Raises to get one more look

The county’s personnel committee will take one more look at salaries before deciding on raises for 2020.

On a 4-3 vote Wednesday, Jay County Council decided to send several raise requests back to the personnel committee for review.

Most of council’s 2020 budget review was routine, with departments showing slight increases, typically in the form of wage increases, from 2019.

The county’s personnel committee — council members Jeanne Houchins and Ted Champ, and commissioner Chuck Huffman — had already gone through the review process recommended raises of between 1 and 4 percent for employees. The different levels are part of a continuing effort to bring each job classification closer to the external average as determined by its 2017 wage study.

“I think we’re getting closer to counties our size,” said Houchins, council’s president.

But several department heads pushed Wednesday for larger raises for full-time employees and/or increases for part-time workers.

Sheriff Dwane Ford, whose employees were set to receive raises ranging from 2 to 4 percent, requested an across-the-board $3,000 raise plus 3-percent.

“Our officers and all of our dispatchers are totally underpaid,” said Ford, noting that it has been difficult to keep employees when they can make more money elsewhere. “I’d like for you to rethink that.”

Other raise requests came from Gary Barnett of Jay Emergency Medical Service for part-time EMTs and paramedics, highway department superintendent Donnie Corn for part-time drivers and retirement center interim director Hope Confer for the facility’s new financial coordinator.

“They’re the exact same EMT,” said Barnett of his part-time workers. “It doesn’t matter if they’re full-time or part-time.”

Barnett noted that he has enough money in the budget to cover such an increase in part-time pay, and county auditor Anna Culy said that is likely the case for the highway department as well.

The raises Ford proposed would require increasing the budget.

Culy added that the budget, as currently proposed with personnel committee raise recommendations, already exceeds the county’s maximum levy by about $300,000. That’s partially because of the addition of several new positions, including security officers for Jay County Courthouse and the full-time school resource officer.  She said reserves likely provide enough money to cover the extra cost for 2020, but encouraged council members to plan for the long term.

Council discussed the proposed raises at length with several noting that its important to look at a variety of factors — hours worked, longevity pay and other perks such as take-home vehicles — when comparing pay levels with other counties and municipalities. Members Gary Theurer, Mike Rockwell, Faron Parr and Champ ultimately voted to send the requests back to the personnel committee for review, with Cindy Newton, Amy Runyon Barrett and Houchins voting against.

The budget is scheduled for first reading Sept. 18 and final approval Oct. 9.

The commissioners budget included several increases, including $20,000 for audit fees, $15,000 for rebinding records, $11,500 for a mural in Dunkirk and $10,000 each for the Fourth of July celebration and a Jay County Soil and Water Conservation District grant, which is currently funded by Jay County Solid Waste Management District.

The health department budget shows an increase of about $38,000, the bulk of which is for vaccines.

Council approved a request from assessor Robin Alberson to increase the assessor’s deputy position to 40 hours from the previous 35.

It also decided to accept the recommendation of the joint board that oversees Jay/Portland Building and Planning, a department that is shared by the county and City of Portland. The board recommended 3-percent raises for the department’s two employees.