Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Workers' pay increased 13 percent between 2005 and 2006, a board member said.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County elections board workers are getting more money, but one board member thinks the raises are out of line.
Republican member Ron Knight argued against approving pay raises of 3 percent per year for three years for the board's 12 employees last week, but he was outvoted 3-1.
Knight, who has also made repeated attempts to cut costs by reducing the number of voting precincts since being appointed to the board March 1, 2006, said he opposed the pay raises on a number of fronts.
One of them is that workers already have received pay increases in the past year because of board-approved job classifications.
The 12 employees earned 445,000 in 2005, but 502,000 in 2006, an increase of nearly 13 percent. Of that, 35,000 was from overtime, Knight said.
Of the 20,000 not related to overtime, 14,000 came in 2005 for nine employees. They got the increases for getting assigned to a higher-paying job or being compensated for their experience. Six employees received pay increases in 2006 totaling 6,000 for similar reasons, he said.
All employees except elections director Kelly Pallante received an increase during those two yeas, Knight said, and some received pay bumps more than once. In all, those increases raised pay by 5 percent, he said.
Reasons he objects
Knight said he thinks it is inappropriate for elections board workers to receive the same 3 percent increases and health-care adjustments that the county's other nonunion employees received because so many different issues were on the table in those negotiations.
Negotiations lasting over a year took place with several units of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees before the county reached an agreement with hundreds of union and nonunion workers, Knight said.
To approve the wage increases and health-care adjustments from those contracts without looking at the rest of the issues, is like "like having the dessert before you have the vegetables," Knight said.
He also didn't like the idea of approving pay increases before the elections board has received its budget from county commissioners, Knight said.
What director said
Pallante said Monday most of the pay increases approved by the board in 2005 and 2006 were needed because of her being elevated to director in 2005, which caused other employees to move up. Two other increases occurred because employees reached their one-year anniversary, she said.
The board's employees make from 51,582 for Pallante and Deputy Director Rokey Suleman to about 26,000 for four "elections specialists" with between one and six years of experience.
Knight said he also believes it was improper for Pallante and Suleman to decide to begin paying employees overtime instead of compensatory time sometime in 2006, that such a decision should be made by the board.
Pallante said Jim Saker, the assistant county prosecutor who advises the board, is looking into the issue now so that it can be clarified.
Democrat Sherron Platt, board chairman, could not be reached to comment.
runyan@vindy.com