County commission makes hiring freeze exception

A decision to hire a deputy clerk for the county court’s civil division was approved by a slim margin Tuesday.

A 3-to-2 vote resulted in an exception to the county’s hiring freeze and granted the request made by district court administrator/magistrate Tabitha Wedge.

The $60,000-a-year position was discussed at length during the commission’s executive committee meeting last week. As they did then, commissioners Tuesday maintained a number of reasons for and against the request.

In the end, however, the support of chairman Dennis Allen, Jared Hoffmaster and Kathy Pangle carried the motion. The job was included in the county’s 2021 fiscal-year budget, according to finance director Angie Steinman.

Commissioner Dan Czajkowski said the board has a responsibility to be financially prudent. Meanwhile, commissioner Ken Malone said the courts did not operate in good faith when the county appealed to all departments last year to make reasonable cuts in order to help the county’s fragile budget.

Malone reminded commissioners of the board’s pleas for budget help and how every department except the courts responded.