Property assessor gives different bonuses

I’ve got a story in today’s paper that you can read online by clicking right smack here about county officeholders giving themselves and some of their employees some nice coin. Most of scratch is tied to a program administered by CTAS (too tired to spell out the acronym) and it is supposed to go to those who earn the designation “certified public administrator.”

Anyhoo, that’s not what this blog entry is about. I pulled a lot of information while researching the story that I didn’t use, either because of space issues or because it wasn’t quite relevant.

One example is that I didn't report about the bonuses that the county property assessor’s office gives workers.

Now, keep in mind the Knox County Commission approved these bonuses years ago, so that means it’s OK to get FREE MONEY.

Oh yeah!

But, also keep in mind that the bonuses are for $650 – not up to $3,000 like the other sports were getting.

“It’s a different program,” county Property Assessor Phil Ballard told me. “We went in front of commission in 2008 or 2009 and told them we had to fill some spots and we had to hire some certified people and have some people certified.”

Ballard said the state gives officials who achieve a “Level 5” certification in property assessing a 4.5 percent incentive (whatever that means). He said something about it taking a while to move up in steps and that he wanted to reward and encourage employees who do. So, the assessor’s office gives employees a $650 reward for reaching Level 1 and Level 2. After that the state takes over.

Last year, 14 of his workers got the extra coin, which amounted to a combined $9,100. This year, only one worker got the extra $650.

That kind of makes sense, since his employees are moving up and the state is now providing the money.

When I asked Phil about whether he participates in the “certified public administrator” program, he said that he didn’t. He added that if he did, he would not take the bonus.(Of course that's easy to say when you don't participate. Heh.)

Two of his employees are in the program and they did get some extra coin this year.

Again, you can read about all that by clicking right smack here.