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Letter to the editor
County wastes money, employees suffer
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Forsyth County News
We as employees of the sheriff’s office know about sacrifice and what it means to give more then we will ever receive. This is part of our commitment to the citizens of Forsyth County. We are well aware of the hardships economically that are striking this country right now. And, we have been willing to do our part locally to try and ease some of the strain on the citizens and county government.

However, the employees are now being asked to give up an even larger portion of their pay without the commission making other necessary cuts in county spending. We have made a commitment to serve the county and its citizens and have only asked for two things in return: competitive wages and a pension. We haven’t received either one from our county commission. We are sheriff’s office employees but we receive our pay and benefits from the county commission.

We have made concessions to our county commission in order for them to balance the budget and weather this economic storm. We have given up two years without a merit or cost of living increase, two consecutive years with increases to our health insurance and four unpaid holidays in 2009. It is proposed by the commission to also have county employees take five furlough days (without pay) and seven unpaid holidays for 2010 and also suffer a cut in 401k contributions. Those contributions can never be recovered.

The commission has wasted millions of your tax dollars on accounting errors and over-priced land deals and now they look to balance the 2010 budget on the backs of your county employees. We tend to be forgotten and an easy target for them. Our lives are stressful enough with the demands of this job and we don’t want to be pulled into this political arena. We want to do our jobs and be left alone. No matter what the commission does to us, we will never let this affect our commitment to serve the citizens of Forsyth County.

Please show your support and contact your county commissioner.

Chris Shelton

Cumming