During a County Commission Budget Committee meeting last week, several local county officials requested budget proposals that would give their employees a pay raise. The move comes one week after the same county officials submitted a proposal to give bonuses, using American Rescue Plan funds, to employees who were worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking on the behalf of other county officials, Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin asked the committee to give county employees raises based on the percentage of raises elected officials or office holders are given by the state. State officials were given a 5.2 percent increase this year, and the proposed plan would include a step wage scale based on years of service.
County officials attending the meeting in support of Circuit Court Clerk Martin were Trustee Sean Driver, County Clerk James L (Jimmy) Poss, Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell, and Clerk and Master Debra Malone.
The previous week, Martin addressed the committee on behalf of herself and fellow county officials, asking that their employees be given bonuses from American Rescue Plan funds. With Circuit Court Clerk Martin at that meeting were Trustee Driver, County Clerk Poss, Clerk and Master Malone, and Administer of Elections Dennis Stanley.
The committee voted to recommend the bonuses, but beforehand Fourth District Commissioner Dr. Scott Little asked why the county officials were requesting bonuses rather than pay raises. Little implied that raises made more sense than a one-time bonus.
Under the bonus plan, full time employees would each get a bonus of $2,500 and part time staff would each receive $1,250. To qualify for the bonus, employees must have worked for the county at any time during the 15.5-month period between March 13, 2020, to June 30, 2021, and they must still be employed by the county. No matter if a full time employee worked for the county during the entire period or only part of that time, he or she would get the full $2,500 bonus. The amount would not be prorated.
Part Time EMS staff must have worked a minimum of 400 hours to get the part time bonus pay of $1,250. All other part timers must have put in at least 250 hours during the fifteen and a half month period.
Twenty nine volunteer firefighters who met the criteria would also get a bonus. Firefighters who made 75 percent of training classes would qualify for a $300 bonus, and those with 100% training attendance would receive a $350 bonus for the period from March 13, 2020, to June 30, 2021. Two county funded employees and eight employed by the state at the DeKalb County Health Department would also be included in the ARP bonus plan.
It is not known if the committee will rethink the bonus plan after the request for raises was made. Under the proposed pay raise plan employees of the offices of County Mayor, Trustee, Register of Deeds, County Clerk, Assessor of Property, Circuit Court Clerk, Clerk and Master, and Administer of Elections would receive step raises at a percentage of $82,396 per year, which is what all these public officials will earn next year except for the county mayor who is paid more.
The starting one-year pay for new employees would be $32,134, and would cap at $46,142 after 30 years. The salaries of all employees of these offices would also automatically increase by the same percentage as their employer (office holder) if they receive a raise by the state.
Last year the county increased the base pay of county employees who fall under two separate wage scales already in place. Both are 13-tiered plans including an administrative employee pay scale which tops out at 20 years and applies mainly to employees who work for elected and appointed county officials at the courthouse and county complex. The other plan tops out at 13 years and is for full-time library staff and senior center directors.
Under the 20-year plan, the pay increases last year were to have ranged from $3,744 to $4,896 annually depending on years of service, while raises for those in the 13-year plan were to have jumped by $2,976 to $4,128. The total amount of the proposed pay hikes, including benefits, were to have added $129,703 in new spending to the county budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
The sheriff’s department currently operates under its own pay scale system previously established by the county and would not be affected by the proposal presented to the budget committee Wednesday night. Sheriff’s department staff get pay raises under a six-tier scale and are paid at a percentage of the sheriff’s salary. In addition to the scale, sheriff’s department employees also get the same percentage increase in pay by the county as the pay hike percentage given to the sheriff by the state when he gets a raise.
The DeKalb Budget Committee will meet again on Wednesday, June 22, at 5:00 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom of the courthouse.
