A special meeting of the budget committee and department heads has been requested by County Mayor Mike Foster to establish once and for all what sort of pay scale should be established for county employees.
Elected county officials seem to agree that pay increases for their employees based on years of service are in order, provided the increases can be funded without raising the property tax rate.
The disagreement in the past has been over the mayor’s idea of using job classification as a basis for the pay scale.
Some officials believe that job titles would cause rifts among employees and hurt overall morale in their offices.
Foster told the commission at Monday night's regular meeting that he strongly believes job classification should be a part of the criteria in whatever pay scale is decided upon.
“It was our intent that we do that (establish a wage scale) for all departments,” Foster said. “So far we have not been able to do that, but I think we're at the point where we need to do something one way or the other.”
Foster recommended that a special meeting be called, and all involved parties get together to discuss the matter.
“It is my suggestion that we set up some meetings with department heads and the budget committee and see if we can't figure out where go,” Foster continued. “We've got two people who have worked less than a year, seven people that have worked one year, three people that have worked two years, five people who have worked three years, seven have worked four years, nine have worked five years, six employees have worked six years, one has worked seven years, two have worked eight years, one has worked nine years, two have worked 11 years, three have worked 12 years, two have worked 13 years, one has worked 14 years, and one has worked 16 years.
“Under our current way of doing things, if you're in the same job classification, if you work one year or 14 years you make exactly the same penny. I think that's wrong. I think we're at a point where the budget committee needs to decide what they're going to do, up or down. Let's move on or do nothing, whichever it’s going to be,” the mayor concluded.
Jack Barton, commissioner from the 2nd District, agreed that all involved parties should get together and find a solution.
“I think its prudent to meet with the department heads,” Barton said. “Being on the budget committee, I want the employees to feel comfortable coming to that meeting as well and speak out. There may be some folks in the county that may disagree one way or the other and they may not be comfortable speaking in front of who they work for but I want to get all opinions.”
No date was decided for the proposed meeting.