ANDERSON — With only 10 business days left before a final budget must be approved with $3.8 million in expenditure cuts, the Madison County Council failed to approve expected measures to reduce the budget during Tuesday’s meeting.

Instead, council members voted to reduce their own salaries by 5 percent after County Commissioner Paul Wilson asked to have his salary cut by 4 percent.

Both measures were approved, and promptly followed by voluntary salary cuts by several county department heads.

The charge was led by county Treasurer Darlene Likens, who approached the podium during the meeting and offered to take a 3 percent cut in her own pay in hopes of avoiding layoffs to county staff.

She was followed in volunteering a 3 percent cut by Surveyor Patrick Manship, Clerk Ludy Watkins and Recorder Lisa Hobbs.

Many other department heads were absent from the meeting.

Madison Superior Court Judge Tom Clem, who is paid $125,000 by the state and an additional $5,000 by the county, said he and other judges would be willing to take a 3 percent pay cut if it applied to all county employees.

Last week, Clem convinced the council to go back on a measure that would have stripped the county judges of the $5,000 stipend paid to them by the county.

Clem argued that judges provide the county with over $1 million in court fees.

Aside from individual offers to accept pay cuts, the council failed to pass a motion to address the $3.8 million that must be cut by Oct. 26.

County Councilman Larry Crenshaw made a motion to rescind the 3 percent portion of the employee retirement fund currently paid by the county. The county would continue to make the 7 percent contribution, asking employees to pay 3 percent toward their own retirement funds.

Auditor Kathy Stoops-Wright said the results of the motion on a person making $30,000 per year would be $34.49 per pay period.

Councilmen Mike Phipps, Crenshaw and Bill Savage voted in favor of the motion, but three votes against the measure from Larry Higgins, John Bostic Jr. and Buddy Patterson made the vote a tie.

Councilman Gary Gustin was absent from the meeting.

A motion by Phipps to reduce the county’s contribution to employee health insurance was also defeated.

Councilman Bill Savage used the meeting to form a committee to come up with a plan for council members to vote on.

The committee, which will meet this week, is composed of Higgins, Patterson and Bostic. Bostic will serve as chairman of the committee.

Bostic said he’s not ready to make significant cuts to employee benefits, stating that he doesn’t believe the county needs to make cuts this soon, hoping to hold off one more year.

“We ain’t there yet,” Bostic said.

“How do we get there ... what’s the plan?” Phipps responded, nearing hour three of the budget meeting.

Council members agreed to hold a public hearing on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. to discuss a proposal to increase the county option income tax, or COIT.

The increase has already been passed by the City of Anderson and needs only the passage of the county council to apply to the entire county.

The location of the COIT hearing is still undecided. Commissioner Paul Wilson said the meeting will likely not be held at the County Government Center due to space concerns.

During Tuesday’s meeting, county employees lined the walls and filled the seats, coming close to the room’s 80-person capacity imposed by the fire department’s building inspector after a recent budget meeting saw employees huddled in the hallway trying to get a peek inside the meeting.

Wilson will choose the location for the COIT public hearing and must advertise the meeting in the local newspaper by Thursday’s edition.

The next budget hearing for the County Council will be held at 4 p.m. on Oct. 22 in council chambers.

Contact Brandi Watters: 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com