JACKSONVILLE — The Cherokee County Commissioners Court held its regular meeting Monday morning and approved the county’s operating budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

County Judge Chris Davis said the budget, at $21,039,863, was reduced by $253,232 from last year’s budget.

“We’ve reduced the budget by over a quarter of a million dollars,” Davis said.

Prior to the decision, a public hearing was held for the crowd gathered at the meeting.

Two county residents spoke to the commissioners regarding an employee in the county judge’s office making $26,592 as a secretary and $20,256 as a software specialist with, according to county records, an average per week hour count of just over 40 hours.

During an earlier interview, Davis referred to the software specialist pay as a stipend.

“This is a job that is a very skilled job that not everyone can do,” Davis said. “It would cost $25,000-$30,000 to hire and train someone else.”

When questioned as to how much the county had spent overall on the stipends, Davis said the pay rate wasn’t always $20,256, though he added the position predates his own tenure as county judge.

According to county records, the software specialist must operate an AS 400 mainframe computer/software and/or peripheral equipment utilizing knowledge of operating procedures.

This requires “considerable decision making” since the employee must diagnose numerous processing failures, seek appropriate corrective action and occasionally modify methods and procedures

An IT specialist, a role currently worth $48,528 in the county, is responsible for maintenance and control of the county’s personal computer system of roughly 145 computers, all of which are networked to Client Access Servers-AS 400 I-series Model 270, Dell Power Edge, Routers, Hubs and other communication equipment.

The IT specialist must develop, maintain and oversee the county’s Web site and manage e-mails.

This specialist must also plan, organize and manage data backups of the computer system, as well as be able to travel off-site in a personal vehicle. This position reports to the county judge.

Pct. 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti voted against the proposed budget, which passed 4-1.

She cited potential problems with the county’s new Step and Grade program.

Pct. 4 Commissioner Byron Underwood said County Clerk Laverne Lusk didn’t see a problem when he spoke of the program and of the apparent dual-role position in the county judge’s office.

“We recently implemented Step and Grade and there are problems that will be looked at as we find them,” Underwood said.

Commissioners also set public hearing dates for the proposed tax rate of 55 cents per $100 valuation at 9 a.m. Sept. 7 and at 10 a.m. Sept. 13, both in the county courtroom.

Other items acted on during the meeting include:

• Laying utility lines on one county road in Pct. 4.

• Approval of Dowell Baker to be a reserve deputy.

• Acceptance of settlement agreement on a dump truck accident for Pct. 2.

• Bid acceptance for a security system for the Jacksonville tax office location at $735.

• Pass over a request to update the county road map and assign the road number 3403A to a segment of County Road 3403. Pinotti was opposed to the motion to pass over it for further research.

• Appointment of five to the Cherokee County Development District No. 1.

• Approval of taking proposals for the county’s audit firm for the year ending at Sept. 30.

• Proclamation of September as National Preparedness Month.

• Change to the Cherokee County Volunteer Fire Department Intergovernmental Contract to allow the volunteer fire department in question to collect “a reasonable sum” from an “incident person”, as opposed to the prior collection of up to $100. Underwood was one of two who opposed this, citing a distaste for the “reasonable sum” phrase.

• Acceptance of joint election agreement and interlocal agreement between Cherokee County and the city of Bullard for conducting a joint election.

• Appointment of election and alternate judges for the November General Election.

• Approval to move Polling Place 32 from Mt. Selman Baptist Church to Mt. Selman Methodist Church and Polling Place 38 from Jacksonville Recreation Center to Calvary Baptist Church.

• Approval of cooperative agreement for community service restitution.

• Consent agenda, including approval of the commissioners’ court minutes of meetings for July, 2010, and authorizing the payment of the bills.

Commissioners court meetings are held the second and fourth Mondays of each month in the county courtroom of the county courthouse in Rusk at 10 a.m. They are open to the public but do not include set public speaking times on their normal agendas.