COVINGTON, Ga. — Two top government officials will appeal an Athens judge’s recent order that the county correctly calculated their salaries and does not owe them hundreds of thousands in back pay since 2017.
Chairman Marcello Banes and Probate Judge Melanie Bell filed a notice of appeal the day after the April 18 order by Senior Judge David Sweat of Athens in Newton County Superior Court.
Sweat said in the order that the county government paid the correct salary amounts to Banes and Bell in the four years between 2017 and 2020.
The county correctly paid the salaries based on calculations set in local legislation — state law written specifically for Newton County — approved in 1981 and 1994, Sweat’s order stated.
He also denied their claims for attorneys fees and litigation costs.
Banes, who is chairman of the Newton County Board of Commissioners, and Bell claimed in September 2020 that miscalculation of their pay over four years meant the county government owed them each more than $180,000 in back pay.
Their attorney, Stephanie Lindsey, said the chairman and judge should have received salary increases based on the highest minimum annual salary of any “county officer,” defined as the tax commissioner, sheriff, clerk of courts, Probate Court judge and county chairman.
Lindsey said the county used the sheriff’s salary to determine the pay but should have used the salary of Clerk of Courts Linda Hays and included any longevity pay, cost of living adjustments, local supplements and tax appeal supplements she received since coming to office in 1982.
Banes’ salary for 2020 should have been $145,000 but the county’s calculations meant he is receiving $101,000 this year. Bell is receiving $103,000 but should be receiving $148,000, the attorney said.
Sweat heard the case after all Newton County Superior Court judges recused themselves.
He said after a February hearing he understood the pay method in the legislation used the highest annual minimum salary among the county’s four constitutional officers and the chairman but it did not include longevity pay and cost-of-living allowances (COLAs) in the calculation of the two officials’ salaries.
The judge said it "seems to me nonsensical" that a law would be written that would effectively lower the pay of a county official replacing a long-serving official who had been given regular longevity pay and COLAs.
Lindsey told Sweat the 1994 local law was written that way because it did not contemplate officials like Clerk of Courts Linda Hays remaining in office for 38 years.
