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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com  
The Carter County Financial Management Committee met for their regularly-scheduled December meeting on Monday morning with a quite long list of agenda items to work through.

After approving the minutes of the November member, the committee dove headfirst into the December meeting tackling old business first.

Much of that session was spent discussing Capital Assets and Non-Capital Assets as Carter County Finance Director Brad Burke shared with the committee some of the cleaned-up language and definitions in regards to assets.

Burke shared with the committee that a list of capital assets is sent to department heads each year.

“We send out each year a record of capital assets to each department head to update if those assets are still in use to update our records,” said Burke in response to Commissioner Brad Johnson’s question in regards to how those records are managed.

Burke further added that if he was a new person coming in or a current member leaving, he would want to know about each asset that they would be held accountable for which is not a current requirement.

He said it was important to make sure that a physical inventory of Capital Assets and Non-Capital Assets be conducted to account for all equipment.

“It is important to properly maintain all the equipment and keep a log on all the equipment’s maintenance from the time it arrives until it is disposed of,” said Burke.

He said that he has received such inventories from the Highway Department and the Sheriff’s Department and suggested that all departments do a physical inventory and have it turned in by June 30th.

Committee Chairman Ginger Holdren asked for Burke to bring an exact date that this should be completed by to their next meeting.

Another item that drew quite a bit of discussion was the Compensation TIme Policy.

Holdren shared that county employees receive 1.5 hours of comp time for every hour of overtime worked which requires the approval of a supervisor before overtime can be worked.

She said that she is in favor of sending out a reminder of the policy to the department heads as a reminder and the budget committee. Holdren said it was important that the comp time was being taken instead of overtime and comp time should be taken without building up large amounts,

Roger Colbaugh of the Carter County Highway Department advised that his employees try to take the comp time when their work allows for it.

“Our employees usually take time off when they are not asphalting or doing snow removal.”

Mayor Patty Woodby advised that currently, the only problem that she is having with anyone with excessive comp time is the EMA Director who has accumulated 138.6 hours of comp time.

“He gets it down but just as soon as he gets it down some, he gets called out,” said Woodby. “He has been taking two days off but it seems that he is getting called out and that is driving his time back up.

“We have even talked about getting the Assistant EMA to cover more. He currently had around 80 hours on November 30.”

The committee also discussed the importance of stressing the need for county employees to take advantage of their wellness checks to help with getting better bids on insurance.

“We have been discussing dangling a carrot in front of the employees,” Holdren stated. “We have thought about giving a day of PTO for going and having a wellness check.

“The main thing is that the department heads know and support what we are trying to do.”

Holdren said that the recommendation would be brought before the full commission in their December meeting to vote on before proceeding ahead.