Kidd said immediate problem areas of the current handbook are the length of the book, noting that many employees more than likely do not read the entire book, no tailored job descriptions so that someone with a high school diploma and someone with a master’s degree could qualify for the same job, no exit interview process and no hiring procedures.

Although no decision was made during the meeting on Monday, commissioners told Kidd they would like for her to meet with county administrator Connie Powell and discuss drafting up a proposal to help with updating the handbook to present at a future commission meeting.

“Implementing a more current handbook would eliminate confusion in a lot of areas,” Kidd said. “It would also show respect to your employees by providing reasons for why certain things are handled the way they are being handled.”

Key Cards

Another item discussed during the meeting was developing a way to organize the distribution of key cards given to employees to get inside the courthouse.

Powell presented commissioners with a list of people who have a key card in their possession noting that some of the individuals on the list were deceased or no longer employed with the county.

Powell said due to no exit interviews with county employees, it is often hard to know who no longer works for the county.

“I have started questioning when we get requests for new key cards,” Powell said. “We need to have a better system for determining who has them.”

Powell asked commissioners to sort through the list of names who still have key cards and mark the ones they knew no longer needed one.

Although the key cards can be deactivated once an individual is no longer employed with the county, many people never return them.

Powell said it often creates confusion on who is entering the courthouse.

“Someone that may not work for the county anymore will give their key card away and then that person can come in the courthouse whenever they want to,” Powell said.

Powell said she wanted to make commissioners aware of the situation and asked them to review the information she provided.