Butler County Commissioners will vote Wednesday on doing away with time off as an alternative to paid overtime for county employees.

Commissioner Dale Pinkerton, who is proposing the move, said it’s necessary to keep county departments staffed, and he believes workers need the extra money rather than time off.

“We don’t have a department in our county that isn’t saying ‘we need more people,’” Pinkerton said at the commissioners meeting. “To just give people all the time off ... hurts our county and hurts our departments.”

Commissioner William McCarrier said the county’s human services department, which has about 100 employees, and its Children and Youth Agency, which is staffed at all times, are two departments that struggle in particular with scheduling. However, the issue arises in all county offices, he said.

“There are times when we don’t have enough people to staff a department,” McCarrier said.

Commissioner Jim Eckstein is opposed to the idea and said eliminating comp time would be “taking a step back,” for county employees who use the time to attend family events.

Eckstein said he wants to leave the choice between overtime pay and comp time up to department heads and their employees.

Pinkerton said the change would not affect departments’ “flex time” policies and will motivate department heads to keep better track of staff scheduling.

County employees who volunteer during election day would still receive comp time in exchange for their services on that day, commissioners said.

County officials said government employees still have 2,801 unused hours of comp time from 2014. That equates to about $64,000 in overtime wages.

The county does not track the total amount of compensatory time awarded to employees throughout the year.