HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — The Carroll County Finance Ways and Means Committee scrapped the 24-period semi-monthly payroll structure that they approved last month in favor of a 26-period bi-weekly schedule on Wednesday, May 6. They also added a one-time transition bonus for employees to soften the blow of the July changeover.
The reversal came after employee feedback flagged a problem nobody had fully anticipated, according to Chairman Darrell Ridgely. Under the 24-period calendar, employees would go nearly the entire month of December without a paycheck, one of the most financially demanding times of the year.
Why the Change
Ridgely told the committee the switch to 26 bi-weekly pay periods would be less disruptive to employees, even though the auditor had previously recommended staying at 24 periods to avoid a once-every-11-years budgeting quirk where a 27th payroll period falls in a single fiscal year.
“The auditor says every 10 or 11 years it throws something out of whack. Who cares?” Ridgely said. “I’d like somebody to be mindful of that. Most of us in here can handle it. The money is all the same.”
Sheriff Andy Dickson told the committee it was his employees who caught the December problem.
“That feedback has been helpful to get us to this point — to a policy that is less impactful,” Ridgely said.
The switch also closes the July pay gap slightly for employees. Instead of getting their first check of the month on July 24, emplyees will receive their first check on July 17.
The motion to move to 26 bi-weekly pay periods passed unanimously.
The $500 Bonus
Along with the structural change, Ridgely proposed a one-time transition bonus of $500 for full-time employees and $250 for part-time employees to help bridge the gap during the July transition. The total cost to the county is $111,100, which will be spread across multiple fund line items. Elected officials are excluded from the bonus.
“The employee didn’t ask for this to change,” he said. “I’m trying to lessen that blow. Anytime I’ve done something in my own life to disrupt someone’s life, I’ve tried to make it right.”
Committee member Lana Suite raised concerns about timing. Paying the bonus on July 17, the date of the first paycheck under the new system, would be useless, she argued.
“If they make it to the 17th, they’ve made it,” Suite said. “If you’re going to give it to them, it would make sense to give it to them around the 10th.”
The committee agreed. The bonus will be paid around July 6-10, before the first paycheck under the new system arrives on July 17.
Commissioner John Austin argued that the county had already made significant accommodations by switching to 26 periods and offering a 3% raise.
“I think that we would be remiss to make decisions based on 212 people versus 29,000 taxpayers,” Austin said. “If a county employee was to leave Carroll County and go to work in the private sector, there would be a waiting period before they got paid. I don’t think that employer would go, out of the goodness of my heart, let me give you $500.”
Committee member Jay Phipps noted that the average county employee would receive about 16% less in take-home pay during the month of July than they normally would, and that the cost of replacing even one employee who left over the transition would far exceed $500.
Commissioner Willie Huffman said he supported the bonus because the people it would help most are the ones who show up every day and make the county run.
“$500 could mean a lot,” Huffman said. “God’s blessed us to be in this position, so we need to reward the people that we can.”
Sheriff Dickson said he personally would absorb a financial hit from the switch to 26 pay periods — approximately $1,600 spread across his remaining checks this year. He said it was worth it to protect his employees.
“I’ll give up my $1,600 so my guys don’t have to go that time without being paid,” Dickson said. “I’m not going to work that whole year for Carroll County, so in my situation I’m going to lose $400 on each check. But I’m good with that, so long as my deputies get their money.”
The bonus passed with broad committee support. The final vote count was not formally recorded in the meeting, as Ridgely characterized it as a committee consensus rather than a formal resolution, with the official budget line items to be finalized at next Wednesday’s meeting.
A Question About Sheriff’s Pay
The payroll discussion surfaced a question about how sheriff’s deputies are classified in their status as salaried employees.
Payroll Administrator Adriana Ezell noted that under the 26-period structure, the hourly rate used to calculate overtime for deputies would be slightly lower than under 24 periods, because the annual salary is divided across two additional paychecks. Sheriff Dickson pushed back, arguing that deputies work 2,080 hours a year regardless of how many pay periods there are, and their hourly rate should not change.
Austin raised a concern about the way deputies are compensated overall.
“If we’re going to pay overtime to sheriff’s deputies, then they need to be an hourly employee from day one to the day they walk out the door,” Austin said. “If they work 40 hours, you pay them for 40 hours. If they work 56 hours, you pay them for 40 and 16 of overtime. That’s how an hourly employee is treated. If you get paid overtime, you are not a salary employee.”
“We may have done it like that for years,” Austin added, “but that doesn’t mean it’s correct.”
Austin’s concern is, from a private-sector human resources perspective, that salary status and overtime eligibility are generally treated as mutually exclusive.
Federal law anticipated this situation for law enforcement. Under Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, sworn law enforcement officers and jailers are classified as non-exempt regardless of whether they receive a base salary. This means they are legally entitled to overtime pay even though they are paid on a salary basis. This hybrid classification is standard practice for law enforcement agencies across the country and is not unique to Carroll County.
Ridgely acknowledged the issue goes deeper than the committee could address Wednesday.
“We’re just touching the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We can go a lot deeper, and probably at some point need to.”
Austin suggested the Personnel Committee should be involved. The matter was set aside for a future discussion.
The Finance Ways and Means Committee meets again next Wednesday at 9 a.m. to finalize and vote on the full FY2026-27 budget, including the transition bonus line items. The Carroll County School general purpose fund budget was sent back to the school board with a Tuesday 5 p.m. deadline after the committee declined to approve a budget showing a $1.4 million deficit. That story is covered separately.