Robbinsville – The Graham County Board of Commissioners heard concerns about pay rates within three departments of the local body during a special-called Friday meeting.
Facing a staff shortage – largely due to pay being more competitive elsewhere – Graham County 911 Director Misty Hembree, Graham County Sanitation Department Director Gavin Colvard and Graham County Department of Social Services Director Amy Seay all pled their cases before the board in a nearly-40 minute open session.
Closed-door deliberations did not take long: the board voted to provide pay raises by using reallocated surpluses from other departments, which would not change the county budget.
Details of how much exactly was allotted to each of the three departments were not revealed at the meeting.
911 center
Hembree has combated her staffing issue by pairing the trainees with experienced personnel.
The 911 director noted that there are four experienced staff members and two trainees at the dispatch center.
“We are turning in paychecks with over a hundred hours. I turned in one with 130 hours,” Hembree revealed. “This was happening in June, July and August.”
If an experienced worker leaves the job, it is usually because of the pay and they move on to another dispatch center. Hembree has lost 1-2 workers each year since 2018.
Per a public-records request, The Graham Star learned that a telecommunicator at the 911 center makes between $14-$17.42 an hour.
It takes six months to be certified and other dispatches will only hire experienced workers.
“In the past year, I have trained six of the Cherokee Dispatch employees; about half their staff has come from Graham County,” said Hembree.
Training is mostly experience on the job and a certification class.
While the trainee is in class, their time must be covered by another worker.
It costs $9,400 to train a telecommunications employee.
Sanitation
Colvard also requested a pay raise for the sanitation department employees, based on their experience and certification.
“I’m not trying to hurt the taxpayer; I’m trying to help them,” said Colvard.
A Graham County sanitation driver makes $15.59 an hour. By comparison, a Cherokee sanitation driver makes $18.98 an hour.
Colvard noted that two employees recently left in two weeks. He pointed out a glaring discrepancy while making his pitch: an employee has worked part-time for the sanitation department for 12 years, and is being paid $14 an hour.
Social services
Seay’s personnel are also stretched thin.
“I’m in the same boat as everyone else,” said Seay. “Overtime in the last two weeks has been ridiculous. I had a child living in the building for eight days. We’re really pushed to the max.”
A recent notice mailed out led to one unnamed employee receiving 42 calls in one day – by 11 a.m. A social worker in Graham County makes $17 an hour.
Two Medicaid and a food-stamp worker are needed, as the current staff is working overtime. Seay estimated that it takes two years for a Medicaid worker to become comfortable on the job.
She stressed the importance of Medicaid workers and fair compensation for those workers, because 39.3 percent of the county is on Medicaid. Later this year, that number is protected to jump to nearly 50 percent.