July 27, 2021–9:24 p.m.

STAFF REPORTS

The Floyd County did not approve a recommendation from the elections board to hire Vanessa Waddell as the new chief election clerk Tuesday night, opting instead to repost the job opening.

Commissioner Scotty Hanock explained why he made the motion to conduct a new search.

“We only had one applicant that met the qualifications,” he said.  “In any kind of industry or business, you would normally go back and re-evaluate the pool.  Whenever you have only one person who is qualified based on the requirements that were submitted, we felt like we would be better served if we went back out and threw a wider net and looked for a different pool of applicants.”

One way the commission hopes to attract more candidates is by eliminating the requirement that you have to be certified before being hired.

“That really limits your pool when you only have 159 Georgia counties and each county only has one person who is certified,” Hancock added.  “It just limits your applicant pool.  We, as a board, thought that it would be better if we cast a wider net, and maybe do a nationwide search to try and get the best candidate we can.”

The commission did approve a restructuring of the elections office.

That includes the creation of two job classifications, adding the positions of deputy elections clerk and senior elections clerk, as well as converting the existing two full-time positions to two part-time positions.

This comes with a budget adjustment of up to $102,000 to cover the increase in salary and benefits for the Floyd County Board of Elections.

Prior to the vote, several citizens spoke.

Some spoke in support of Waddell, while others opposed her appointment.