The White County Commission once again shot down a plan to pay $600 for each county commissioner who completes the continuing education required by the state.
Commission Chair Derrick Hutchings said the stipend would encourage those who are nearly completed to finish their training and serve as motivation for all the commissioners next year. Hutchings said commissioner training is a statewide issue as no county is fully compliant with the trainings among all its commissioners.
“A lot of businesses promote or they pay for continuing education for their employees,” Hutchings said. “We’re employees of the county. Any education that we can get is just, to me is beneficial. Ten thousand dollars a year is a small drop in the bucket for what we could save the county if we are properly educated.”
Commissioner Roger Mason said the state’s system meant to track and monitor these trainings has not been working properly for multiple commissioners. Mason said he does not know if any of the issues have been resolved but the whole process is convoluted in the meantime.
The resolution failed to pass with eight opposed, four in favor, one abstention, and one absence.
Commissioner Cain Rogers said it is late in the county’s budget cycle to be considering a new reoccurring item. Hutchings said the state bill advocating for this program is sponsored by Senator Paul Bailey.
