Democrat Rousseau provides swing vote for raising pay, curbing county manager’s power
Fayette County employees will bring home bigger paychecks in November, thanks to a crucial third vote from newly elected Fifth District Democrat Charles Rousseau at the Oct. 22 County Commission meeting.
Rousseau added his yes to previous votes from Chairman Charles Oddo and Commissioner David Barlow to provide the tie-breaking vote over commissioners Steve Brown and Randy Ognio.
Barlow launched an impassioned defense of the 2 percent cost of living raise for eligible county workers, essentially making the case that the employees deserved the extra consideration.
Ognio said the continued addition of small raises would eventually topple future budgets and that the private sector had mostly moved away from across the board raises favored by the board’s majority because the expense was “unsustainable.”
Brown said his was not a “hate the county employee” position, but rather a realistic appraisal of how much money was coming into county coffers versus the multitude of unfunded repairs and maintenance projects facing the county.
Rousseau listened to the arguments, and made his own: Attracting and retaining quality county workers was part of the budget mix, not an addition to it.
The newest commissioner split with Oddo and Barlow over Brown’s push for the board to take back its prerogative to make policy changes and additions. Previously County Manager Steve Rapson had been delegated the duty of revising and writing new county policies.
Brown argued that was too much power for a contract employee to have, to the extent that Rapson was writing policies that Brown said governed the board itself.
Barlow and Oddo disagreed, but were on the wrong side of the majority vote Thursday night.
There was no split over the issue of a new sign — “In God We Trust” — for the commission chambers. A unanimous board voted in favor of a design that will put the national motto — which appears on all U.S. coins and paper money — above the current Fayette emblem that hangs just behind the commissioners’ dias.
