By Justin Goble
Officials with the Jackson County Department of Public Health say they are hoping to catch up on septic inspections through a new overtime work program.
Commissioners unanimously approved the proposal during a work session Sept. 11. The new plan will allow health inspectors to work within the county on their days off for a flat fee of $40 an hour. Westmoreland said this fee, along with a 12 percent administrative charge and 50 cents for every mile traveled, will be passed on to the contractors who request inspections.
According to Director Paula Carden, the department has a six-week turnover on inspecting restaurants due to the increase in development throughout the county. Carden said most of her employees are spending all their time doing septic inspections and can’t get to restaurant inspections.
Because Jackson County previously had no overtime policy, Carden said many of her employees were contracting out their services with other counties during their time off.
“That option was not available here,” McMahan said. “We’ve talked to many of the inspectors, and they said they would like to work overtime here instead of having to go to Macon or Swain county. Now they can work overtime in the county and we can try to get caught up on these inspections.”
“We moved to a 10 hour workday, so our inspectors are only working four days a week,” Carden said. “Those who are willing to give up their weekends to do extra inspections will help expedite the process and help us get caught up on septic inspections.”
According to Westmoreland, the plan went into effect immediately after it was passed.
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