Council deals with salary issues

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Jay County’s deputy coroners will see a pay increase. Decisions on other requests for salary bumps will wait until at least March.

Jay County Council dealt with a variety of salary-related issues at its meeting Wednesday, including approving a raise in the per-call pay for deputy coroners. It also heard a request from highway superintendent Ken Wellman for clarification on the hourly rate for part-time truck drivers, extended the deadline for department heads to make requests for job classification changes and discussed possibilities for review of the salary ordinance by its management consulting service.

Coroner Michael Brewster requested that council transfer $1,000 from his department’s part-time wages fund to its deputy wages fund, noting that the part-time money has not been utilized in several years.

He asked that the money be used along with $2,000 already in the deputy wages fund to increase the salary for his three deputies to $150.84 per call from the current $101.84 per call — a 47-percent increase.

As part of the change, deputies will no longer be paid for mileage.

Because the deputy positions are paid per call, they fall outside the county’s job classification and compensation system.

Council approved the transfer of funds and settled on a per-call rate of an even $150 for the deputy coroners.

Wellman told council that when classifications and salaries were adjusted for his department’s truck drivers last year, part-time drivers were not addressed.

All part-time drivers currently make $13.59 per hour while full-time drivers were increased to $15.86 per hour. He said he’s open to any suggestions, but expressed his opinion that part-time drivers who have a commercial driver’s license should be paid at a higher rate than those who do not.

Council members Jeanne Houchins, Ted Champ, Gary Theurer, Cindy Newton, Faron Parr, Bob Vance and Mike Rockwell decided to table a decision in order to allow its personnel committee to review the issue further.

Jay Emergency Medical Service director Eric Moore also requested changes to the pay scale for his employees (see related story).

The group also agreed to extend the deadline for department heads to make requests for employee reclassification after several of them said they did not receive notice that the deadline to do so was this month. Information about the new deadline — March 1 — will be distributed to department heads today.

Four requests from three departments that were in by the deadline will be forwarded to consulting firm Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele and Associates for its review.

Houchins, speaking for the personnel committee that also includes Champ and commissioner Doug Inman, also brought up the possibility of having Waggoner, Irwin and Scheele update its classification and salary scale. Options range from $2,455 to review the emergency medical service job classifications to $43,252 for a full update of the job classification and compensation system. The consultant first developed the system in 2011 and updated it in 2015.

Council decided to wait until next month in order to see how many more department heads turn in reclassification requests.

Council members also discussed whether or not there is a need to bring back financial consultant Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group to help with the 2018 county budget. Commissioners in December approved a contract with Guerrettaz on an as-needed basis for this year with a cap of $25,000.

Guerrettaz met with Jay County’s budget committee through the spring and summer of 2016 to provide advice and suggestions for balancing the 2017 budget after council took $500,000 from the rainy day fund to break even in 2016.

“What’s he going to do for us?” asked Vance, wondering out loud about what additional information the consultant could provide that was not already discussed last year.

Champ noted that council adopted only a few of Guerrettaz’s recommendations. One of those was a hiring “chill,” which it has since rescinded.

“If you hire a professional to tell you that you need to do these things, and then we’re not going to be thick enough skinned to keep doing those things, then why waste the money,” said Champ. “Did he make some good recommendations? Yeah. But my point is, did we follow the recommendations? If we’re not going to follow the recommendations, why bring him back to make more recommendations?”

Council members agreed that they are not currently ready to meet with Guerrettaz about the 2018 budget and will revisit the issue at future meetings.

In other business, the council:

•Were updated by Brewster that autopsies for the county that were previously outsourced to a Fort Wayne hospital will instead be performed at Jay County by pathologist Dr. Thomas J. Sozio using Jay County Hospital’s facilities. Brewster noted that there is a cost savings both for the autopsies and by eliminating the need to pay for transporting bodies to Fort Wayne. It is also expected to decrease the wait time for an autopsy to be completed.

•Approved $111,031.13 in innkeepers tax funds for Jay County Visitor and Tourism Bureau’s 2017 budget.

•OK’d additional appropriations totaling $23,500 to various health department line items, the largest of which was $20,000 for a new vehicle to replace its 1999 Chevrolet Lumina. The car’s brake line is damaged and it has more than 170,000 miles on it. The department received two quotes for vehicles and plans to purchase a Dodge Renegade from Fuqua Chrysler in Dunkirk at a cost of $18,816.

•Approved $5,000 to help pay for a service contract for radios for fire departments within the county. Departments have been having issues with their equipment and hope that a one-year service agreement with J&K Communications at a cost of $10,293 will resolve the problems. Fire departments, Jay Emergency Medical Service and Jay County Emergency Management Agency will split the remainder of the cost.

•Tabled a request from Jay County Sheriff’s Office for an additional appropriation of $8,000 for firearms. Sheriff Dwane Ford was not at the meeting, and council members said they preferred to wait and ask him to attend the next meeting in order to explain the need for the extra funds.

•Amended its ordinance to adjust the salary for the executive director of Jay County Community Corrections to $50,335 as required. The salary for the position is determined by funding from Indiana Department of Corrections.

•Named Ron Dashler and Pat Gibson to the property tax assessment board of appeals, and reappointed Richard Whitesel to the Jay County Alcoholic Beverage Commission.