Smith County to Receive Best Practices Award

TYLER — Smith County will receive the Texas Association of Counties Best Practices Award for cost reductions made through the County’s Compensatory Time Management Program during a ceremony Thursday night. According to a county news release, each year TAC’s Leadership Foundation recognizes and highlights select county programs for outstanding innovation, achievement and delivery of services.

Officials say the Smith County Compensatory Time Management Program began in 2008 as a joint effort of the Auditor’s Office and Sheriff’s Department, to reduce the ever increasing and costly pay out and accrual of employee earned compensatory time. At that time, Smith County had more than $735,000 in accrued liability recorded for comp time — and more than $600,000 of the accrual was solely attributed to the Sheriff’s department and the Jail. Today, officials say, the comp hours have been reduced by 48% in the Sheriff’s office and 41% in the jail for a total reduction of more than 44% department wide. According to officials, that reduction has reduced the county’s accrued liability by more than $350,000.

“We are very proud of the leadership in our Sheriff’s Office and Auditor’s Department. They stepped up and thought outside the box to reduce our accumulated comp time and ultimately save hundreds of thousands of dollars for the County,” said Comp Time Committee Member and Smith County Precinct 4 Commissioner JoAnn Hampton. Representatives from Smith County will be presented with the award during a ceremony at the TAC Annual Conference in Austin, Thursday at 5:30 p.m.