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NATCHEZ — Angie King has been fulfilling the duties of the county comptroller while also serving as the full-time county administrator.

Instead of hiring someone else to fill the vacant comptroller position, the Adams County Board of Supervisors on Monday decided to compensate King for her extra workload and allow her to continue carrying out the duties in each position.

Supervisor Angela Hutchins made the motion to raise King’s salary from $84,000 to $110,000, which passed unanimously.

This decision came after a lengthy discussion among the supervisors about King’s ability to work both jobs, which she said she had no problems doing.

“I believe in doing what I have to do,” she said. “Whatever I have to do to keep this county functioning, that’s what I’m going to do. I came from that position and it’s just natural to me. I spend more time over there in the accounts receivable position that I’m filling than in the comptroller position.”

The pay raise saves the county money from hiring another person for the job, causing the county to pay another $55,000 salary with benefits, which officials estimated would cost a total of approximately $75,000 a year.

“We had one candidate but no one has said anything,” Supervisor Warren Gaines said. “Are we hiring them or do we need to readvertise? How can we give people two or three jobs to do and then expect them to be successful at one?”

Hutchins agreed initially, saying the county needed to readvertise the comptroller position, which King doing since a vacancy opened in December.

However, Supervisor Kevin Wilson questioned why there was any need to hire a new person if King had been able to do both jobs for months.

“How has she been doing this job for four months and I have not once heard her complain about it? When we could pay her more, why do we need a comptroller?” he said.  “This has been a problem that the county has had for years. We keep hiring people that we don’t need.”

Supervisor Ricky Gray said the only reason King has been successfully doing both jobs is that she worked as a comptroller before being named the county administrator.

Any other county administrator who wasn’t in that position already wouldn’t be able to do it so easily, he said.

“I say we hire her as the interim comptroller and keep that job open to hiring someone else if she gets in a bind,” Gray said.