Committee splits on setting wage levels for new department

County finance and personnel group spars over pay increases for new land informtion department head position

Taylor County taxpayers will save about $55,000 a year in wages when the dust settles on the reorganization of the land information office and surveyors office into one stand-alone department.

At the May 11 finance and personnel committee meeting, members approved setting the pay grades for the three positions in the new department. Taylor County contracts with an outside firm to rate positions based on duties, responsibilities and training required and which recommends placement in the county’s payroll matrix. The current matrix includes grade levels from A through S with 17 steps within each grade reflecting length of service.

Typically, the county’s finance personnel committee reviews the recommendation and sets the grade for a new position. It is then left up to the human resources director and the individual department head to decide on which step to place the individual employee.

The challenge comes from balancing bringing in new staff, who are often bringing with them years of experience, versus when existing staff members are promoted into new positions.

In this case, with the creation of a new department filled with existing staff members, there was the knowledge that wages would be changed to reflect additional job duties, but there was disagreement among committee members about how much credit to give their past experience with the county. This became further complicated with the question of fairness across departments as people move from one grade to another.

Real property lister Heather Dums is the department head for the newly created department. The outside position analysis was to move her from a Grade H position to a Grade L. She was at step five in her previous grade and the recommendation from the land information committee that oversees the department, was to have her stay at step five in the new grade.

“Why wouldn’t we go with the entry level at Grade L?” asked Scott Mildbrand, who was acting as committee chairman for the meeting.

Human resources director Nicole Hager, cautioned committee members to keep the discussion to generalities and processes rather than about individual employees.

According to Hager, their process has been that when people move from one grade to another with a job promotion, they are moved to step two of that new grade. In Dums’ case, the department oversight committee was recommending three steps above that. This translates into about $2.75 per hour difference in the wages.

Committee member Lester Lewis, who is chairman of the county’s buildings and ground committee, defended the recommendation to increase the pay by a total of $9.01 per hour (about $18,748 per year).

He said even with the increase in Dums’ position and the other staff members positions, the county would be saving $55,489 per year from not replacing the previous surveyor who retired.

“It is a substantial raise, but the responsibility has increased greatly and so has the workload,” Lewis said.

“We have to be fair to other employees,” Mildbrand said. “I don’t know if that is fair.”

Human resources assistant Rachel Ogle noted that the increase in workload is accounted for when they change the grade rating and that the step increase is usually discussed separately. She called on the committee to follow the standard process that had been set up.

“I am not going to vote to give a $7 per hour raise,” Mildbrand said, adding he felt they needed to think of their other employees.

Airport manager Fred Ebert who was attending the meeting for a different agenda item supported having the increased wages. “Other people will come in with different skill sets,” he said, urging the county to look at it as more like the private sector.

County accountant Tracy Hartwig disagreed, noting that when the finance department was reorganized, they were put to step one in their new grades. “There is fairness and moral to think of too,” she said.

“We can’t treat them like new help,” said committee member Jim Gebauer.

Committee member Ray Soper said he felt the county should follow their established process unless there are “extraordinary circumstances.” He said he did not view this change as being extraordinary.

The committee tied on approving the grade and step change for Dums’ position at three to three. However committee member Chuck Zenner was not at the start of the meeting, but when contacted told Hager that he was on his way. Committee members delayed making a final decision until Zenner arrived to be the tie-breaker.

In this case, he sided with Mildbrand, Soper and Rollie Thums in saying he felt going to step five in the new grade was too high.

“I feel $9 per hour is too much,” Zenner said of the increase for the position.

He said he felt that going that high would set a precedent within the county and that it would negatively impact morale.

Lewis reminded committee members that it was a staff proposal to make this change and that regardless of the step level, the county would be saving money with the reorganization. He also cautioned that it would be difficult to fill these positions if someone left.

Dums noted the additional work required of the position and the fact that in addition to doing this job and running the department, she was also a back up for the treasurer’s office.

In the end committee members approved going to a grade L, step two for the position.

The other changes in the department were less contentious with the GIS coordinators moving up to surveyor and going from a grade J to a grade K which brings about a $2 per hour raise, with a step increase. The GIS technician will moved from a grade G to a grade I, about a $4 per hour raise.

In other business, board members:

  Approved handbook changes with languages about overtime and how vacation time is accounted for when someone leaves county employment. The current policy is confusing even to long-time county employees including language with both prorated time and for upfront vacation time. The new handbook rules streamline this to eliminate the pro-rated time.

  Discussed proposed staffing reductions at the airport to have the director go to a part-time position to reflect the diminished workload at the airport. “Things have been slow,” Ebert said, noting they were cut down a lot by COVID-19 and it hasn’t come back. He estimated it could be done with half-time. He proposed a plan to retire and then said he would be willing to come back and work part-time. As part of this he asked the county to raise the hourly wage, projecting it would still save about $50,000 a year. Committee members tabled action on the request to give the airport committee time to review it.

“We can’t treat them like new help.”

— Jim Gebauer about the need to take into account the experience of county employees