Council OKs plan for raises

Employees will get raises, but cash balances may not reach the target council set two months ago.

Jay County Council approved the raises recommended by the county personnel committee and made tweaks to planned spending for 2018 during a budget review session that lasted nearly three hours Wednesday.

Council members Jeanne Houchins, Ted Champ, Gary Theurer, Cindy Newton, Faron Parr, Bob Vance and Mike Rockwell decided to follow a recommendation made by the county’s personnel committee — commissioner Chuck Huffman, Houchins and Champ make up that group — for employee raises. That plan, which had already been built in to the budget numbers council reviewed Wednesday, calls for 2-percent raises for most county employees with bigger bumps for those in job classifications that are further behind the average wage made by those doing the same job in comparable counties. Those in “civilian protective occupations,” such as jailers, EMTs and other law enforcement employees, will get a 4-percent raise. Those in labor trades and crafts (mostly cooks/housekeepers, heavy equipment operators and truck drivers) and computer and office machine technicians (mostly secretaries, second deputies and administrative assistants) will receive a 2.5-percent raise.

Also approved as part of the recommendations was counting the money surveyor Brad Daniels receives for cornerstone compensation and ditch miles when figuring his first deputy’s salary. The change will result in a pay bump of about $3,360 for that position, bringing it more in line with other first deputies.

The budget review was a mostly smooth process, with the bulk of the increases in spending coming because of the employee raises.

Council, at the suggestion of financial advisor Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group, recommended that about $70,000 in planned expenditures — new vehicles for the surveyor’s office and retirement center, a new copier for the surveyor’s office and equipment for the emergency management agency — be paid for from the cumulative capital development fund rather than the general fund. Cumulative capital development dollars are controlled by the commissioners, who will take up the issue at their meeting Monday.

Commissioners will also look at reducing spending for magnesium chloride and road paving to a combined $200,000 as opposed to the $250,000 set in the initial budget. They had previously agreed to make that reduction, Huffman said, but it was not reflected in the vote during their budget process.

Even though planned spending was kept mostly flat from 2017 levels, some funds showed a need for more tax support than a year ago. That included $138,000 for Jay Emergency Medical Service, $43,000 for reassessment and $42,000 for the health department. Council also chose to raise the rate for the cumulative bridge fund by a half-cent per $100 of assessed valuation, which is estimated to total about $47,500.

All of those needs combined, a total of $270,500, represent money from the maximum levy that will not be available for the general fund because it is being spent elsewhere.

Guerrettaz pointed out that those expenditures could make it difficult for the county to continue climbing closer to its goal of having a $1.5 million year-end balance in its general fund. The county had a general fund balance of $902,590.89 at the close of 2016.

“My guess at this point in time is that … you’ll end up at the end of ’18 at or below $1 million,” he said.

Council set the $1.5 million target in July via a resolution, which also calls for minimum balances of $1.75 million in rainy day, $1 million each in county highway and cumulative bridge, $500,000 each in cumulative capital development and economic development income tax, $250,000 each in local roads and streets and infrastructure, $200,000 in Jay Emergency Medical Service, $100,000 in Local Option Income Tax public safety and $50,000 in county health.

The only significant questions that arose during the budget review came from Jay Superior Court Judge Max Ludy and Sheriff Dwane Ford.

Ludy pointed out that one of his court’s longtime employees would only be getting about a 0.3-percent raise because she has reached the salary cap for her job classification. He said such a policy is an insult and asked, as he has in previous years, that it be reviewed and modified.

“She’s saying, ‘Why should I stay?’ because there’s no value to long-term employees,” Ludy said.

Houchins promised that council will look into the issue as part of its in-depth review of job classifications and salaries that is scheduled to begin in November.

Also during that review, council will consider a request Ford made Wednesday to have one of his secretaries reclassified as an administrative assistant.

The next step in the budget process is a public hearing and first reading at 6 p.m. Sept. 20. Adoption of the budget is slated for Oct. 11.

In other business, council:

•Heard Jay Circuit Court Judge Brian Hutchison explain plans to hire a third probation officer for the county rather than replacing a departing secretary. He presented council with statistics that show Jay County’s two current officers handle a combined 549 clients, whereas their counterparts in Adams, Blackford, Randolph and Wells counties average between 80 and 150 clients per officer.

•Learned the sheriff’s office is considering sending a crew to Florida to help with recovery following Hurricane Irma. Sheriff Dwane Ford said the crew would be paid with federal funds.

•Approved $837.40 for repairs to an emergency management vehicle.