Public input may be sought about courthouse hours

Whether the new hours of operation for the Dale County Courthouse are going to continue may be the topic of a citizens’ town hall meeting.

Allowing those interested an opportunity to voice their opinion might be the best way to gather information before making a decision.

That was the advice Dale County Attorney Henry Steagall gave commissioners at a work session Sept. 11 after two commissioners said they have received negative input from constituents about the decision made in April to go to a four-day work week with 10 hour days for county employees.

Commissioner Chris Carroll brought the issue to the table Sept. 11 after Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship asked the commission to approve a holiday schedule for the sheriff’s department employees who are unable to participate in the four-day work week because of job responsibilities.

The Dale County Commission voted April 10 to allow most county offices to operate on a four-days-a- week schedule after Blankenship told them that county employees had been polled about their preference and nearly 100 percent wanted to make the change.

The commission had previously voted to allow the Dale County Road and Bridge Department to work extended hours for a four-day work week and it was a positive move, Blankenship said.

Dale County Engineer Derek Brewer agreed. “The four-day work week has cut down on absenteeism because it gives our employees the opportunity to schedule personal appointments on their off day,” Brewer said at the April 10 meeting. “It also means more productivity on work sites because workers have more hours to get the job done each day.

Citizens will also benefit from the new hours, Blankenship had explained. “We’re seeing a lot of benefits for it for people who work. It gives them an option to come to the courthouse or do things before they come to work and after they get off work.”

“I was looking at it from the employees’ standpoint and trying to help our employees,” Carroll said about the unanimous commission vote in April. “But I’m not sure we made the right decision.

“If you look at the (upcoming) holidays, there are four out of the seven that fall on a Monday,” Carroll said. “That puts us to a three-day work week. I’m just not sure we’ve done the right thing by our constituents.”

Commissioner Frankie Wilson agreed with Carroll. “I think we probably made a knee jerk reaction by discussing and voting on it at the same meeting,” he said. “I think we probably should have looked at it some more.”

Wilson said that when the decision was made he had suggested making the new operating hours more visible from the parking area through signage. That suggestion had not been acted on, he said.

Wilson said that he had gone to the courthouse in Ozark several Fridays since the hours changed and had seen people park and get out of their cars “only to get to the door and find out that the courthouse is closed.”

It was particularly disturbing to see handicapped individuals having to learn that the courthouse was closed only after getting up to the door, Wilson said.

Wilson noted that during the Christmas week, the courthouse would be closed Monday and Tuesday after having been closed the Friday before. “That is one of the busiest times of the year for the tax office and we’re open two days that week,” Wilson said. “I owe it to my constituents in my district and I told them I would bring it up.

“We went from not seeing all of our customers in five days to trying to see them all in four days,” Wilson said. “I love all our employees to death and I know they love (the four-day week) but….”

Commissioners Steve McKinnon and Charles “Chic” Gary said they had not received many complaints from their constituents. McKinnon and Gary’s districts both have revenue office satellite offices in operation.

“Before the satellite office opened I had been bombarded with complaints about the courthouse even before we changed the hours,” Gary said. “But since we put the satellite office in, I’ve had hardly no complaints at all.”

Wilson added that he would be in favor of a revenue office being put in the Skipperville area. “That is a double edged swor though,” Blankenship said. “Because to open a satellite office, we end up taking one employee away from the courthouse revenue office.”

Blankenship said that when the idea of the courthouse closing on Fridays was first brought up, he had heard “strong concern” from merchants located around the courthouse square. “But now they are telling me that have not noticed a difference in business,” he said, adding that he had asked the courthouse security guards to keep count of the numbers who showed up to do business on Fridays without realizing the courthouse was closed.

Blankenship said that at first, the count topped 100 per Friday but that the number is diminishing as word spreads.

Steagall suggested the public town hall meeting as an opportunity to “give everybody a chance to come up here and be heard.

“Then if you decide to scale back you could do it gradually,” Steagall said. “I’ll be glad to be there and do what I can. All factions need to be there and voice their concerns.”

The commissioners agreed with Steagall’s suggestion but said that they will keep the new hours until the beginning of the new year and then re-look at having a town hall meeting.

The only public opposition to the new hours expressed at a commission meeting came one week before the new Dale County Courthouse hours were set to begin. At the July 10 meeting, Ozark Mayor Bob Bunting asked the commission to reconsider the decision that had been made in April to change the courthouse county office hours to a 10-hour, four days a week schedule.

“I know you are trying to help the people who work in (the county offices) but I guarantee that if one of them quits tomorrow, I guarantee that you’d have 50 applications for that job,” Bunting told the commissioners July 10. “You’d have plenty of people wanting to work if (current employees) didn’t want to work those jobs.”

The Ozark City Council signed a resolution at the June 19 meeting asking the county to reconsider the decision to close offices Friday. “Negative impact” on people who typically use Fridays as a day to transact public business with the Revenue Commission and Probate Office and the fact that closing on Fridays would not save money on utilities because the state offices on the second, third and basement floors of the courthouse would continue to be open were among the reasons that the resolution cited.

“The four-day work week presents a unique circumstance as the county takes 12 holidays, 10 of which fall on Mondays,” according to the resolution. “During the weeks of holidays, the county offices at the courthouse would be open for public business on only three days, hereby further inconveniencing the public.”

The resolution asked the commission to reconsider its decision or as an alternative, rearrange employee work schedules so that county offices would remain open Fridays. Bunting asked the commission to also think about changing the closed-for-business day to Mondays. “That’s the slowest day most of the businesses say,” he said.

Since July 18, the county offices at the county administration building have been open from 6 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and closed on Fridays.

The county offices at the courthouse are open from 7 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and closed Friday. State offices in those buildings are not part of the county office hour changes.

The tag office in the Dale County Courthouse is open for business from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and closed on Fridays.

The tag office operates three satellite offices in the county for the convenience of citizens. The tag office in Daleville is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., the Ariton tag office is open Mondays from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., and the tag office in Pinckard is open Tuesdays from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.