A vote for a holiday bonus for all county employees resulted in concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
Doug Perry, of the Smith River District, was among the three supervisors to vote in favor of the bonus at the Nov. 21 Board of Supervisors meeting. Funding for the $74,000 bonuses is from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which were provided relief funds to state, local, and tribal governments that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perry is a county employee. He works at the Patrick County Sheriff’s Office, and as such will be among those to benefit from the bonus that will provide $500 to each of the county’s 152 full-time employees and $250 to 10 part-time county employees.
Patrick County Public School employees will not receive the bonus.
However, Perry said he does not consider his vote to be a conflict of interest because it was for all county employees, not just himself.
While he believes it would have made sense to use that money for courthouse improvements, Perry said he agreed with board colleague Clyde DeLoach’s “statement about supporting those county employees as we have a number of county employees that do 10 times what they are paid for and truly deserve a thank you.”
Since the vote, Perry said he’s only been asked about the conflict of interest.
“And money wise, if we take good care of those that work for the county and they continue working for the county, the county saves money in the long run as we keep good, well-trained people versus having to retrain and start over with new hires,” he said.
In the past, Perry said the board has been severely criticized for not appreciating and doing these types of things to retain those who go the extra mile.
Clyde DeLoach, chairman and of the Blue Ridge District, and Denise Stirewalt, of the Peters Creek District, also voted in favor of the bonus.
DeLoach said the board talked with the county attorney after the meeting regarding the matter, and was told the only way Perry’s vote “would have been a conflict of interest would have been if it was just a bonus for him. Since it was a bonus for all the employees it was okay,” DeLoach said he was told.
DeLoach said the potential conflict of interest went unnoticed by the board at the time.
“I’m sure he (Perry) was just thinking about trying to help the county employees,” DeLoach said. “If I had thought of it, I would have asked the county attorney who was there, and he would have said it was alright.”
Stirewalt said that since 86 percent of Perry’s “salary is state paid, I was fine with his voting.”
Brandon Simmons, of the Dan River District, said he voted against the holiday bonus because county employees already received a pay raise and a merit pay increase this year.
In fiscal year 2023’s budget, a five percent raise for all full-time employees was approved by the board. It was also approved that 100 percent county funded employees were eligible to receive up to a three percent merit increase.
“I thought we had given enough this year. We didn’t need to give any more,” Simmons said.
Instead of the bonus, Simmons feels the funds could have been spent on building a shelter to house the equipment at the paid fire and rescue service provider to protect it from the elements. Or the funds could have been used to purchase new equipment for the Recreation Department.
“I know this year in football, they didn’t have nowhere near enough equipment for all the players that wanted to play and had to borrow some from other localities,” he said.
Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District, said he voted against the bonus as he felt the county could not afford it.
“It’s not nothing against giving them a bonus. I’m sure they deserve it, but we’ve got a lot of other stuff coming up,” he said.
Kendrick believes the money could have instead been used to hire the mandated security for the Patrick County Courthouse or hiring more employees for the county’s paid ambulance service.
“It’s not taking anything away from the employees or anything, but money’s tight,” he said.
