Commissioners reject temporary help for registrars; 'state and Merrill need to pay for it'

What was supposed to be a "routine and nonconfrontational" vote on Tuesday to confirm the hiring of a temporary, part-time employee in the Etowah County Board of Registrars office became a debate that ultimately shut down the hiring completely.

By a vote of 3-2, county commissioners voted against hiring Jerry Smith as a temporary employee to assist the Board of Registrars in the ongoing election challenges. His duties would have gone though July and included administrative tasks such as IT work and organization.

Chief Administrative Officer Shane Ellison requested the hire, based on a request by Probate Judge Scott Hassell at the recommendation by Secretary of State John Merrill.

"There was a new appointment to the Board of Registrars as of last week, and the hiring (of) Smith would be a way to help them get caught up with all of the issues they have had," Ellison said., "We have hired them temporary help on our dime in the past at least twice."

Commissioner Craig Inzer, who opposed the resolution to hire Smith, said that it should not be the county's responsibility to help fix the mistakes made on the state level. He said he did not want to put money and effort from the county toward things he believes the state should be fixing on their own.

Etowah County Commission: Election contests filed in Etowah County Commission, House district races

"The past two months have seen nothing but problems from the Board of Registrars, and I don't feel like we should be spending our county money on hiring someone to fix the mistakes of the state," Inzer said. "If the state needs the help, then the state and Secretary Merrill need to pay for it."

Commissioner Tim Ramsey said, "I want to vote to table it so that I can conduct more research on the manner, but since we can't do that, I have to vote 'no.' I simply don't have enough information to make a concise decision on whether this is a move the county should make or not."

Inzer added that if the hire was approved, the county would be held responsible for anything that goes wrong with the correction process as they would be the ones responsible for Smith's salary.

"I'm not taking any responsibility for anything our employee does in their office when they're not the ones taking control," he said.

Joey Statum, a "yes" vote, said that while he understood where both Inzer and Ramsey were coming from, he did not know if it was legal to reject hiring Smith for the job.

"We have always hired them a part-time person in the past because of high work loads within the election, including the general election coming up," he said. "The State of Alabama requests this help during this time, and I vote 'yes' because I'm not sure we have the right to deny that request in the manner we are doing it. It may not be legal."

Jamie Grant voted "no" on the measure, while Johnny Grant voted "yes."

"We should be doing what is best for the county and our citizens," Johnny Grant said.

Inzer retorted, "John Merrill can be doing what is best for the citizens of Etowah County."

"To me, it's saying that the state is going to send the person to help fix the mistakes but we have to be the ones paying for it," added Jamie Grant. He is involved in one of the election challenges, for the District 29 House seat, as a failure to update voter information from legislative redistricting resulted in some voters reporting that races that should've been on their ballots were not.

Because Smith's hiring was effective on June 3, commissioners will be working on a way to pay him for the time he actually served. He was supposed to be hired on a hourly rate of $11.42 that would have came from the general fund account dedicated to the Board of Registrars.

Commissioners also wanted to make it clear that there was nothing personal against Smith, it's the principle of who would be paying for his time and effort that caused the resolution to fail.

"It is nothing against Jerry Smith at all," said Inzer, "We will pay him for what he has done and John Merrill can figure out the rest of it if he needs him."

Commissioners also voted in favor of providing funds that were deemed "necessary" to the Employees' Retirement System. This funding would cover a one-time lump sum payment to eligible retirees and deceased retirees' family members.

This would also allow them to be compliant with SB 229 passed by the 2022 Alabama Legislature, which gave them a grant to benefit those who retired in the system. This payment will go through in October.

"While it says the commission president will be executing the document on this, Johnny Grant feels that it is an ethical standpoint that the CAO execute the document as he is a part of this retirement system," said the county's lawyer, James Turnbach.

Commissioners also approved a resolution to declare insolvents on unpaid taxes from 2021 and years prior, which is when a business' property taxes are unpaid. Starting this year in October with 2021, the probate judge will not be allowed to issue business licenses to those behind on tax payments.

Commissioners then approved a Memorandum of Agreement between themselves and the State of Alabama regarding the Federal Aid Exchange Funds. These funds, in accordance to provisions made in the 2019 Rebuild Alabama Act, will be in the amount of $400,000.

The meeting ended in an executive session to discuss pending litigation. No further action was taken outside the session.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Etowah County Commissioners vote no on help for Board of Registrars