V Hugh Lewis II/Jefferson Jimplecute
County employees now have at least one holiday each month as Commissioners approved the 2024 Holiday Schedule.
Lyndon B. Johnson Day was established in 1973 as an official State Holiday, but is an optional holiday. Commissioners chose to observe the holiday as an additional way of compensating County employees for the work they performed.
“We are severely under-salaried in Marion County,” said Marion County Judge Leward LaFleur. “This is an easy way to provide some compensation for the hard work for the County our employees do.”
County employees will have 20 paid holidays in 2024, up 1 from 2023.
The County also approved contracts for the Indigent Attorney and Conflict Indigent Attorney for 2024, appointing Craig Fletcher of Marshall as the Indigent Attorney, and Brandon Winn of Gilmer as the Conflict Indigent Attorney. Fletcher will receive $80,000 beginning in January, and Winn will be paid on a set schedule as his services are utilized.
Kyle Dansby had also submitted an application for the position. The District Judges requested that Fletcher and Winn be granted the contracts.
In other business, JP 1 will be changing their credit card processing system over to i3 Public Sector/Pace Payment Systems, ending their contract with ACI Payments Inc., who has had the contract since 2007.
JP 1 Jan Weesner told Commissioners that there have been issues with getting ACI to correct errors in processing and the new company does not charge the County for manually entering card numbers.
The County Clerk is also getting a new property alert notification system. The new system, provided by Avenue Enterprise Solutions LLC, will alert property owners when something has been filed with the County Clerk’s office on property they own. Further details on how the system operates was not available at press time.
LaFleur said that several surrounding counties are utilizing the system at this time.
Commissioners will meet again on December 11.