Commissioners debated and narrowed down their choices for research into county employee salaries during Monday’s Financial Management Committee meeting.

Chairman Brad Johnson said they received roughly five or six applications for the RFP (request for proposal) they sent out last month, ranging from $26,000 to $46,875.

“This is something that needs to be done before budget season,” Director of County Schools Kevin Ward said.

The time constraint comes from the RFP’s focus: to get a better understanding of where salaries are at so the next budget season can work to get employees where they should be, whatever that is. If the results do not come in on time, then applying the results of the findings will become more difficult.

Most of the applications involved about a three-month process, sometimes four months, putting the results in April or May, right in the middle of budget season.

Johnson also wanted to make sure the details surrounding the RFP process are worked out before taking it to the full commission for final approval so that everyone is on-board with how the process will play out in the coming months.

“In these studies, once it is approved by the commission, they need to have the understanding to know this is not going to be something […] it may go on a shelf for a little bit,” Johnson said. “You cannot go by knee-jerk reaction. This is something that has to go into the budget process.”

After each commissioner picked their top two selections from the list, the committee decided to contact Evergreen and Condrey for further consideration.

With many of these companies being farther away and the need to get the studies underway soon if they are going to make it into the 2019/2020 budget cycle, the committee agreed to try and get both companies in for webinars or whatever was convenient for them in their January meeting.

In the meantime, the committee also wanted to go ahead and set up the funds they will need to pay for the study, so the committee voted to set aside a maximum of $44,500 to pay for the study. The motion passed unanimously, though Austin Jaynes was absent for the vote.