Commissioners approve 7% temporary pay adjustment for four health‑department staff

The Raleigh County Commission voted July 16 to approve a 7% temporary compensation adjustment retroactive to May 11 for four health‑department employees who have taken on interim leadership roles.

Human Resources Director Elizabeth Ward told the commission the county policy sets a minimum 7% increase for employees who take on supervisory duties but she had recommended 10% given the department’s recent loss of supervisors and the workload placed on the interim staff. "We are recommending 10% in this situation because we have 4, high level leaders in the health department that are — we just lost a lot of structure," Ward said during the presentation. She provided preliminary cost estimates: a retroactive total impact of $8,686.55 for the four employees and a maximum year‑to‑end impact of $30,357.95 if the temporary assignments continued through the end of the year.

Commissioners questioned whether the board could make a retroactive exception to the policy. The chair said he was concerned about setting a precedent for future exceptions and preferred sticking to the written policy; Ward and others argued the scale of supervisory losses — and the added grant and reporting responsibilities staff must now handle — justified flexibility. Interim health‑department director David Adams described the operational burden, saying supervisors are "learning grants, doing the grant reporting, work on the grant fiscal," and that staff were responding at unusual hours to manage duties while still seeing clients.

After discussion, Commissioner McKinley moved to approve a 7% temporary compensation adjustment, effective May 11, for the four named employees; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. The board directed staff to return with clearer policy language to avoid ambiguity about retroactivity and to consider whether a stipend or alternate payment approach would be preferable in similar future circumstances.

What happens next: The county will implement the 7% adjustment retroactive to May 11 for the four listed health‑department positions; the commission asked HR and legal staff to draft clarified policy language for a future meeting.

Sources: Presentation and Q&A with Elizabeth Ward, Human Resources Director; comments from David Adams, interim health‑department director; board motion by Commissioner McKinley and second by the Chair.