With a majority vote of 13 needed for the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office to remain with the Teamsters #238 union as their bargaining representative, the recertification election held from Oct. 14 to Oct. 28 failed to pass by one vote as certified by the state. While the department’s union contract was set to expire June 30, 2026, that contract is now null and void as of the state’s certification of the election.
“There’s nothing that can be done about that [now], that’s all done,” Jack Reed, the county’s human resources consultant, said at the Nov. 10 Clarke County Board of Supervisors meeting.
The sheriff’s department first voted in favor of unionizing in the fall of 1994 under the same union as secondary roads, the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations, Teamsters Local 147. Due to a law passed by the state in 2017, House File 291, the sheriff’s department must wait two years from this fall to file a certification with the state if they’d like to vote to rejoin the union.
In the meantime, Reed presented to the supervisors a Memorandum of Understanding to consider between the supervisors and the sheriff’s office employees.
“I’ve had this happen six or eight times… typically, the county creates a memorandum of understanding, an MOU. This is not a contract, not binding, just an informational document they have,” Reed explained.
Reed took items of the union contract that were specific or unique to the sheriff’s office and included them in the MOU, but left out union-specific items such as sick leave and funeral leave. Should the supervisors agree to the MOU, those areas would fall under the county’s handbook, which he stated was fairly consistent with what the sheriff’s office already had.
A point of discussion that arose was who all within the sheriff’s department are considered eligible voting members, known as the bargaining unit.
In 1994, Reed explained that departmental employees would have submitted with the union who they wanted to be under the union contract. Some positions were excluded - the sheriff, chief deputy and clerks/front office staff - while all full-time and regular part-time employees such as deputies, dispatcher, jailers and juvenile detention officers were included. While none of them have to pay union dues, they are all considered part of the bargaining unit.
There exist, however, some employees who are considered part-time for union purposes, but only work on an as-needed basis.
“If you file a petition to certify again, we probably need to change that designation,” Reed said.
The supervisors took no action on the MOU at the time.
In other county news...
The supervisors approved the hire of Andrea Smith Nov. 3 as the office manager for the Clarke County Attorney effective Nov. 17; Smith replaces Chris Dorsey.
On Nov. 17, the supervisors approved 2-1 their contribution to the Clarke County Reservoir Commission per the 28E Agreement in the amount of $12,854.48; supervisor Randy Dunbar voted no.