The vacation and sick leave balances of all employees of the Knox County Property Assessor’s Office have been reviewed. Today, we will discuss only the vacation leave, I reserve the right to discuss sick leave after further review.
There had to be a cutoff, so any employee with a balance of six weeks of vacation leave or less, we are not disclosing. There are nine employees with six weeks or more vacation leave.
Chief Deputy Jim Weaver and the March 1, 2016 loser to Republican Property Assessor nominee John R Whitehead has the most vacation leave. Weaver was employed nearly a year into Property Assessor Phil Ballard’s term. So, seven years of work and he has a balance of 936.75 hours, that is 23.4 weeks. Based on the published salary of Weaver here on BrianHornback.Com back in November 2014 it is an approximate monetary value of $41,495,48
On January 1 Weaver had 693.75 hours or 17.3 weeks he has used 57 hours or 1.425 weeks this year and earned 300 hours or 7.5 weeks, leaving his balance at 936.75 or 23.4 weeks.
As for the employee start date and longevity of the next 8 employees, I am unaware.
Hubert Paul has 411.53 hours or 10.2 weeks.
Teresa Lawson has 383.09 hours or 9.5 weeks.
Frank Cameron has 329.64 hours or 8.2 weeks.
Cary Dalton has 319.09 hours or 7.98 weeks.
Greg McPhetridge has 313.52 hours or 7.83 weeks.
Doug Russell has 308.77 hours or 7.71 weeks.
Vickie Carter has 260.90 hours or 6.52 weeks.
Michael Widner has 258.27 hours or 6.45 weeks.
Based on the 2014 salary information I previously linked, the county’s approximate financial obligation is $53,396.83 combined with the $41,495.48 for Weaver the county’s approximate financial obligation should be around $94,892.31.
If these were private sector jobs and vacation leave were being thrown around, okay no big deal. However, this is the Knox County tax payer dollars.
Had Weaver been successful, would he have cashed in his vacation leave and begun his service as Property Assessor? When I received the vacation and sick leave of the entire office, I see where Ballard does not earn vacation or sick leave. As an elected official, that seems to make sense. However, I have not checked to see if that is the practice or rule of all elected officials.
As for what appears to be a gross amount of vacation leave for Weaver, a source in Knox County attempting to explain it said, “Elected Officials have the discretion on whether to use the County’s leave policies or their own. Currently, we have elected officials doing both. I think this is something Phil Ballard can answer, but it appears to me they use a combination of both. I do believe some employees in the office were offered more annual days as part of their compensation package. Once again, this is the discretion of the elected official.”
As an employee of the Assessors Office, I suspect some employees are reading this and may be confronting Ballard about why their counterpart gets vacation at his discretion but they must earn based on the county’s policy.
Knox County’s leave policy (page 1)
Knox County’s Leave Policy (page 2)
Knox County’s Leave Policy (page 3)
Cue the Ballard/Weaver defense, “he doesn’t like me.” I ask questions where main stream media refuse to look. I am asking questions that may expose gross use of our Knox County tax dollars. If the elected officials think it is because I don’t like them. So be it.
Brian, of the 8 employees you have listed, seven of them have been employed there for many years. They were hired when Parkey was the Property Assessor.
Martha, Thank you for that clarification. That is why after Weaver I said I didn’t know the other employees start date or their longevity.
I hope you are well…Again thanks for the assist. I am one guy performing a hobby….I don’t have a newsroom or big metal shed full of people to assist me.
Now I discover my open records are sent to a media pal when I get them. An effort to cut my legs out from under neath me.
Karma is a ***** and those folks will get theirs