The Board of Commissioners approved adding a new position to the Human Resources department, despite objections from Commissioner JaNice Van Ness, in a 2-1 vote Tuesday.

Van Ness said, "I just have concern with the financial position we're in. All our departments are doing more work with less money."

The new position would have a pay range of $35,633 - $56,889 with a midpoint at $46,261, according to county spokesperson Tonya Parker.

Commissioner Oz Nesbitt said the board had discussed last year adding two positions to Human Resources to speed recruitment and hiring processes.

Van Ness pointed out, "We've had so much turnover in our HR department. It's going to take a while to get up to speed. But to add two more people is not the best use of our taxpayer dollars."

Nesbitt said to HR Director Darryl Bowie, "I'm in favor of providing HR with the tools and process they need. If these two people are going to help you be more expedient, you have my support."

However, he requested Bowie to convince the board of the need.

"I don't want to spend money or allocate funds in an area that's not going to get the job done," Nesbitt said. "Make certain the job at HR will get done in a way it hasn't been done in the past."

Bowie replied, "With the additional staff, you're going to see more responsiveness in Human Resources; in terms of recruitment and selection, you're going to see prescreening. You'll see an incident reporting plan. You'll see training on an ongoing basis, a more cost effective training."