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Supplements not included in county budget

By Lisa Majors-Duff
Jackson County commissioners on Friday adopted a $33 million budget for fiscal year 2000-01 with no changes to the 100-plus-page document presented by Chairman Jay Denton earlier this month.

Changes to the proposed budget had been requested by officials from two departments funded by the county commission ­ the school board and the Sheriff's Department. Both were seeking additional funds for personnel and neither request was approved.

Of the eight speakers at the public hearing June 22, five were Jackson County educators who once again requested commissioners include a supplement for teachers in the upcoming budget.

"If you do not (approve a supplement), we will be very disappointed, but we won't stop," Smoky Mountain High teacher Ray Menze told the board before handing them a 26-page petition signed by those who favor a salary supplement for teachers.

"Please listen to us, please pay attention to us. We are begging you," said SMHS teacher Frances Hess, who related her recent efforts to certify 10 nurses assistants "on my own time. I didn't have to do that, but I did it because I care about the kids."

Cullowhee Valley teacher Alice Fox, who also serves as president of the local N.C. Association of Educators chapter, asked commissioners to accept an offer made by Superintendent Frank Burrell, who said if the county board could find $100 per teacher, then the school board would match the funds. The county's portion of this match would have been just under $30,000.

Also requesting additional funds for personnel was Sheriff Jim Cruzan, who appeared before the board Friday seeking salary adjustments for Chief Deputy Jim Ashe and Major Ron Melton. "My budget request included 11 salary adjustments. They were not approved," Cruzan said. "I'm here today to get two salary adjustments I've been trying to get for years."

The sheriff listed the accomplishments of both Ashe and Melton, two officers who could take over the role of sheriff at any time if needed, Cruzan said. Both regularly accept extra duties outside traditional employment responsibilities and both are on call 24 hours a day.

"We are the lowest paid law enforcement agency in the county and we handle 85 percent of the crime," he said. "What I'm asking for is not much." Cruzan's request would have added $7,041 to the budget.

Salary adjustments approved in the 1999-2000 budget "were a slap in my face and in my officers' faces. We were told there'd be no adjustments. When I found that was not the case, I was very angry. I'm still very angry," he said. "I have to explain to my people why they are not equal to other county employees."

"I have a hard time voting against safety and education," Commissioner Roberta Crawford said of the requests, "but this year I just can't vote for them."

As for the teacher supplement request, Crawford said, "I just wish it could have been addressed before we started these building projects, because I think it is the teachers who make the schools, not the buildings."

An across-the-board salary study of all county employees will be conducted in the coming fiscal year, at which time irregularities in departments will be addressed and hopefully corrected, Commissioner Stacy Buchanan said. Until that study is completed and implemented, Buchanan said he could not support individual adjustments.

Commissioner Conrad Burrell was the sole board member to suggest granting the sheriff's and teachers' requests.

"The sheriff presented a good proposal," Burrell said. "And I feel strongly that we should do something for the educators in our county."

Jackson County's 2000-01 budget is projected to bring in $3.5 million more in ad valorem taxes over this year's budget. The extra funds are greatly the result of the first revaluation of property in the county in eight years. Property values rose an average of 58 percent, allowing the board to drop the tax rate from 53 to 48 cents per $100 valuation.

Back to Archive: 06/29/00.