Hancock County council member Kent Fisk floated a total hiring freeze as soon as 2026 for the county at the July 30 joint meeting of the council and the county commissioners.
The idea came out during a presentation by chief probation officer Josh Sipes, who was discussing falling user fees and requesting money to make up in the difference between the department’s expected and actual intake.
“I think this really is the first shot across the bow for us,” Fisk said.
Fisk and council president Jeannine Gray agreed that a “pinch” was coming, but Gray said that calls for a freeze were unnecessary and that the council isn’t near the point of such drastic action yet.
“We have to now, early on, start weighing our options,” Gray said. “If everything continues to grow in cost, we’ll have to do something, but I think to talk about a hiring freeze right now is probably just a little bit premature.”
The county council is already in the process of approving the 2025 budget and has decided not to freeze hiring until at least 2026, but Fisk said they would need to begin telling departments not to plan for any growth in 2026.
The council ultimately approved Sipes’ request for a budget increase, but as they did so, council member Jim Shelby noted that the prosecutor’s office has had similar issues with fee collection, so this could be a recurring issue.
“We’re starting to see the user fees and stuff that we that we spend that we hire people with disappear because [we are in] what I call a recession for most people of middle and lower income,” Fisk said. “People on probation are struggling to pay the fees, so that’s telling me that we’re going to have to use more operational money in order to back up the probation department … and I’m sure that’s not the only department.”
Fisk said he’s seen working people have less money to spend, leading to the drop in user fees.
The county’s budget has struggled to keep up with its growth as the current draft of the 2025 Hancock County budget still has over a million-dollar deficit which the council is looking to cut out before the budget’s final approval. Freezing hiring could give the county’s coffers time to catch up with its costs. Fisk also says he expects that growth to slow in coming years.
Gray said that the county is doing “fine,” though, citing several funds including the rainy day fund and the backup general fund which would need to dry up before a hiring freeze would be necessary. She also spoke from experience, recalling the county’s last freeze.
“I don’t think we want to ever get back into the situation where we were in 2008 when we couldn’t hire people because we couldn’t afford it,” Gray said.
The county council will continue to finalize its 2025 budget in the coming months.
