Gregg County keeps road and bridge fee

PCt. 2 Commissioner Darryl Primo cast the only vote against the renewal of the county's $10 Road and Bridge Fee.

County commissioners met Monday morning and approved a request from County Tax Assessor Collector Kirk Shields to renew the annual fee.

"The fee is currently required for every vehicle registered in Gregg County," Shields said.

The fee produces in excess of $1 million for the county annually.

Without any discussion, the commissioners voted on the matter. Commissioners Charles Davis, Bob Barbee and Danny Craig, along with County Judge Bill Stoudt approved the fee renewal. Primo voted "nay," and left the courtroom before he could be questioned.

In another 4-1 split vote, the commission approved a request from County Auditor Laurie Woloszyn that would establish certain requirements that need to be met before a retiree could be re-hired.

Barbee voted against the proposal that acknowledged the legislative changes affecting participation in the Texas County and District Retirement System (TCDRS) and approval of the Gregg County Post-Retirement Policy. However, the proposal was approved with the affirmative votes of the other three commissioners and Stoudt.

"I just don't want to jeopardize the county's retirement system," he said. I"m afraid that this could hurt the integrity of the system."

Woloszyn said the county requires all its employees to participate in the TCDRS.

"This policy applies to retirees who seek reemployment with Gregg County," she said.

Under this policy, the county can rehire retirees after a "bona fide separation" of employment without suspension of their monthly annuity.

"A bona fide separation means that there was no prior agreement or understanding between the county and employee that the person would be rehired after retirement," she said.

She said a retiree resuming employment with the county must have a break in service of at least one full year.

"A retiree who resumes employment with the county and does not have a break in service of at least one year is considered not to have retired from the system," the policy reads. "Thus, the employee's service retirement annuity will be discontinued and the person must return any payments received."

If a retiree is rehired the procedure is consistent with this policy, a new membership with TCDRS will be established and the retiree will be considered to be a new member for the purposes of beneficiary determination and benefit selections.

"A bone fide termination should be determined before the retire takes place," Woloszyn said.

Samples of determining factors for bona fide termination include complete termination

of employment benefits such as health insurance; strict adherence to employee termination procedures such as collection of county equipment, badges, Identification; payment of accrued vacation and sick leave and exit interviews, among other.

Action on approval of the Employee Reimbursement and Travel/Training Policy was tabled until the Aug.. 7 meeting so that commissioners could study the policy further.