As Mel Brooks says, “It’s good to be the king.”
These days, it’s also very good to be an employee of Guilford County government and it got a lot better to be one on Thursday, Sept. 7, when the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to give all employees a slew of new perks and benefits on top of the many, many others the board has granted in recent years.
Mike Halford, since he was named Guilford County manager two and a half years ago, has pushed the commissioners to approve pay raises, new insurance benefits and lots of other perks for county employees.
For two and a half years the commissioners have gone along with the requests with little to no pushback. However, in May, when Halford came to the board with a request for yet another package of new attractive benefits, the commissioners did show a little resistance. They put the request on hold until this month, before ultimately granting his request at an afternoon work session on Thursday, Sept. 7.
The package offered, among other things, paid time off for caregiver leave and bereavement leave – and it made the accrual of vacation days more beneficial for employees. It also tripled the amount of tuition reimbursement that employees get for continuing their education. (County employees already got time off for caregiver and bereavement leave due to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act – however, now those days off will be paid days rather than unpaid.)
The board granted the new perks on a 5-to-3 vote with Commissioners Kay Cashion, Pat Tillman and Alan Perdue voting against the motion. Commissioner James Upchurch was not at the work session.
The three who voted no, say they do support county employees, but this year they have been arguing that, at some point, there must be some limit to the generosity of county government – if for no other reason so that you don’t end up with a workforce that’s getting paid very well for not showing up to work much of the year.
Cashion expressed her concerns at the work session before the vote.
“The county is so generous now, with all the leave time and options, and benefits and insurance benefits,” she said. “I’ve got some heartburn over this – I really do.”
She also said that the cost is born by those who pay property taxes, some of whom are working two jobs.
She added that she tried to help some people find a place to rent recently, but they couldn’t find anything affordable because rental prices are through the roof.
“And here we are talking about taking taxpayer money and paying our employees to go home and get paid, and not be on site working,” Cashion said. “I think we need to be more accountable to our citizens who are working hard to support government.”
Looks like our taxes are about to go up again. Government employees couldn’t make it in the real world.
What an easy way to buy votes, take from the struggling taxpayers and give to the county employees.
County employees are already paid less than most. The least you can do is offer great benefits. You want people with a 4 year degree to come to work starting at 45k a year… Even with experience and a degree you’re still paying 45k a year or less in many positions. The very least you can do is offer perks. Guilford County is one of the larger counties and the ratio of employee to community members is crazy. You are making employees feel very under appreciated with your ignorant comments. Tax payers are also paying your salary Mrs. Cashion. Perhaps you could take a pay cut?
What part of the public sector do you “work” in?
It’s so easy to spend someone else’s money. I worked for the county and also the state system at UNCG and I’ll say now that maybe 10% of all the employees actually did an honest 8 hour work day. I heard so many times that “if they paid me more I’d do more “ sad attitude
Lol…the county is just like Greensboro city council. Tax and screw the citizens and or get personal pet projects that you live off of. It’s a good gig if you can get it…at taxpayers expense.
Skip and his minions are all a$&holes
I agree with Kay Cashion on a lot of her comments. But I also believe the increase in county employees benefits should not be across the board but rather to those who would actually BENEFIT. For instance, make the improvements to those who earn fewer than $65,000 annually, you know, the needy.
But more importantly, implement rent control. This is already out of hand to the point of over $1,000 monthly along with fees for electricity, heat, water, sewer, internet, phone, and trash removal not to mention food and clothing. And vehicle owners who cannot rely on a pee-poor public transportation system.
Rent Control…??? Are you serious?
The Rent Control New York City has – by far – the highest rents in the country. And it’s BECAUSE of Rent Control.
The entire Public Sector comprise of a bunch of parasites who, as the song says, “Live off of other people’s taxes”.
They create no wealth. They leech it off for themselves, and unlike the Private Sector they don’t have to ask your permission to get your hard-earned money. They just take it. If you don’t give it up, they ultimately imprison you.
It’s like being mugged… except that muggers are at least honest thieves.
The entire Public Sector and their political Party – Democrat Party – are contemptible, rapacious, selfish, greedy, arrogant, incompetent, lazy, ungrateful, and insolent.
So what if you work for Guilford County Schools.
Are you a county employee
Rewarding government workers is a way to secure their vote. Unfortunately, demographics have changed in Greensboro, High Point, and Guilford County so that takers are now the majority. Welcome to the new hellhole. Honesty and integrity are no longer the norm. Make a visit to city and county departments and record what you see. This is reparations at work. We can only hope that AI will take care of the new hellhole.
And does this include law enforcement?
There is a new lawsuit pending against the county from what I’ve heard. Where is the reporting? Inquiring minds want to know.
School board called a special meeting for Monday 9/11 at 2:30 to discuss “Consideration of Appointment of Legal Counsel” Just FYI if anyone is interested. Could be boring. Maybe not.
I gotta get on.