SPENCER — From bulletproof vests for code enforcement officers to a decision to hire two part-time employees instead of one full-time staffer, questions about decisions by town staff were plentiful during Tuesday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting.

On Monday, for example, the town of Spencer plans to stop all spending except what’s deemed to be an emergency, said Town Manager Terence Arrington. Arrington said his instruction to department heads should not be alarming. It’s a normal management practice as the fiscal year draws to a close, and he mentioned office supplies as an example of a purchase that might not be allowed.

But one town board member, Sylvia Chillcott, on Tuesday night questioned a recent purchase of bulletproof vests for two part-time code enforcement officers in the context of the upcoming stop on nonemergency spending.

Explaining the purchase — a total of about $600 for two vests — Land Management Director Troy Powell said the vests were considered “low-hanging fruit” that the town could buy before the end of the current budget year and “not have that burden in the new budget year.”

Asked after the meeting, Arrington said he was surprised by the request but that he would rather “have them and not need them than need them and not have them.”

Asked by the Salisbury Post, officials for Granite Quarry, Rowan County and Kannapolis said they had not purchased bulletproof vests for their code enforcement officers. China Grove’s code enforcement officer is a reserve police officer and has a bulletproof vest, but it was not issued to him in his role as a code enforcement officer.

Rowan County Planning Director Ed Muire said sheriff’s deputies occasionally accompany the county’s code enforcement officer on calls. The city of Salisbury issues bulletproof vests that are kept in patrol trucks.

The Spencer board on Wednesday also debated a decision by town staff to hire part-time code enforcement officers rather than one full-time officer.

“Several years ago, we made the decision to have a full-time code enforcement officer,” Mayor Jim Gobbel said.

But Arrington and Powell made the case that hiring two part-time employees would be more cost-effective than one full-time staffer because of considerations such as insurance, benefits and vacation time. Part-time code enforcement officers are also paid less than the proposed full-time position.

Dismissing a part-time employee who doesn’t work out is also easier because the town is using a staffing service, Arrington and Powell said.

At another point, the town raised questions about reimbursement checks — one for tens of thousands of dollars — that were coming back to the town. The smallest check coming back was sent to a vendor in error, Arrington said. Another was a result of a reimbursement from the N.C. Department of Transportation for a project on Fourth Street.

The board also held a closed session for an undisclosed personnel matter at the start of the meeting. Asked whether the closed-session discussion involved performance of the town manager, Gobbel said he wasn’t allowed to discuss that.

Contact editor Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4248