Dougherty County employees receive nearly $45,000 in storm OT

ALBANY — Typically “exempt” Dougherty County employees were paid $44,884 in overtime for work performed during the declared emergency following Jan. 2 and Jan. 22 storms in the county.

Exempt employees are salaried employees who typically are not paid overtime for hours beyond a normal 40-hour work week.

However, both Dougherty County and the city of Albany have provisions in their policies that allow for overtime payment when the county Emergency Operations Center is activated.

The Albany Herald obtained information on employee overtime payments through Open Records requests.

According to county Finance Director Martha Hendley, 34 county employees received overtime payments for work performed after the EOC opened Jan. 3. Those employees ranged from Assistant County Administrator Mike McCoy to public safety officials with the Dougherty County Police Department, the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office and the county jail, as well as Facilities Management and Public Works staff.

DCP officials receiving overtime pay included Chief Jackie Battle, Assistant Chief Kenneth Johnson, and Capts. Jason Hager and Tommie Jackson. DCSO officers who received OT payments were Capts. Craig Dodd and Ken Faust; Col. Sabrina Lewis; Maj. Pam Johnson, and Lts. Lance Montgerard, Lynda Miller, Rebecca Cranford, Cathy Parks and Terron Hayes.

Jail employees who worked overtime included Capts. Tony Brown, Dorothy Stephens and Thomas Kendrick; Maj. William Brock, and Lts. Angela Adams, Shirley Adams, Harriet Richardson and Jerroma Williams. Public Works employees who received OT payments were Director Larry Cook and Assistant Director Chuck Mathis; Project Engineer Jeremy Brown; construction/maintenance managers Charles Bradford, Danny Keener and Thomas Bruce; Environmental Control Manager Donel Mathis; Shop Manager Russell Allenbaugh, and administrative specialist Karen Goff.

Facilities Management employees who received OT payments were Director Heidi Minnick, Technical Services Coordinator Donald Hood and Operations Technician David Widner.

City of Albany Finance Director Derrick Brown had not sent completed information on Albany employees who received overtime compensation by Thursday afternoon, but he told The Herald city employees had worked a total of 8,001.8 hours of overtime during the disaster declaration and had been paid $270,000 in OT.

County policy states: “During the times in which the Emergency Operations Center is activated, Dougherty County authorizes payment of overtime for exempt employees designated as essential to the management of the emergency by the County Administrator.”

City policy utilizes similar language, giving the city manager authorization to OK overtime payment to exempt employees designated as “essential to the management of the emergency.” City policy also allows the manager to authorize OT payment during periods of “temporary vulnerability to peril that are less than declared states of emergency.”

Hendley and Brown said the overtime payments are eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement.