Sheriff Altiere should pull his head out of the sand

Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere's decision to decrease the pay raises he had initially granted to six administrators does not impress us.
Indeed, we believe that had there not been such intense public outcry prompted by The Vindicator's reporting of the exorbitantly high increases, the sheriff would not have changed his mind.
That's because he harbors a misguided, myopic and indefensible belief that his employees deserve to earn the same as those in other sheriff's departments. But Altiere isn't alone in clinging to this notion of peer comparisons with regard to wages and benefits.
We have long railed against administrators and union officials at Youngstown State University who have consistently used the argument to justify pay raises higher than what average workers in the Mahoning Valley have received over the past several years. Pay freezes? That's a rarity in the public sector.
Why do we believe that the sheriff would not have revisited his idiotic decision in granting raises of between 4.75 and 8.75 per hour over three years? Because of the justification he gave a Vindicator reporter.
"It seems like a big raise, but looking at comparables, it's extremely low," said Trumbull County's chief law enforcement officer.
He explained that he arrived at the pay increase levels for the six administrators by first considering what a mediator had ruled with regard to increases for union employees and then looking at what administrators are paid in Lake, Geauga, Summit and Mahoning counties.
For Altiere to even admit to making such a comparison suggests to us that he needs to pull his head out of the sand.
Reality check
Here's a reality check for the sheriff and any other elected officials in Trumbull County contemplating pay raises for their employees: Economic storm clouds are gathering with the uncertain future of General Motors Corp., Packard Delphi Electric and Forum Health's Northside Medical Center and Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
When private sector jobs are lost, tax revenues decline and less money is available to operate government. And since more than 80 percent of any operating budget goes to salaries and benefits, payroll reductions cannot be avoided.
But it isn't only Altiere who deserves to be lambasted by the taxpayers. Mediator Harry Graham of Solon, who ruled that union employees in the sheriff's department deserve raises of 3.25 percent, 3.5 percent and 3.75 percent retroactive to October 2005, should also get a taste of the public's anger.
Of course, Graham would not have been involved had the union representing the 98 employees been more reasonable in their demands.
The average raise for county employees is 3 percent, which is higher than most private sector workers have received in recent years.
If there is a silver lining, it is that taxpayers without relatives on the public payroll have awakened to the fact that their private workplace experiences are foreign to those in government.
The outcry that led commissioners Frank Fuda, Paul Heltzel and Daniel Polivka to question the sheriff's decision on the raises for the six administrators should be sustained so other officeholders will think twice before making the kind of foolhardy decision for which Altiere is being castigated.