TYLERTOWN — Walthall County supervisors debated eligibility for county insurance Wednesday and braced for more requests to be added.
Board attorney Conrad Mord said Coroner Chris Blackwell had asked for county insurance coverage.
Comptroller Cindy Ginn said county employees are supposed to work at least 30 hours per week to qualify, and Blackwell told her he was always on call.
“He is on call 24-7,” Mord said.
In talking with the county’s insurance representative, Ginn said she was told that it’s up to the county if they want to add elected officials to the county insurance plan.
Supervisors approved adding Blackwell to the insurance.
That raises other questions for the county, however.
Ginn said election commissioners used to have county insurance coverage, but the health insurer at the time, United Healthcare, said they didn’t qualify and canceled their coverage.
Since then, the county changed to Humana insurance and then changed back to United Healthcare.
Given the insurance company’s change of stance and the board approval of Blackwell for coverage, “the election commissioners are probably going to come wanting insurance, too,” Ginn said.
She said the election commissioners are covered now by workers compensation if they suffered an injury while conducting county business.
District 2 Supervisor Ken Craft said a member of the commission had already been asking him about getting county insurance.
Ginn said she would check with the insurance company about whether election commissioners can be added.
The board also discussed overtime pay by courthouse employees.
“There’s not supposed to be any overtime,” board President Larry Montgomery said. “We have a policy that says ‘no overtime.’”
Ginn said office supervisors are signing off on overtime pay, anyway, and it comes out of their offices’ budgets.
The board planned to have a meeting with office managers to remind them of the overtime policy.
