CAIRO — The Grady County Board of Commissioners voted to create a new position to oversee payroll.

Payroll responsibilities for county employees were moved out of house last year to New Hire Solutions. That decision was done in part to restore Grady County residents’ confidence, according to County Administrator Buddy Johnson.

Over the past year, that decision has inadvertently led to county officials having to do extra legwork, in large part because the county uses a different software system than New Hire.

“I’m having to create manual spreadsheets on just about everything that I should be able to go to (the system) and pull,” said County Clerk John White.

To deal with these issues, County Finance Director Holly Murkerson proposed the creation of a new position to oversee payroll for the more than 200 full- and part-time county employees. The new position, which would bring $24,000 per year back into the county, would be budget-neutral.

The commissioners voted unanimously to begin a search for an employee to fill the new position.

Both Johnson and Murkerson stressed that the decision to return payroll responsibilities within the county’s orbit was not a reflection on New Hire’s performance.

“Make no mistake, the decision to go with New Hire was the right decision at the time under the circumstances we had with the mess that we were dealing with to get that off our plate while we fixed this stuff,” Johnson said. “Now that it’s corrected and we have some direction we can bring that back.”

Financial organization in Grady County has been “less than mediocre” at times, according to Murkerson.

“I’m not a mediocre type of person,” she told the commissioners. “I want to be the best that I can be, and I want any organization that I am affiliated with to be the best that it can be.”

Murkerson said the county’s human resources department appeared as though it had been “neglected” for some time when she first arrived late last year. It soon became clear to Murkerson that an extra hand was needed, particularly when it came to payroll responsibilities, but also to provide assistance to the county clerk.

“You’ve got to have horsepower,” Murkerson told the commissioners. “You’ve got to have people that can do the job.”

There are numerous things the county can do to improve itself, Murkerson said, but she personally doesn’t have the time to work on everything.

Murkerson’s observations led her to ask Johnson that the new position be created.

The item was voted on by the commissioners Tuesday afternoon.