While a few of the county’s elected office holders said they would try to tow the line by keeping raises at 2 percent, several others said that wouldn’t be possible and still hang onto their talented, and in some cases, underpaid employees.
Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said he’s implored commissioners for several years to give the lawyers in his office a wage worthy of their education and experience. Gmoser said his employees are grossly underpaid compared to other counties and attorneys in the private sector.
The prosecutor wouldn’t say how much he plans to ask for, but indicated it won’t be 2 percent.
“I’m going to be presenting an argument on what my staff should have,” Gmoser said.
Caroline Bier, executive director of the Butler County Veterans Service Commission, said she plans to give merit raises that range from 1 to 4 percent. Since counties are mandated by law to carve out a percentage of the general fund for veterans boards, there’s nothing commissioners can do to make Bier do otherwise.
“It’s our budget, we don’t fall under the county commissioners for these items,” she said. “That’s why we’re going with my recommendation.”
Treasurer Nancy Nix said she does plan to limit raises to a 2-percent pool. Nix said she has very low turnover in her office, and doesn’t face the same pay challenges some of her counterparts do.
“Compared to the prosecutor, he loses a lot of good people to the private sector,” she said. “I do believe our office staff is fairly paid, and we do try to get them increases anytime we can.”
Because of recently settled union contracts, some office holders said pay increases cannot be capped at 2 percent. For example, Children Services case workers are scheduled to get a 2-percent pay increase next year and another 2 percent pool of money is set aside for merit increases.
The Sheriff’s Office also recently settled several contract re-openers, four of them calling for a 2-percent raise retroactive to 2014 and a 2.5 percent for this year. The sheriff’s deputies got a 2.5 percent retroactive raise. Those contracts expire next year, so raises are an unknown at this point.
Chief Tony Dwyer, of the sheriff’s office, said he would be hard pressed, given the union contracts and non-union employees whose raises usually align with counterparts who are represented by the six unions, to hit the 2 percent guideline. And as a result of the new contract with the dispatchers, he is going to have to adjust some supervisor’s salaries because some their workers are now making more than they are.
“The commissioners are not blind,” Dwyer said. “When they give you direction, they often — if you have reasoning that may affect that — are pretty receptive to that,” he said. “Like for instance, I may not be able to hold this person to 2 percent because the subordinate they supervise got four. I think that’s a prevailing argument. They work with us pretty well to hold the line, but they are also reasonable under the circumstances.”
Engineer Greg Wilkens said he shouldn’t have much of a problem holding the line at 2 percent. His 30 or so union members are negotiating right now.
“We’re in negotiations now and that two percent fits with what we’re doing,” Wilkens said. “I don’t see that much of a problem in our regard. That isn’t that big of a deal.”
Clerk of Courts Mary Swain’s office is also in negotiations with the union in her title division, but she has proposed a 3.75 percent “bucket” of money for merit raises for her legal staff. Given the fact that employees have had to absorb some of the insurance rate hikes, she said a raise is something of a misnomer for some county employees.
“The last three years the insurance rates have gone up, so while the raises we’ve given out for the past couple years have been pretty minimal and the increase they are paying for their insurance, I don’t know if they are breaking even,” she said. “It is difficult.”
County Auditor Roger Reynolds said he approaches budgeting a bit differently than some other elected officials. He said he looks at the total cost to run his operation and his budget request will be lower for 2016 because six people left this year — through layoffs due to the re-evaluation completion and other reasons — and they will not be replaced.
“In the private sector, we were focusing on total costs and always looking for ways to get our total cost down,” he said. “At some point, you hit the bottom on what’s the lowest level of staff members you can operate an office on. But as we continue to add technology, we are seeing the benefits of that technology in the reduction in people.”
Reynolds didn’t say he wouldn’t be giving raises, he just isn’t sharing what those percentages might be. He said labor costs when he took office in 2007 were $2.5 million, and that figure is down to $1.6 million.
Recorder Danny Crank said he’ll try to hold to the two percent, but it might not be possible. Gary Yates, common pleas court administrator said he doesn’t know yet what the judges will be asking for, but he submitted a three percent increase in raises for the tax budget. Martin Schneider, Coroner Lisa Mannix’s office administrator, said he didn’t have a budget request number.
“In order for me to keep good, quality people, I may have to give a three percent raise this year,” Crank said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick to a strict two percent. I will make an effort to do that, but I’m not going to say that’s going to be completely possible.”
County officials have been touting the county’s much improved financial footing and have credited the other office holders with helping make that possible. The county administrator said while it’s true things are looking up, county government still has to be conservative.
“The labor cost for government is by far the dominant cost when you roll in all the compensation, health insurance and retirement, so that’s an area where there might be some short-term improvement in revenue stream, but there’s no guarantee that improvement is going to stay with us,” Young said.
“When you have base pay increases, those increases go on forever. That’s why you’ve got to be very cognizant long-term what you expect your growth and revenue to be, so you keep your labor costs in check and in tune with your revenue growth in the long run.”
Commissioner Don Dixon said he is certain they will be able to come to an accord with the other office holders during budget hearings that will take place in October.
“We’ve worked with all the office holders previously to get us out of the financial mess we were in,” Dixon said. “I have no reason to believe that we will not be able to work through this year’s budget. We’ve got a lot of things to take into consideration, and they always listen, and we’ll listen on our side. That’s why we have the budget hearings.”
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