Young County sets standard hours for courthouse offices

Offices across the Young County Courthouse will now follow standard office times to alleviate public confusion and perceived unfairness with other county employees.

The Young County Commissioners Court met Monday, May 11 and approved setting the office hours for courthouse officers for 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and employees will be required to work a full day before a holiday, unless employees take vacation those days.

“This item’s come up as we go into budget season. I went around and stopped by almost every department in the county and there’s a common theme of every office is working different hours,” Young County Judge Win Graham said. “It’s gotten to the point where it seems like some offices are shutting down the day before holidays and some are not. …I think there’s been confusion.”

The county judge said that the courthouse has traditionally closed at noon before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but now that has expanded to all holidays.

“It’s become President’s Day and it’s become every holiday. In essence we’ve almost doubled our holidays because the courthouse shuts down the day before a holiday,” Graham said.

County Treasurer Kyle Milam gave his thoughts as the public official whose position includes the county’s payroll.

“I think the problem is there’s an unfairness that’s being applied to people that work in the courthouse. Some are closing at half a day and others aren’t. I’m not even talking about holidays, I'm talking about during the week. …It may be at the discretion of the elected official, but at the same time it’s not being applied fairly to all employees,” Milam said.

The county judge said that the public will show up and no one will be at those offices which leads to confusion about the office hours.

“We need to put it out there for the public to know if an office is going to be open. I think it's knowing that the office is going to be open those hours and for people outside of our area. …They need to be able to look at what the policy is and say ‘Okay, they’re closed this day,’” Precinct 3 Commissioner Alan Craig said.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Stacy Creswell said that if his crew are not reaching 40 hours each week and it’s not a holiday week, to get to 40 hours they either have to take sick leave or take vacation. 

“My own assistant has had to take short pay because she’s used all her vacation time (and) sick time caring for her 96-year-old mother and a husband who has leukemia. Then we see someone closed down for an afternoon. …We have people that have waited a year to get their vacation time that need it to take off and couldn’t take off,” Milam said.

The commissioners court voted unanimously to set the new standard courthouse office times and make it a county policy that employees have to work a full day before a holiday.