The Sunflower County road department seems to be experiencing similar labor predicaments as some other organizations.
During the June 15 Sunflower County Sunflower County Board of Supervisors' meeting Road Manager T.J. Fairley made an appeal to the members for some help.
"I want to talk to y'all about some help, we ain't getting nothing done with the help I got," he said.
Mentioning the onset of summer and his lack of skilled laborers, Fairley told the members that he is unable to get much road work done.
In an attempt to clarify Fairley's position, Attorney Johnny McWilliams asked Fairley if the work was being hindered because he didn't have the right number of workers or because the workers are employed, but not working because they are furloughed and getting unemployment because of the virus.
Fairley responded that it was because of the virus and because of a lack of employed workers to operate the heavy equipment.
McWilliams said, “I've been hearing about this a lot. The unemployment provisions were made so good, make an extra $600 a month for being unemployed, that a lot of people who were on unemployment don't want to go back to work."
He further explained, “It's like you got people already, but if they won't come to work because they're making more being unemployed. What could you do about that? And the only thing that I'm aware that you could do, and I'm just throwing this out for your consideration, we furloughed those workers in order that they could stay on your health insurance. That's not legally required, you can terminate them, especially if you're ready for them to come back to work and they won't come back to work,” said McWilliams.
The attorney explained that the county could end the furloughs and advise the employees that they are now unemployed and won't have health insurance anymore and then try to hire somebody who will come in to work. He again emphasized that it was just an option he was providing for their consideration.
District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson asked Fairley if he knows how many workers he needs. And Fairley acknowledged that he had a good idea of what he needs, but wanted to count up the pieces of equipment he has sitting idle that need to be running. “We've got a lot of machines sitting up and nobody to put on them,” Fairley said.
County Administrator Gloria McIntosh said the road department has a total of eight people out currently. District 4 Supervisor Ben Gaston shared that he has been conducting an informal survey of surrounding counties to find out how many miles of roads they have to maintain and how many personnel they have to maintain those roads.
Gaston said his goal is to figure out how many miles per employee each county has. "And what I've seen so far is we're pretty close to where the other two counties that have reported are." Gaston said he still has two other counties that he has petitioned for information, but they have not responded yet.
He suggested waiting until he gets all of the information so they can use the data to make an informed decision about how many people they actually need.
District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald also weighed in and said he was aware of the shortfall in employees and that part of the problem existed before COVID-19. He suggested doing a budget amendment to put more money into the road and bridge fund and the road department and put some people to work.
Donald said, “I think if you put them on furlough, you free up the salary for Sunflower County, out of our budget, to hire somebody else to do that job.” Donald suggested hiring experienced temporary people who know how to run equipment and pay them a decent salary.
He also suggested using temporary workers to do patchwork on the roads because it only requires unskilled labor. He wants to hire full-time people right now on a short-term basis with no medical insurance or other benefits. McWilliams said that he thinks the county would be required to pay retirement.
Board President Riley Rice suggested a work session where they could sit down with Fairley and determine how many workers he actually needs.
No further action was taken.
