TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT Austintown trustees again explain vote on pay raises for supervisors

One resident pleaded with trustees to get the new year off right.
AUSTINTOWN -- Call it the vote that won't go away.
Monday night, Austintown trustees again explained their votes for a retroactive salary increase for five department heads in response to comments made in the public response portion of their regular meeting.
"If you didn't understand the voters in November, let me just tell you," John Paulette of Austintown told trustees. "People are sick and tired of increases in taxes. The good old days are gone. You're either going to do a job for 'x' amount of money, or you're not."
Paulette, 78, said he was disturbed by a Dec. 13 vote to give salary increases to Township Administrator (and acting roads superintendent) Michael Dockry, Fire Chief Andrew Frost, Zoning Inspector Michael Kurilla, Police Chief Gordon Ellis and Maintenance Supervisor Russell Pallotta. Each will receive a 3 percent increase, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2003. Department heads received their last increase in 2002.
A $2,000 bonus
Dockry also received a $2,000 bonus.
Trustees Bo Pritchard and David Ditzler voted for the increases. Trustee Lisa Oles did not cast a ballot on the issue; she walked out of the executive session that preceded the vote, after what was described as a heated discussion among the trustees. She did not return for the vote.
Township Clerk Michael Kurish defended the increase, saying it was based on merit.
"These department heads were instrumental in allowing us to end 2004 in the black," Kurish said.
Ditzler agreed.
"People always say, 'You need to run the township like a business,'" Ditzler said. "Well, this is an $11 million business, and you need to have executives to run a business. These department heads are our executives, and they need to be paid for what they do."
Pritchard should not be allowed to vote for an increase for Dockry, Paulette said, due to a conflict of interest.
Pritchard addressed the conflict of interest charge later in the meeting, telling the group that Dockry rents office space from him for his law practice, but that "we are not partners and we don't share fees."
That didn't mollify Paulette. "It's still a conflict of interest," Paulette said after the meeting. "[Dockry] represents him. That's a conflict right there."
No one other that Paulette spoke against the increases; another resident who addressed the trustees said she didn't object to the salary increases, but she did admonish the trustees for their personal behavior.
"Can we please just start this new year off right?" asked Carol Burich. "What bothers me is that every time you pick up the paper, there's something in there about how our trustees can't get along."
Addressing Oles, she said, "If you don't want to be a trustee, then don't be one. But you would find that things would go a lot better if you would be nicer to people."
Oles did not respond.