MARLBORO COUNTY — During a special called meeting of the Marlboro County Council, Director of Administrative Services Doris Sumpter addressed changes made to the county’s personnel and employee handbook, particularly as it relates to employee time off, running for political office, bullying, sexual harassment, seasonal employment and pregnancy leave.

Sumpter said when comparing the previous month’s proposed personnel policy and procedures manual changes with the current manual, council would see, “This is not a contract, employment is at will.”

“On page five under Authority for Implementation and Administration of Policy, we would add a third paragraph, which would state; ‘Each department supervisor, department head is responsible for ensuring that county policies and procedures are carried out by their department on a daily basis.’ The county council approved this employee handbook. It can be amended and updated through resolutions of the county council,” said Sumpter.

Turning to accommodations for pregnant county workers, Sumpter said the title in the handbook was changed from “Pregnancy Accommodations,” to “Pregnancy, Childhood, or Related Medical Conditions Accommodations,” adding the section was revised entirely.

“The revision for this section was done by a labor lawyer, so it includes any changes that have happened within law from 2020 up until 2025,” explained Sumpter, before turning to sexual harassment concerns.

“We edited the first paragraph, changing it to ‘Marlboro County is committed to developing and maintaining a work environment that is free from bullying, unsolicited and unwelcome conduct of a discriminatory or retaliatory nature and sexual harassment.’ Employees who are found to have violated this policy are subject to disciplinary action up to and including discharge,” said Sumpter.

According to Sumpter, the third paragraph was edited, and a fourth paragraph was deleted.

“The third paragraph was edited to law enforcement and correctional officers will be compensated for all hours worked over 86 and 14 days. Before they were doing overtime which we sort of had a slang for it called ‘Chinese overtime,’ which in essence you had to work an average of your 14 days would determine what your hourly wage was for your overtime. We did away with that in 2021 I think it was, and so that was after our policy book was done in 2020, so we had to go and change that,” added Sumpter.

Moving on to annual and sick time leave, all charts will be edited from one to five years, instead of one to four years, according to Sumpter.

She explained, “Carryover of new sick leave accrued in a calendar year, the first and second sentence will be edited to the following: ‘The maximum carryover amount of sick leave per calendar year is 180 standard leave days or 1,440 hours for a 24-hour shift.’”

Sumpter added the sick leave bank had a balance of 4,000 hours and the county is changing that to 3,200 hours to be carried over, not to exceed 3,200, primarily because the county only collects around 1,000 hours a year from staff and they will have to start donating their time in January. Employees will be able to donate anything from one day to five days.

Offering further insight, she said, “We made the reductions based on some of our counties around us that were only doing 3,200 hours.”

Next, Sumpter shared that previously when employees applied for sick time, the committee would meet and inform the employee of the criteria as it related to their specific need. Now, the process and criteria have been streamlined and outlined in the handbook, ensuring employees no longer have to wait to meet with the sick leave committee to be informed.

Sumpter noted “temporary part-time employee” was changed to “temporary seasonal part-time employee” in the handbook to acknowledge seasonal labor positions.

A definitive decision has not been made, according to Sumpter, on conflicts of interest. Recapping how the handbook currently reads, Sumpter explained that employees are expected to be active and participate in local, state, and federal affairs. Employees are not permitted to hold political offices which would create a conflict of interest or participate in political activities, which would create a conflict of interest, utilize county time, materials, or equipment in support of a campaign, or solicit any assessments, contributions, or services from any political party or candidate during daily work hours.

She said, “Employees who are paid either in full or in part by federal monies are covered under the federal Hatch Act and Federal Campaign Act and will be required to conform to the regulation of those acts. It is the responsibility of the employee to ensure compliance with such acts.” Sumpter added that employees wishing to run for political office need to inform their department head and may be placed on approved leave without pay or be required to use annual leave.

To solve this issue, Sumpter said her department considered two options to share with council, the first being, employees wishing to file for elected office must inform the county administrator and director of human resources in writing of their intention to file and failure to do so will result in termination. Once the employee is elected to office, the employee must resign from their position prior to being sworn in to office. If the employee were to run for political office or position and not win, they could then return to their position without penalty.

Regarding the second option, Sumpter said an employee would be considered a candidate when the employee files their intent to run for office.

After a brief discussion, council members decided language protecting an employee’s employment needs to be included as well as making it uncomfortable for employees to campaign while on county time.

“I think you use your automatic leave, then you are on unpaid leave until the end of the election. I think that is crystal clear,” said Councilman Jason Steen.

Reiterating for the council, Sumpter said, “We want to still say for the purposes of this policy, an employee is considered a candidate for public office as soon as he or she files for candidacy.”

Also in the handbook, it is outlined employees may not possess firearms of any kind while inside any county building, while on any county property, while inside any county vehicle, or while on any county worksite. The only exception to this rule is that the employee must be a licensed officer that is authorized to carry a weapon, or if the firearm is secured in a locked compartment and not visible from outside in a locked, privately owned vehicle. Sumpter cautioned that violation of the policy could include penalties up to and including immediate termination.

Turning to social media, Sumpter said, “The third sentence of the third paragraph, was edited to say, and we added a fifth paragraph, third paragraph posts that contain obscene material, harassment, bullying, the promotion of unlawful activity, personal attacks on other Marlboro County employees, or that reasonably calls into question the employees judgment or that reasonably causes concern among the public. The fifth paragraph that was added states, “Employees of Marlboro County are forbidden from posting and interacting on their personal social media accounts during hours of duty unless to promote any events or services sponsored by Marlboro County.”

According to the handbook, the first offence of this policy results in a verbal warning, followed by a written warning on the second offence. The third offence will result in unpaid administrative leave, and the fourth offence will result in employee termination.

Sumpter said a paragraph was also added to the end to cover take home vehicles for employees.

“No county vehicles shall be used for transportation to or from an operator’s residence if living outside of Marlboro County, with the exception of those used by emergency responders and those who are on call who are on call for emergencies,” said Sumpter.

Chiming in, Council members Steen and Pearly Lawson suggested putting decals on all county vehicles, while Chairman Anthony Woods shared many employees may not want to be identified as county employees.

Council adjourned after unanimously voting on a second reading of the county’s personnel and employee handbook ordinance to be scheduled for a later date.