JULY 21—AUGUST 30, 2016 • THE CSRA’S MONTHLY BUSINESS MAGAZINE
DOWNTOWN AUGUSTA SAFETY PLANS
POLICE LOOK AT ADDING PRECINCT NEAR SHOOTING SITE BY KELSEY MORROW
Despite the Fourth of July shooting, downtown Augusta is still thriving, and soon may be safer than ever before. On the night of July 4, a suspect fired a gun into a crowd located on the patio of the Unisys building. A bystander with a concealed carry permit pulled out his own weapon, and another bystander managed to tackle the shooter to the ground and wrestle his weapon away from him. “It’s unfortunate,” Christie Westbrook, Manager of Beamies at the River said of the July 4 events. “They are working to revitalize downtown, and this was a tragedy.” Although there were no fatalities, this shooting has drawn renewed interest to the idea of having a police presence downtown. According to Patrick Clayton, Chief Deputy of Operations at the Augusta Richmond County Sheriff ’s Office, negotiations to place a new police precinct
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On a recent Friday night, people of all ages safely walked the streets of downtown Augusta. Photo by Gary Kauffman
If you look at the facts, Augusta is one of the safest cities around.
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in a portion of the building currently occupied by Unisys have been going on for about a year.
However, the recent shooting incident, ironically in the exact area where the precinct will be located, has sped up the process. A committee met to discuss this new precinct recently, and according to Clayton, the issue of funding will likely come to a vote within the next few weeks. “This event, like all major events,” Clayton said, “has caused us to reevaluate our security plans. We are coming up with security enhancements for major events downtown in the future.”
If the precinct is funded, Clayton said it would be called the Downtown Business precinct. It would cover two zones with 25 police deputies. Clayton said that the reason this event has drawn so much attention is that it is out of the ordinary, and that this one-off event does not mean that people should avoid the downtown area. On the contrary, looking at how well area businesses handled themselves the night of the See DOWNTOWN, page 2
OVERTIME LAW CHANGE CONCERNS LOCAL BUSINESSES BY GARY KAUFFMAN
A federal law that’s nearly 80 years old has garnered a lot of attention in the past few months because of three changes that will affect most businesses before the end of the year. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted in 1938, and since then has governed the areas of minimum wage and overtime, child labor, payment methods and recordkeeping. Jeri Farley, HR Compliance Advisor for ACHS Insurance in Augusta, called the FLSA a “law of exceptions.” Most employers and employees fall under the rule of the FLSA. “The majority of the law hasn’t changed,” Farley told members of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce Friday morning. “Only three items in the law have changed.”
But it is that trio of changes that have companies across the country scrambling to understand them and then prepare to be in compliance with them. Those changes affect overtime pay for salaried employees, and how employees are classified to determine if they should be eligible for overtime pay. “This can have a major impact on small businesses depending on their categories of employees and their compensation structure,” said Paul Wade, a partner in SME CPAs in Augusta. “Companies should work with their labor attorney and CPA prior to December 1, 2016 to determine the possible impact on their business and what steps can be done to mitigate it.” The FLSA has always required that See OVERTIME LAW, page 10
HOW THE CHANGE COULD AFFECT A BUSINESS
How might the new overtime law that goes into effect Dec. 1 play out in real life? Here’s a possible scenario. Sam is a manager at an office supply store. His managerial duties include scheduling employees, supervising them, keeping track of time cards and recording the day’s receipts. Like most managers, though, Sam also fills in when employees are absent or the store is busy. He may run the cash register, stock shelves or help with clean-up duties. He averages about 50 hours a week and earns a salary of $40,000. Under current rules, Sam is not eligible for any extra pay for the 10 extra hours he works per week. But under the new rule those hour would qualify as overtime, and he would
be paid accordingly. This could result in perhaps $15,000 more per year. His employer has several options: • Move Sam to a straight hourly pay rate, which will make him eligible for overtime • Adjust Sam’s salary so that it is at least $47,476. This will also require making sure that 50 percent or more of his duties are managerial, which are exempt from overtime pay. If he works more than 50 percent of his time on the cash register or stocking shelves, which are non-exempt, he could still qualify for overtime. • Adjust his pay and/or give him a bonus. Up to 10 percent of his final salary of at least $47,476 can come from bonus payments. • Keep his salary at $40,000 but adjust his hours so that he is working no more than 40 hours per week.