Editor's note: This story updates an earlier version with additional information.
COVINGTON, Ga. — Newton commissioners are choosing not to follow one of its county manager's final recommendations to recruit workers to clean up roadside trash amid the nationwide labor shortage.
The Board of Commissioners recently voted on a bipartisan basis against creating 10 new full-time positions in the Public Works department to clean up the sides of trash-filled roads in unincorporated Newton County as a way to recruit employees for the job.
The new positions would replace 10 part-time positions the county now fills with temporary workers it hires through an employment agency, said County Manager Lloyd Kerr.
Kerr, whose contract was not renewed after Jan. 1, said the county is only seeing about three workers show up to work in the 10 contract positions it budgeted for the job.
"Initially we were able to staff the necessary crews but as time has progressed, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain the temporary workers to keep our roads clean," Kerr wrote to commissioners.
Some employment agencies also are requiring workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, which has increased the difficulty of finding available workers, he said during the Tuesday, Dec. 7, meeting.
Kerr also requested using remaining funds in the Contract Labor line of the Public Works department's budget and moving it to parts of the budget for personnel to give the new workers benefits given to other full-time workers.
He said the program is costing about $510,000 annually and about $255,000 would be needed to fund the new positions though the end of the fiscal year.
District 5 Commissioner Ronnie Cowan, a Republican, said he was reluctant to support the change in part because health insurance costs may rise and make the positions more costly to fund.
"I'm all for continuing as is and looking at this in July," Cowan said. "I think it's the wrong time for this matter."
District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson said he believed the Board should wait to consider any change until a new interim county manager is hired to replace Kerr, whose employment contract was not renewed after it ends Jan. 1.
"We're acting on stuff that shouldn't be acted on," Henderson said.
Henderson also continued his criticism of the roadside cleanup program because he said it is subsidizing a service for which the taxpayers already were paying.
He said the same money could be used to help make the county's convenience centers free of cost. Use of convenience centers now costs residents $165 annually, which Henderson said encourages illegal roadside dumping.
The county Solid Waste Management Authority began charging for the centers' use after the county government shifted oversight of the landfill and convenience centers to the Authority in recent years to control spiraling costs.
After a motion to delay action on the request until Jan. 18 failed, the Board voted 3-2 against Kerr's request with Cowan and Democrats Henderson and Alana Sanders of District 3 voting against it.
