Fayette County

government is big enough for now, county commissioners have decided.

As department

heads prepare their budget requests for the upcoming budget-writing process,

County Manager Chris Cofty is telling them to plan on the same numbers

of employees for fiscal year 2002 that they've had for 2001.

"This

is not a hiring freeze," said County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn

as commissioners discussed the moratorium on new positions last week.

Department heads can still hire for vacant positions that are already

authorized; they're just being instructed not to ask for new positions,

he said.

Since 1992,

Dunn said, the county work force has grown from 420 to 609, a 44.6 percent

increase, while the population has grown only 32 percent. "Our work

force has grown at a faster pace than our population," he said.

Not that population

is the only factor, he said. Dunn and other commissioners hastened to

point out that corrective measures recently were taken to improve fire

service by hiring additional firefighters. "Not long ago, we had

only one fireman manning some of our stations," said Commissioner

Herb Frady.

Other increases

in personnel can be justified as well, commissioners said, but added that

before anymore new positions are added, they want to take stock.

"For one

year, we need to take a look at where we have come," said Dunn.

He also pointed

out that the commissioners' office has reduced its own staff by two. "We're

trying to get everybody's house in order here, including ourselves,"

he said.

Cofty said

department heads won't be too surprised by the moratorium. "They're

looking at a lot of these issues internally now as we speak," he

said.

Frady suggested

that a staffing study is in order. "I'd like to see a study done

to see just how we stand on these things," he said.

Commissioner

A.G. VanLandingham urged county workers not to be fearful of the decision.

"I think we need to be very careful we emphasize [that] ... this

is not a hunt to see how many people we can eliminate," he said.

But, he added,

"Unless we know where we are, if you do come to us with a request,

we don't know where we are so we can't justify it."