Today’s meeting was a short one. We started off with the Invocation and Pledge followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda.
Next we presented four proclamations: Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Family Court Awareness Month, Operation Green Light, and National Family Caregiver Month.
Moving into County Administrator time, we began by reviewing upcoming meeting agendas—we will not be meeting next week. Second we approved a Grant Agreement for a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the Aeropark Innovation District. Third we heard a presentation on Compensation Proposals. County government, like everywhere else in the country, is struggling to hire and retain employees—our Human Resources department proposed a new hire bonus, a retention bonus for current employees and a shift differential pay and call back pay for EMS personnel. We approved this proposal in order to remain competitive and keep county government operating. We approved $1,500 hiring bonus for targeted positions (Public Safety Dispatch, CDL drivers, skilled trades), and a one-time retention bonus of $1,200 for all county employees that work 30 or more hours a week. The retention bonus will require employees to stay with St. Mary’s County for one year and is being fully paid out of salary savings from this years budget (due to the high number of vacancies). We approved reinstating call-back pay for EMS hourly employees at an estimated annual expense of $25,600 and approved including EMS employees in the shift differential pay that other employees receive when working nights with an estimated expense of $38,584. Our final item of business was approval of the employment contract for Jenna Guzman as the new Communications Director for the county—welcome to the team Jenna!
During Commissioner time I spoke about Halloween and the importance of voting. Make sure you get out and vote—early voting through Thursday or on election day next Tuesday, November 8th!
