Commissioners approve raises

Liberty County Commissioners met Tuesday to discuss a number of important agenda items, but none more important than the amount of pay local elected county officials will be receiving in the near future. Now for all of you getting ready to get bent out of shape about the raises they gave themselves, because there will not be increases in pay to the salaries of the commissioners or county judge, at least not this go around.

The court however voted to increase salaries of all other elected officials in the county at this time, the first such set of raises in a number of years in fact.

“We don’t do this very often. The last time we did a raise for elected officials was about four years ago,” said County Judge Jay Knight.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the raises.

In other business commissioners focused on a number of purchase of vehicles in several departments. The Office of District Attorney Jennifer Bergman was looking to upgrade to some newer vehicles for investigators in her department.

“We are trying to get rid of some of the older vehicles we have,” Bergman said.

Her office plans to allocate the current vehicles in her department to some other departments in the county to help them out in areas of need. A plan that Pct. 1 Commissioner Bruce Karbowski was very enthusiastic to see put into practice throughout the county.

County officials also approved the purchase of new trucks for Road and Bridge No. 1, as well as a new truck for the County Engineer and Permitting Department.

Commissioners also approved the renewal of their existing contract with Firm Foundations Healthcare Clinic for county employees. Cur rently the county pays a monthly rate of $19,740, but will see an increase to $22,435 next year, as they will be adding around 90 jail employees to Firm Foundations case load. The county seemed happy with the service they are provided by the current provider and voted unanimously to continue that partnership.