Council Finalizing Raises, Looking and Health Care, EMS Plans

Anderson County is working to finalize the raises for county employees.

During Tuesday night’s county council meeting, Anderson County Councilman Tom Allen said the first round of raises went into effect for most of the county’s 9000 employees July 1. These employees will receive and additional salary boost next year. (Allen discussed these issues in this video interview).

Four other employees not covered by the raise - the Clerk of Court, Coroner, Treasure and Auditor - will receive a one-time two-percent raise under the plan. 

Allen said council is also considering moving employee health benefits to a self-pay program, to reduce the increasing costs of the state health plan.  

Council asked for a proposal from the local Palmetto Insurance Agency, and working with them to evaluate the efficacy of moving to a self-insured county program. 

“It’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, once we see that entire picture we’ll be able to make a decision,” Allen said. “We still have a few more meetings to get this ironed out, but it’s under way.” 

“This is exploratory, but in long run could provide better health care for all our employees,” said Anderson County Council Chairman Tommy Dunn. 

Also on Tuesday night, Anderson County Councilman Ray Graham reported on the Public Safety Committee’s efforts to improve safety and build standardized policies for county-owned vehicles, with a focus first on law enforcement vehicles. 

A video of Graham discussing this issue is here. 

Graham also told the full council that the county is still tweaking EMS provider contracts to make sure the county is protected with a unified program.