Last week the Flomaton Town Council rejected a proposal to approve the county’s holiday schedule that would have increased holidays for town employees from 10 days to 16 days but did approve adding Juneteenth (June 19) and Good Friday to the holiday schedule giving employees 12 holiday days off.
Town Clerk Carrie Moore presented the 16-day holiday schedule to the council, noting that it would coincide with the post office, banks and schools being closed and saying it would be good for the employees.
Councilman Roger Adkinson made a motion to adopt the 16-day holiday schedule but did not get a second.
“I totally disagree,” Councilwoman Lillian Dean said. “We’re giving 10 days. Lets just go back to the 10 days. We’re a town, we can’t afford to give 16 days.”
It was also noted that after a year of employment, employees get 80 hours of vacation time and 80 hours of sick leave.
Dean also said while she sees the extra days as a benefit to the employees they should appreciate the extra money the council put in the budget for raises.
“We are a town, not a city, county or state,” Dean said.
Dean said if an employee took every day available they will be off more than a month and the council couldn’t say anything about it.
Adkinson then made a motion to add Juneteenth and Good Friday, which carried unanimously.
Assistant Chief
Police Chief Dereck Lowry made a request to add an assistant chief to his department, noting that he had addressed the issue with the council members individually, but after discussion the council rejected the idea.
“I think we are overloading ourselves to hire an assistant chief to come in,” Adkinson said. “The budget doesn’t reflect it. I don’t see how we can justify a part-time assistant chief.”
Lowry said the assistant chief would only work 32 hours a week.
“I’ve given the council all the information I can give,” Lowry said. “In my opinion it’s in the best interest of the town.”
Dean said she agreed with Adkinson and noted she felt the nine police officers to police 1,500 was too many.
Councilwoman Susan Fountain said one of the issues Lowry brought up was to have someone in charge when he was away on conferences.
Lowry said it’s not just when he’s away at conferences, but when he’s out of pocket saying the police department doesn’t have a lot of experience, noting the recent murder in Flomaton was chaos.
“I just don’t have experience in the police department,” Lowry said.
Lowry said he got his experience working 10 years with the sheriff’s office with the last five in investigations.
Councilwoman Dr. Anna Lee said maybe the council could circle back to the issue in six months.
No motion was made to add an assistant police chief.
