Hays County Commissioners Sept. 12 approved overtime pay for Hays County emergency staff who worked during Hurricane Harvey in August.
Kharley Smith, director of emergency management and emergency management coordinator of the Office of Emergency Services, asked for $5,786 for overtime hours for emergency staff for events during Hurricane Harvey.
Overtime hours included compensation for an emergency operations center (EOC), which was opened on Aug. 26 during Hurricane Harvey.
The EOC, which is a joint operations center, was opened for disaster preparedness and responses needed throughout the county and city of San Marcos.
Expenses came from food emergency workers purchased while on duty and expenses for a hotel room in order to let workers rest on a four-hour rotation. The EOC was deactivated on Aug. 28.
Smith asked for $1,398 for food purchased for EOC staff and $345 for a hotel room for two nights where staff rested on a rotation during Hurricane Harvey.
“We’ve had minimal need for response overnight, mostly to report power outages and downed trees, and can resume our normal operations out of our respective offices,” Smith said in a press release on the Hays County website.
Smith added Hays County emergency officials came together to respond “quickly and efficiently to what could have been a much worse weather situation for us.”
The rest of the overtime was for two emergency staff members due to unplanned emergency events in Hays County.
Compensation of $3,102 was given to the assistant EMC for 97 hours of overtime and $941 was given to Clint Browning, Hays County Fire Marshall, for 30 hours of overtime.
The authorized payment of overtime passed unilaterally in the commissioners’ court.
“Their job requirements mean they’re on call 24/7 and we would be putting the county at risk if we required them to use that as comp time so that’s why we decided to give them the overtime,” Commissioner Mark Jones said.
