At the County Policy and Personnel Committee meeting this month, commissioners discussed a new policy requiring Warren County government offices to remain open according to the times they have posted. There have reportedly been a few issues where offices, specifically the ones which collect money, closed early and people were unable to pay their fines. 

The proposed policy reads, “All offices in Warren County government shall remain open according to normal posted times and there must be a number of employees in the office to sufficiently operate the office.”

County Executive Terry Bell has spoken with Practical Solutions Consulting owner David Britton about implementing this policy in the employee handbook. Britton said it would likely have to be amended and he is checking on the legalities, but will present it when he presents the finalized handbook. 

Commissioner Donna Smith asked how the county would enforce this with elected officials. 

“What are the penalties for somebody violating what is probably going to become policy? These people are elected officials, most of them,” said Smith. 

County Executive Assistant Jason Hillis said, “If they are a fee office, they will have to go by the policy. Even if that elected official leaves early, they are going to have to leave someone in that office that can take those fees. Either that, or they are going to have to change those hours.” 

Hillis said the problem occurs mainly before holidays. He said if an office closes an hour early, it hinders citizens who might also be getting off early from their jobs and wanting to take care of their business. He said when the office they are trying to go to closes early, some people try to give him their fines. 

“We have had people come and try to pay their fees in my office. I can’t take money. I am not authorized to do that. It also causes problems in the county because they have records that have to be taken to the courthouse by 4:30 p.m. and put into a safe over there,” said Hillis. 

“Even that one hour, it is always the worst one hour. It is not like they are going to come in an hour late and open up at 9 instead of 8. When they close at 3:30 and are supposed to be open until 4:30, we have issues. New Year’s Eve weekend was an issue,” said Hillis. “It also causes problems across the other departments where they ask why they can leave early, but we can’t.”

Hillis said there was a citizen who works in a nursery who was trying to take his son to pay his fine for a speeding ticket. He took time off work to bring his son to pay the fine and the office was closed. 

Commissioner Tommy Savage said having a policy in place will make sure someone does not see there is not a rule in place against something and do it anyway.

“You may have somebody that is wanting to come in early and leave early. We don’t have a policy against it. There is nothing that says they can’t do it. What if everybody in the office decided to do that? You just need a policy,” said Savage. “There could be one person years from now down the road if you don’t have a policy and they will take advantage of that.”

“I get them wanting to leave early. It is really tough when they are not busy, but if just one person comes in between that 3:30 and 4:30 where they took that time off to get where they needed to be and they find that it is closed,” said Hillis of the need for the policy. 

Commissioner Kenny Moffitt added, “It is no different than going to the pharmacy to get medicine. If no one has been in there for an hour and they just say, ‘well, we’ll go home,’ and then someone comes in and needs their medicine. Hours are hours and they need to be posted and adhered to.” 

This policy will be presented in the updated employee handbook.