To address staffing issues in some county departments, the Henry County Board of Commissioners voted Sept. 3 to retain a consultant for specific services when necessary.
The contract with Clark Patterson Engineers, Surveyors and Architects, P.C. is for on-call short-range and long-range planning and zoning services, transportation planning, and urban redevelopment planning at a cost of $1,965 per planning case.
“The county is down some staff members right now,” said deputy county manager Brad Johnson, who pointed out that three employees in the Planning & Zoning Department alone had left in the past several weeks to pursue other opportunities. “This is not meant to be an everyday thing or to replace anyone. It’s just to supplement our current staff in high-volume and specialty situations.”
Johnson noted that the deal is “budget neutral,” as the funding would come out of the salary savings in the Planning & Zoning Department while its positions are unfilled.
When asked why there are so many openings in that office, chief planner Stacey Jordan-Rudeseal suggested that it has proven to be “an excellent training ground,” with employees doing such a good job that they are attractive hires for other municipalities.
“We have a stellar cast of alumni,” he said. “I’ve been there since 2004 and it’s always been that way. We could speculate as to all the reasons, but we do an excellent job of training our employees.”
Commissioner Vivian Thomas pointed out that the county needs to do as good a job in retaining those employees as in training them.
“As a board we have to address that,” she said, adding that the county coincidentally is looking for a new human resources director right now as well. “I’m hearing this in other departments also; once we train them, we are losing them to other places. We have to stop the bleeding.”
In other business, the board voted to submit an official objection to a proposed annexation into McDonough. The site in question is 161 acres on the north side of Turner Church Road, east of Hwy. 20.
Currently zoned RA, it would potentially be rezoned R-75 in the city if annexed. Developers have proposed 399 lots with the smallest lot size being 4,800 square feet. At 2.54 units per acre, it is well in excess of the designation on the Future Land Use Map for that property, and the land use change gives the county a legal reason to object, according to officials.
Another annexation request that received no pushback from the board involves the Waffle House at 1148 Hwy. 20/81, on the northeast corner of the I-75 interchange at Exit 218 and adjacent to the former Ruby Tuesday location. This site was always intended to be annexed with several other parcels in that retail corridor, and officials referred to it as a “clean-up item” in that regard. The proposed zoning in the city is the same as it is right now. The commissioners took no action and made no comment after hearing the report from county staff.
