Auditor’s staff will pay part of plan

Employees will continue to pay 10 percent of their
health-care premiums.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County commissioners have ratified a three-year union contract with 35 employees of the county auditor’s office, which will include a new employee contribution toward the retirement program beginning Jan. 1.

Currently, the county pays an amount equal to 13.5 percent of an employee’s salary as its contribution to the Public Employee Retirement System, and the county auditor’s office also pays its employees’ share, which is 9.5 percent of salary.

Beginning Jan. 1, the state is raising the employee’s share to 10 percent, but the county auditor’s office has capped its payment of the employee share at 9.5 percent. Employees will begin paying the remaining half-percent, explained Carol McFall, chief deputy county auditor.

McFall said the auditor’s office will be the first department funded by the county’s general fund — its main operating fund — to have employees contribute toward their retirement system.

The county auditor’s payment of the employee’s share will be frozen at 9.5 percent, and employees will pay any amount over that level, even if the state increases the employee contribution above 10 percent in the future, said Michael Sciortino, county auditor.

Setting precedent

Sciortino told the commissioners the PERS contribution from the auditor’s office employees sets a precedent for other county departments.

The employees, belonging to American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2533, will continue to pay 10 percent of their health-care premiums as they have since 2003, when they were among the first groups of unionized county employees to begin making the 10 percent premium co-payment, Sciortino said.

Local 2533 members already had ratified the new contract before the commissioners approved it Tuesday.

The contract, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006, includes pay increases of 3.5 percent as of the beginning of the agreement and 3 percent each Jan. 1, 2007, and Jan. 1, 2008.

The employees, most of them performing accounting functions, earn between $24,000 and $34,000 a year. Their wages had been frozen between 2003 and 2005, Sciortino said.

Sciortino attributed the delay in reaching the agreement to a period of vacancy in the county human resources director’s position.

Also new in this contract is an incentive bonus of up to $500 a year for employees who complete job-related continuing education.

Other business

In other action, commissioners:

UPlaced a five-year renewal of the 0.1-mill tuberculosis services levy on the November ballot. The property tax levy costs the average homeowner just over $1 a year, said Dr. Robert DeMarco, county tuberculosis control officer.

UAgreed to a $168,356 contract with Thomas Fok & Associates of Austintown for engineering services related to the $1.2 million widening and improvement of Wilcox and Fairview roads in Austintown to better accommodate truck traffic at Wal-Mart plaza.

UEntered into a $12,246 contract with Foust Construction of Girard for storm sewer replacement that is now occurring under and along Hitchcock Road near Boardman Plaza.

UApproved the closing of East Garfield Road for two weeks between a point 1,000 feet west of Wallace Road and state Route 170 for the Petersburg sanitary sewer installation project. The road closed Monday. The road will be closed during the day on weekdays and open evenings and weekends during the two-week period.

UVoted to close Seacrist Road between state Route 165 and Middletown Road in Goshen Township from Sept. 4-6 to allow the Ohio Department of Transportation to replace a culvert.