Personnel committee recommends raises

The county’s personnel committee is hoping to take another step toward balancing salaries.

Jay County Council agreed Wednesday to move forward with recommendations from the personnel committee to give employee raises of between 1 and 5 percent depending on job classification.

Council members also received a new tax abatement request from Scout Clean Energy for Bitter Ridge Wind Farm.

The raise recommendation from the personnel committee — council members Jeanne Houchins and Ted Champ, along with commissioner Chuck Huffman — are an effort to provide raises for all employees and bring certain groups closer to the external midpoint. A review last year by management consulting firm Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele and Associates showed that Jay County employee wages lagged behind those for similar positions in other communities, and that some job classifications were further behind than others. The largest gap was for employees classified as civilian protective occupations and law enforcement (jail workers, dispatchers, EMTs and paramedics), who fell short by 18 percent.

As a result the committee recommended giving 5-percent raises to those employees in 2019 in an effort to pull them closer to where they should be based on the external comparisons.

The labor trades and crafts (mostly cooks/housekeepers, heavy equipment operators and truck drivers) and computer, office machine, technician (mostly secretaries, second deputies and administrative assistants) employees were recommended for 3-percent raises. Merit protective occupations and law enforcement (sheriff’s deputies) were recommended for a 2-percent raise, and elected officials were recommended for a 1-percent raise.

Council agreed to have auditor Anna Culy move ahead with the budget process with those numbers, which represent a total increase in salaries of about $110,000.

Raises can still be adjusted during the budget process. The county’s initial budget review is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 5.

During the salary discussion, council member Mike Rockwell also asked about health insurance costs and whether the county would need to increase its contribution in order to take some of the burden off employees. Culy said she expects health insurance costs to increase for 2019.

Council also heard Scout’s new request for a tax abatement for the wind farm it plans to construct in Jefferson and Richland townships.

The company made a couple of changes after its initial request for an abatement was denied in May.

The new request covers only property already included in the project or with the potential to be included in the project. It also earmarks the first round of economic development payments for specific purposes — $250,000 for Jay School Corporation, $10,000 each for Portland, Dunkirk, Redkey, Pennville, Bryant and Salamonia, and an additional $80,000 for Redkey, which is the municipality closest to the proposed facility.

The abatement would save Scout an estimated $4.3 million in taxes, which would be phased in over the first 10 years of the facility’s existence. It would pay a total of $13.7 million in property taxes over the 25-year life of the wind farm.

Faron Parr, Gary Theurer, Cindy Newton, Amy Runyon Barrett, Houchins, Champ and Rockwell followed council’s standard procedure by sending the request to the tax abatement advisory committee for its review.

The advisory committee recommended Scout’s previous abatement request for approval, but council went against that recommendation on a 5-2 vote.

The wind farm, which has been approved by Jay County Plan Commission to move forward, calls for 52 turbines to be constructed at an estimated cost of $135 million.

A public hearing on the new abatement request is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 12.

In other business, council:

•Approved additional appropriations of a total of $15,000 for bulldozer repairs for the surveyor’s office and $19,905.44 Jay Superior Court to pay Meridian Services for its substance abuse program.

•OK’d the transfer of $7,641.01 from wages-cook/housekeeping and $4,000 from wages-other compensation both to wages-county home part-time.