Hudson
Sampson County government’s hiring freeze ended Tuesday, a move that the county commissioners unanimously approved at their meeting on Monday night.
“There is no longer a need for a hiring freeze,” Interim County Manager Jeffrey Hudson reported during the meeting. “Departments will be able to hire as normal, starting on (May) 12.”
He added that no county employees lost their jobs during the hiring freeze. A total of 20 positions were eliminated through attrition, he said, which means through retirements or employees moving to other positions. “No one went home without a job,” Hudson stressed. “There were three employees in different departments that are moving to new positions.”
All county employees retained 100 percent of their salaries and their benefits as well.
“Of course, I’ve been working on the budget and I’ve been keeping the Board of Commissioners informed where I’m at on that budget,” Hudson said. “It was necessary to take some actions to try to bring expenditure levels, spending levels down. The county manager has the authority to reorganize county departments and I have done that, with an effective date of June 1. With that reorganized county departments, there were 20 positions that were reduced, spanning multiple departments.”
Hudson said the hiring freeze was a result of “only one thing”: the county’s expenditures compared to its revenues.
District 3 Commissioner Chip Crumpler questioned if maybe Hudson was ending the hiring freeze too quickly. “Is there a possibility the hiring freeze could be extended a little bit longer to see if there could be an investigation into which jobs could possibly be consolidation so that we could continue to reduce the county employee headcount?” he asked. “My concern is that maybe we might be moving too quickly with ending the hiring freeze.”
Hudson responded that he and his team have looked at every department and determined which positions could be cut without impacting services. “I did make an exception for emergency personnel,” he reminded. “I did not put a hiring freeze on that.”
He said he believed he could continue to balance the budget as is. “I believe we’re to the point where I’ve gotten the money that I needed to balance the budget equitably between revenues and expenditures,” Hudson said. “Obviously, every day that a position is not filled is money that you would be saving in this year’s budget.”
District 4 Commissioner Lethia Lee stated that she felt that continuing the freeze would cause “headaches” for county employees. “People want to feel secure about their jobs,” she said. “I think if we lifted it (Tuesday), it would be better for employees’ morale, and it would keep them safe and healthy.”
Crumpler said he wanted to make sure that the county was doing its due diligence in trying to save taxpayers’ money, and that he would trust Hudson in moving forward.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes,” Commissioner Eric Pope, District 2, said. “I think the public will see that just about every department has ponied up and identified cuts that they could … live with. I appreciate their willingness to do that.”