Waffling on tracking policy causes confusion, inconsistency

Every relationship is built on trust.

This is true across the spectrum from those out on their first date to companies placing multi-million dollar heavy equipment orders with vendors half a world away. In every case, people come in with expectations and desired outcomes.

The necessity for trust also carries through into the workplace. Employers and supervisors trust that workers will do their jobs and follow the rules of the workplace.

While trust is great, there must always be a measure of accountability. Inspectors make random checks to ensure that the gallon of gas you are buying at the service station is actually a gallon and is actually the product you are buying. Building inspectors check to make sure construction processes are followed and the proper materials are used for safety.

Over the past year, Taylor County has been discussing implementation of a GPS policy for county vehicles. Ideally, the system will allow county board members, department supervisors and ultimately the general public to know where county vehicles have been.

While promoted as a way to look out for the safety of employees who at times are out of contact with their offices, the system primarily provides a method of accountability. There have been instances of countyowned vehicles being taken outside the county and concerns raised by members of the public about the validity of that travel.

The county is well within its rights to put tracking devices in all vehicles and the issue appeared to be settled several months ago, when the county enacted a policy to do just that. Things got more complicated as it began to be implemented and department heads balked at taking money out of their budgets to pay for this ongoing expense, especially for vehicles such as the heavy equipment used by the highway department which are used for specific purposes on projects.

County policy makers then backtracked and rather than a consistent rule across all departments, it is now being left up to each oversight committee on if and how far the rule should be implemented.

This opens the door to inconsistent implementation which could raise the concern that specific employees or positions are being singled out for additional scrutiny. This has the potential to cause personnel headaches in the future. Human resources headaches historically have a habit of costing taxpayer dollars to remedy.

A major challenge through all this is the diverse nature of jobs and duties within county government. Rules that make sense for social workers in the human services department may not be relevant to the members of the highway crew. This makes establishing county-wide personnel policies especially difficult, a task that is not made any easier by the dynamics of members of multiple oversight committees.

Taylor County needs to stop spinning its wheels when it comes to policy enforcement and instead elected officials must trust the administrative coordinator/ human resources director to do her job to develop and implement personnel policies in cooperation with department heads.