Mayor Pat Moeller knows there is a lot of overtime paid in certain departments and divisions that add to these figures.
“But we also have a lot of professional people and well-educated employees working here,” Moeller said.
“Our expectations are high and as we reorganize city government, we’re going to be more efficient and will see some people doing the work of one and a half employees.”
Hamilton has 643 employees and 433 earned more than $60,000 in salaries, bonuses and overtime. Of that total amount, 241 or nearly 37.5 percent earned $75,000 in salaries, bonuses and overtime.
Moeller said the salary numbers don’t tell the whole story, pointing out that Hamilton, a city with more than 62,000 residents, owns its electric, water, wastewater and stormwater utilities. While the city’s General Fund budget is about $40 million and its Enterprise or Utilities Fund is another $280 million, he said there would be a number of middle managers employed if the city were a private business.
“We’re not comparing apples to apples because it takes engineers and a lot of people to run a utility,” Moeller said. “I am sensitive to the fact that there are a lot of municipal jobs that are (paid) higher than Hamilton’s median income. But our expectations are high. And we are being accountable as we look at performance metrics.”
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hamilton’s per capita income was $19,900 a year and the city’s median household income was $38,380. For comparison, Middletown, the county’s next largest city had a median household income was $37,442.
Butler County’s per capita personal income in 2008 was $35,921, according to the Ohio Department of Development. The county’s median household income was $54,344, according to the 2010 Census.
Moeller said if people are not producing, City Manager Joshua Smith will be taking a look at it.
Moeller pointed out that a newly-created financial analyst position has already helped to identify several hundred thousand dollars in funds that were available to the city.
Eric Abney, a Hamilton firefighter and president of International Association of Firefighters Local 20, said collective bargaining provisions regarding staffing and overtime due to fewer firefighters on the job are why some firefighters earn the money they do each year.
Abney said the top firefighter salary is about $55,000 a year and some firefighters earn between $15,000 to $20,000 a year just in overtime.
The contract requires the city to staff six engine companies, a ladder company, three life squads and a batallion chief to be on duty every day, he said.
“This was done after council tried to close a fire station in the fall of 2000,” Abney said.
He said the fire union proposed a reduction in staffing that could have saved about $1.4 million in exchange for extending their contract by two years to the end of 2014.
Abney said the proposal was rejected by the city.
Doing more work with fewer staff is what is happening in other governmental entities.
Warren County Commission President David Young said the reason public sector salaries are rising are because of provisions in collective bargaining contracts.
In Warren County, 188 of the county’s 988 employees, just over 19 percent, received more than $60,000 in salaries, bonuses and overtime. Of that total amount, 67 or 6.8 percent, received more than $75,000 in salaries, bonuses and overtime.
Young admits he’s “not a fan of Ohio’s collective bargaining law” and is “not belittling the work those people do.” he did say there are a number of county department heads who are not paid the free market rate to manage multi-million dollar department budgets and a number of employees.
“We have a lot of department heads who manage these departments and provide a high level of customer service,” he said. “They do more with less and don’t hire more people. By paying a department head X number of dollars to manage the same responsibilities with less people is actually a great bargain to the taxpayers.”
Young said people work in the public sector because the benefit package is stronger and job security is greater than the private sector.
Young said that’s why people in the private sector are paid more even though their job security and benefits packages are less.
Fairfield is the fourth-most populous community in the county and has the fourth-most employees. It paid 163 fulltime employees or 60.8 percent, $60,000 or more in 2011. Of those employees, 37.7 percent or 101 employees, received more than $75,000 last year.
Mayor Ron D’Epifanio says not one person employed by the city is overpaid — and that includes the county’s top-compensated administrator, Fairfield City Manager Art Pizzano.
“If you take a CEO of any privately owned, public sector business that has 250 employees and two masters, he’s grossly underpaid,” D’Epifanio said.
“You have to look at the tenure,” D’Epifanio said.
There are six department heads with at least 10 years with the city.
“We have such wonderful working conditions for our employees, they don’t leave,” D’Epifanio continued.
“The average tenure of our department heads will be much higher compared to the other (communities). When you have constant turnover, you can stay at the lower level (of pay). We don’t have that, we have stability.”
Like many communities, Fairfield won’t fill an open position. “If someone leaves and it’s not a critical position were’ not replacing them,” D’Epifanio said.
The mayor said behind Pizzano’s leadership, the city has saved to the point that it is just now starting to feel the effects of the down economy.
“We’re one of the last in the state to feel the effects because of proper planning and spending,” said D’Epifanio.
The city is asking voters this November to authorize City Council to reallocate money from the street fund to the general fund “so we can maintain current services and employees, and operate in the black.”
“I think it’s really, really sad that these folks, of what they’re making, it’s being exploited because it’s not done in the private sector,” D’Epifanio said.
“It bothers me that the public sector is always being exposed and I don’t think we have one employee that should be embarrassed by what they’re making. And I don’t think anyone on council should be embarrassed by what they’re making.”
The vast majority of Butler County employees are not overpaid, according to Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, but “there are a significant number that are.”
Because of the county’s old pay scale, employees received automatic step increases, and over time “they’ve gotten a lot more than our average county worker.”
Referencing a recent pay study the county paid to have conducted, Dixon said out of 250 employees, 80 were above their pay range.
“Most of those 80 were not significantly over (their targeted salary range). But there is a significant number (of those 80) that are.”
The county implemented a portion of the Clemans Nelson and Associates pay study, which are hiring open positions at a lower rate. Those employees working above their job’s new pay range will be redlined, Dixon said.
Dixon said pay is dependent on qualifications and education, especially with the top positions. However, those positions that are what he calls overpaid gives an unfair perception to the public.
“A few instances of people being over paid in the county make the rest of us look bad. Although it’s not fair, it’s the perception that counts,” Dixon said.
West Chester Twp. Administrator Judi Boyko said voters have the right to judge the salaries of public servants, but their opinions must be educated opinions.
“I sincerely believe that every employee in West Chester, we are public servants, and the positions that we are in and the professions that we have chosen, we can be judge by those who pay our salaries,” Boyko said. “I equally believe that those who have that opinion should understand the depth and the scope of the expertise and the quality of work that we bring.”
“West Chester in many instances can demonstrate a lower cost (with using overtime) than with a new hire,” Boyko said. “It has been proven to be the cost-effective means in delivering those services.”
Boyko acknowledges that’s not always true in many cases, but for West Chester Twp. now, “it has been true.”
Education and experience is what dictates a salary for a public servant, Boyko said, and “the most effective employee brings a balance of both.”
Public safety personnel are typically unionized, which brings forward certain contractual obligations, Boyko said. A union contract can get costly if it goes to arbitration or mediation.
“The challenge is when you have a very fiscally responsible employer, ... if there is contention, the decision is made by a third party and decisions are made based on comparable contracts in the region,” Boyko said.
And the budget of the governmental entity has no bearing on that decision, she said.
Stephen Brooks, assistant director of the Ray Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said the salaries paid to public sector employees are for skills that are traditionally necessary.
Brooks said there was a time when public sector employees earned less than the private sector but those were made up in benefits.
“If you compare the kinds of things that municipal employees do, they are more personnel intense,” Brooks said.
He said there was a northern Ohio community that elected a mayor with a private sector background and was looking at police salaries. Brooks said that mayor noted that his company had a security force that did similar things as police officer do.
However, Brooks said the real question is does a community want a police department that has more expertise in law enforcement than department store security officer.
He said the question is how much is a community willing to pay and how much quality do they want in their employees. Brooks also said there are abuses in the system.
“We want public sector employees better trained and better educated than equivalent positions in the private sector,” he said. “The services we get from government are ones that we expect people to provide instead of machines. The percentage of personnel costs are higher than in the private sector.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4504 or Ed.Richter@coxohio.com.
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