The duties of the deputy judge-executive and whether he should be receiving overtime have become major topics of discussion this week amid questions on social media and in the latest Pulaski County Fiscal Court meeting.

The issue took hold Monday with Facebook posts alleging that Pulaski Deputy Judge Dan Price had racked up more than $39,000 in overtime pay during the past fiscal year on top of his $42,412 budgeted salary.

On Wednesday, county officials didn’t dispute the numbers or that they had been been obtained through an open records request — though County Treasurer Joan Isaacs clarified the numbers reflect the 2017 calendar year.

Price and Judge-Executive Steve Kelley, on the road home from Washington DC after participating in a presentation to federal Transportation officials in hopes of funding for the Ky. 80-Ky. 461 interchange project, both assert that the practice is saving the county money.

According to Kelley, Price assumed additional duties following the retirement of Dennis Turner as road supervisor and the departure of Tiffany Finley (Bourne) as community development director at the end of 2016.

“Dan was working many hours above and beyond the 40-hour work week which his salary is based off of,” Judge Kelley stated. “At the budget workshop, we [the fiscal court] discussed this, and we agreed to let Dan turn in his overtime beyond 40 hours. There is no question that he puts in the time.…

“[B]y not rehiring the two salaried positions, the county has saved over $100,000 annually,” Judge Kelley continued, adding that Price’s overtime accounts to less than third of those salaries. “Paying his overtime has been a win for us. We have a leaner, more efficient, more effective government than we have seen in a long time.”

The judge asserted that County Attorney “Martin Hatfield has assured me that we are operating within the confines of the law.” Kelley further stated that overtime is common and every position other than a part-time one can be subject to overtime in certain circumstances.

Hatfield wasn’t available for comment but Isaacs noted there’s a distinction between “salaried” and “exempt.”

“I understand people are concerned,” she said. “We do have salaried positions that are subject to overtime. We’re looking into whether the court would have to declare him [Price] exempt or does he fall under that because of his job duties.”

Isaacs explained that certain positions are exempted either through classification (professional, management, executive, etc.) or by earning threshold ($455 per week). She also wanted to clear up misconceptions about the time sheets Price turned in for approval.

For example, for the pay period ending July 15 of this year, there is a July 7 entry classified as “Park” listing 13 hours.

“That’s not on top of an eight-hour day,” Isaacs said, explaining those type of entries occurred either on a weekend or holiday.

In that specific example, it was sort of both as Judge Kelley noted that July 7 marked the fireworks celebration at Pulaski County Park.

Price himself noted that “Park” didn’t always refer just to Pulaski Park but Woodstock, Shopville, White Lily and Firebrook community parks that are well used particularly on weekends. “It takes a lot of effort to keep our parks clean and safe for families,” he said.”

“I’m apologetic that it’s become a personal attack that detracts from what we’re doing for the county,” Price told the Commonwealth Journal. “We have a wonderful group of employees that are trying to more with less when you consider we [Pulaski County] have one of the lowest tax bases paired with a large geographic area.”

The deputy judge continued that he was appreciative that the court was trying to keep costs down. He noted another concern about not adding to the county’s pension obligation by filling the vacant positions with new hires.

“As of now, we have three salaried positions combined into one,” Price said, noting that one proposal considered during the last General Assembly would have had the county trying to offset an additional $1 million in pension contributions. “It’s more efficient not to add to that obligation. I think when looked at as a whole, people will see that.”

While overtime was never mentioned during Tuesday morning’s Fiscal Court meeting, Price’s duties were discussed as Assistant Road Supervisor Jordan Harris completed his departmental report and District 4 Magistrate Glenn Maxey asked if Judge-Executive Steve Kelley would be appointing anyone as Road Supervisor.

“Just a few complaints here and there about things not getting done in a timely manner, I’m not saying it’s your fault or anything,” Maxey told Harris. “I just wondered if having a full-time road…”

Judge Kelley responded that he wouldn’t be appointing a road supervisor before the first of the year in case a new administration is elected to take over county government. When Maxey noted he’d been asked who the road foreman is, Judge Kelley said that the deputy judge “is doing as much of that role as anybody” and works with Harris, whom he commended for the job he was doing in the face of being short-handed.

Maxey continued that he’d been asked if Price was supervisor and told the person “no, he’s your [Kelley’s] right hand.”

On Wednesday, Kelley explained that the road supervisor position is non-merit and appointed at the discretion of a county judge so it wouldn’t be appropriate to fill that position now when he couldn’t guarantee a supervisor beyond a few months. Should he be re-elected, Judge Kelley would like to sit down with the magistrates at the beginning of the next term in January to determine if they should fill the position or continue with the consolidation of duties.

For his part, Judge Kelley believes the status quo is working. “We’ve accomplished all that we ever did and more,” he said.

Kelley lists among the benefits to the county Price’s experience and expertise, strong work ethic, and care for county employees and their working conditions. “The bottom line is Dan works very hard to help make our county better, and I truly appreciate his dedication,” the judge stated.