By Ray King

With only Justice of the Peace Alfred Carroll objecting, the Jefferson County Quorum Court on Monday approved an appropriation ordinance that will allow County Tax Collector Tony Washington to raise the salary of his chief deputy to a salary commensurate with the salaries of chief deputies for other elected officials.

During the very brief meeting, Carroll introduced a substitute motion to table the ordinance but a second to the motion was required to discuss Carroll’s objection but there was none.

The issue of Washington raising the salary of his chief deputy first came up late last year but was put off until the February meeting of the county’s legislative body. Washington proposed moving a $28,000 pay slot from his Automated Fund to County General and replacing that slot with a $36,000 pay slot that is currently in County General, then increasing the $36,000 in the Automation Fund to $50,000.

 

In other business on Monday, a $52,923.33 from the Public Safety Sales Tax that cover fourth quarter payments to volunteer fire departments that were not made in December due to an oversight was approved as was a $111,032.57 appropriation for the Tri-County Drug Task Force. Those funds had been appropriated last year and were not used so they had to be appropriated again.

The County’s legislative body also approved setting a flat fee for the use of 30-yard waste containers by commercial and residential customers. Jefferson County Recycling asked for the fees, saying in a letter that currently, county recycling is paying all waste management fees for the collection of all the county’s recycling customers. The fees were set at $250 for residential customers and $350 for commercial customers and the fee will allow customers to be placed at the location requested by the customer for five days.