County Considers Raises for Employees

Fayette County Commissioners Court held their second budget workshop at a meeting last Thursday, July 24. A big part of their conversation involved employee raises for next year.

County Auditor Cindy Havelka said a committee comprised Pct. 2 Commissioner Clint Sternadel, Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff, Pct. 4 Justice of the Peace and Recycling Supervisor Paul Zapalac, Elections Administrator Donna Macik, along with herself and Jackie Kohleffel of the Auditor’s Office recently met to discuss raises. The committee proposed raises ranging from two to four percent.

“What we talked about is the raise being in two parts,” Sternadel said. “One part would be a COLA (cost of living adjustment), and the second part would be a meritbased increase.”

Under that proposal, if Commissioners decide to award a four percent raise to employees, every employee would automatically get a two percent cost of living increase. The other two percent would be distributed by department heads based on merit.

“The department head could space the rest of that two percent as they saw fit,” Sternadel said. “They could give it all at once, and that employee would get four percent. Or they could do it with one percent at six months and the other one percent at the end of the year … it would allow some incentive-based flexibility.”

“If you have an employee who’s not great, they don’t really deserve that merit,” Kohoeffel said. “But you could have that conversation with them and say, ‘Look, this is the possibility - you’re getting two (percent) but you have the ability to get four (percent), but I don’t see that you have worked for that.’Then you encourage them and say, ‘In six months, let’s do a review and I’ll give you one percent. In a year maybe I’ll give you the other one percent.”

Havelka said the committee also discussed a potential buy-out for accrued compensatory (comp) time. Fayette County does not normally pay employees overtime. Instead, the County pays them in comp time - paid time off given at a rate of one-and-a-half times the hours of overtime worked. Employees can accrue up to 240 hours of comp time, except for law enforcement employees, who can accrue up to 480 hours. After they reach the maximum, the County pays them regular overtime pay. Some employees have accrued many hours of comp time without using them. When those employees separate, the County must pay them for those hours at their final wage.

“Some departments are doing better than others,” Sternadel said. “But some departments really have the comp time, ‘abused’ is not the right word. But some guys are getting maxed out with what they’re getting paid.”

Under the committee’s proposal, the County would offer employees a payout for up to 50 hours of comp time they accrued. Those checks would be issued in October. Havelka said if every employee with enough comp time hours accepted the maximum payout for 50 hours, it would cost the County $600,000 next year. While that may seem like a lot, the figure will only grow as time goes on. Zapalac noted that oftentimes, comp time hours were earned at a lower rate than the employee is currently making. For example, an employee may have earned 50 hours of comp time earlier in their career when they were making $13 an hour. But when they retire, they may be making $25 an hour. Their comp time hours would have to be paid at the higher rate.

“If we can get some of this comp time off the books, it’s at a lower rate than 10 years down the road,” Zapalac said.

“That comp time bucket that sits out there is a massive unfunded liability for the County,” said Fayette County EMS Director Josh Vandever.

“I think if we do something like this, we have to enact a strategy to manage the comp time accrual better.”

Vandever said department heads need to be held accountable for managing comp time. He said they need to either balance work loads so employees aren’t accruing so much comp time, or they need to ask Commissioners Court for funds to hire additional employees.

Vandever proposed hiring a consultant to analyze pay rates and benefits.

“Getting a real, objective appraisal is something I’m really passionate about right now,” Vandever added. “Not only would it inform your decisions, but when you guys are getting relentlessly beat up for the decisions you’re making, which are generally good for the County as an organization, it would bolster your opinion and give you facts to respond with that would hopefully be well-received by the citizens.”

Commissioners took no immediate action on the committee’s proposals. Also during the budget workshop, they reviewed requests from Pct. 2 Constable Roger Wunderlich. He requested funds for a new patrol vehicle and body camera equipment in next year’s budget. Commissioners will meet again this Wednesday to review funding requests from other departments and nonprofit social service agencies.