Pauls Valley, OK, Pauls Valley Democrat

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March 19, 2013

Drug testing goes up a notch

Barry Porterfield Pauls Valley Democrat

bporterfield@pvdemocrat.com — Garvin County’s commissioners gave their approval Monday to expanding a random drug testing policy to include all of the county’s employees.

After officials worked to get everything in order over the last couple of weeks, two of the commissioners finalized the sweeping revision during a regular weekly meeting.

Commissioners Johnny Mann (District 3) and Stan Spivey (District 1) gave their OK to the measure that now brings all people employed by Garvin County under a policy allowing for random drug testing.

Fellow Commissioner Shon Richardson (District 2) was part of last week’s discussion on the issue but was unavailable for Monday’s vote.

In the past the county has only required the drug testing for employees who needed a commercial driver’s license, or CDL, to operate particular equipment on the job.

“Now it will include all of our employees,” Mann said.

The new policy allows for all new county employees to be drug tested and then be subject to random testing if they continue on the job for least 30 consecutive days.

Both Mann and Spivey stress the random drug testing policy is something they’ve voluntarily chosen to follow for all the employees in their districts, including themselves.

“I’ve always had it for the people in my yard,” Mann said.

“I’ve been doing it ever since we’ve been drug testing,” he said. “Some of my guys have been tested five times and others have never been tested. It’s all a random thing.”

This revised policy simply means more county employees will now be subject to the random testing.

“It’s drawing in more county employees, like those here in the courthouse and the sheriff’s office,” Spivey said.

The measure here is sure to be seen throughout much of the state.

Commissioners here said the idea to expand the drug testing policy comes from the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma, better known as ACCO, and this same proposal is being taken to commissioners in all 77 counties.

“ACCO is doing this for insurance purposes,” Mann said.

“We get a discount on our insurance if we comply with their recommendation,” he said.

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