Some key employees see their salaries rise after study’s evaluation

March 9, 2008 at 12:20a.m.

Ninety-one county workers got a raise of 20 percent or more last year.

11Last spring, the county’s pitch for the permanent sales tax centered on reopening closed jail space and shoring up government finances. Less touted was the quiet June 2006 hiring of Archer Co. of Westerville for $32,500 to perform a salary analysis concerning key personnel.

The half-percent sales tax renewal passed last May and was made permanent, assuring ongoing availability of $14 million annually in revenue to the county’s general fund.

In general, the county made good on its campaign pledges.

George J. Tablack, county administrator, had publicly linked pay raises in the sheriff’s department and a plan to fully reopen jail facilities to the fate of the sales tax.

But Commissioner John A. McNally IV said the commissioners didn’t campaign for pay raises. And starting in August 2007, county commissioners awarded generous pay raises to department heads, supervisors and 911 dispatchers they say are justified by the Archer study.

McNally said he doubts these raises would have been granted if the tax renewal had failed.

Tablack said, however: “In some instances, they may have had to have been awarded, regardless of the financial condition of the county.’’

Elected officials such as the prosecutor and juvenile judge, meanwhile, also provided raises or promotions — saying they’re necessary to maintain high-level talent.

Total county payroll costs went from $63,675,061 in 2003 to $73,558,254 in 2007 and are budgeted at $75,098,189 for this year, for an increase of about 18 percent between 2003 and 2008. A dip to $53,366,189 in 2005 was caused by layoffs as a result of failure of one of the county’s two sales taxes in November 2004. That tax was reinstated in May 2005.

There are 1,975 county employees. The 2007 payroll shows 91 employees with increases of 20 percent or more last year, 101 between 10 percent and 20 percent and another 105 between 6 percent and 10 percent.

Reasons for the increases vary, including promotions to vacant or new jobs; moves from part-time to full-time employment; and recommendations from the salary study.

Archer Co. evaluated duties and responsibilities and prepared compensation ranges for jobs under the commissioners’ authority.

The Mahoning County staff were compared to peers in Butler, Clark, Lake, Lorain, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Warren counties.

After the results were released last August, the raises were awarded retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007.

Commissioner David N. Ludt, a commissioner since 1999, called the Archer report “unbiased” and said he stands “100 percent” behind it. Ludt said of the raises: “With the multitasking of what our employees are doing, it’s a fair increase.”

History lesson

Commissioners and their administrator offer a history lesson to explain the timing of the pay increases.

“The commissioners walked into a bankrupt county,” said Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti, referring to January 2005 when he and McNally took office.

The staff had been depleted by mass layoffs because of the failure of two on-again, off-again 0.5 percent sales taxes, one of which voters renewed last year; the other will expire at the end of 2010. Each raises about $14 million per year.

There was turnover in key positions, such as accountants and computer programmers, Tablack said. Morale was strained in the commissioners’ office as key managers became the first to make the 10 percent health care premium co-payments before union members did.

Meanwhile, union members continued to receive pay increases, Traficanti said.

The commissioners are “mindful of the local economy, but we’re also mindful that our employees have picked up the slack and continue to do a good job for us,” McNally said. “We have people [who] leave because they’re going to make more money other places. With our small staff, it doesn’t help us to have people leave and have to bring new people in who take a while to get up to speed.”

Some examples

Tablack said a 21 percent raise to $73,353 was necessary to keep Robert L. Knight, jail medical services coordinator, working for the county.

“You need dynamic people to be in key positions to get the work done for the benefit of the taxpayers,” said Tablack, who said Knight has saved county dollars by convincing judges to release on electronic monitoring misdemeanor inmates whose bills for major medical conditions would have to be paid by the county if they stayed in jail,

Others steps to keep staff include Peter Triveri, facilities director, whose annual pay increased by more than 31 percent last year to $73,353; Mark E. Furman, assistant facilities director, more than 26 percent to $47,814; and James M. Fortunato, purchasing director, 21 percent to $73,353.

Raises also went to Maureen Smith, microfilm supervisor, who joined the county upon the founding of her department in 1971 and has headed it for the past 20 years; and Lucy C. DeMart, assistant microfilm supervisor, who joined as a microfilm technician in 1972.

Smith, once forced to lay off all four of her co-workers when one of the sales taxes failed, got a 15-percent pay increase to $38,904; DeMart got an 11 percent raise to $30,830.

“It’s been long overdue. I don’t make half as much money as other people here,” Smith said — adding that she has sometimes gone five years without a raise.

‘Professional people’

Fortunato, Knight and Triveri now have salaries equal to their peer midpoint salary in Archer’s study.

Traficanti and Tablack said they’d be concerned if the job of a key professional, such as Fortunato’s, was given to the lowest bidder. Fortunato was paid $59,000 in 2002 and stayed at $60,778 in 2004, 2005 and 2006 before getting his raise, Tablack said.

“He’s worth every dime that he gets,” Traficanti said.

Sheriff Randall A. Wellington noted he wrote a letter to Tablack last summer expressing his fear Knight might leave for a higher-paying job.

Knight hadn’t had a raise since he got 3 percent in 2004. His last raises before that were 17 percent in 2002 and 3 percent each in 2001 and 2000, Tablack said.

Knight, whose jail medical department operates under a $1.9 million budget this year, supervises 19 nurses and a ward clerk and has been the jail’s medical services coordinator since 1979.

“I built this program when I started,” he said. In addition to coordinating health care, Knight also monitors mental health and alcohol and drug counseling provided to inmates.

Knight said his pay raise was justified “because of the responsibilities I have. I represent the Mahoning County sheriff and the board of county commissioners to hopefully prevent any lawsuits related to the medical care.”

The responsibilities of Triveri and Furman increased when the county bought the 353,000-square-foot Oakhill Renaissance Place, which became the home of Job Family Services last summer, said Susan E. Quimby, human resources director. Their responsibilities were also increased by full reopening of jail facilities. The facilities department manages more than 1 million square feet.

Jail and sheriff

With the tax renewal, the county hired 70 new deputies, enabling it to fully reopen its main jail and reopen its misdemeanor jail. This allows the county to house 562 inmates in the main jail and 96 in the misdemeanor jail.

The 303 sheriff’s department employees belonging to the Fraternal Order of Police received a 3 percent increase retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007, followed by a 3 percent raise effective Jan. 1, 2008.

For full jail reopening, the sheriff’s department named three new captains, four new lieutenants and eight new sergeants last spring, all promoted from within. All received substantial pay increases. Capts. John M. Beshara and Jerold J. Greene were promoted directly from sergeant to captain, bypassing the rank of lieutenant.

New annual salaries were $48,308 for sergeants, $55,554 for lieutenants and $63,887 for captains. Those promoted had been with the sheriff’s office between five and 22 years, and all took civil service exams. Wellington said the raises for the newly promoted supervisors would cost $164,243 annually.

911 dispatchers’ pay

Besides the managers, 911 emergency dispatchers represented by the FOP received increases based on the Archer study in a new three-year contract approved in September. Their pay increased between 11 percent and 55 percent last year.

The average pay increase among the 19 labor union bargaining units representing county employees was 3 percent in 2007, Quimby said.

The county had previously experienced considerable turnover among dispatchers because of low pay, Quimby said. “We were training them and they would go elsewhere.”

The study showed 14 dispatchers earning between $21,258 and $29,806 annually in 2006 and suggested they should earn between $26,699 and $37,378. After the study, the dispatchers earned between $21,258 and $34,445.

Prosecutor’s office

Elected officials outside the commissioners’ office set their own employee salaries and their employees weren’t part of the Archer study.

In Prosecutor Paul J. Gains’ office, six assistant prosecutors received increases ranging from 11 percent to 23 percent last year as they advanced from one step to another on the pay scale.

Robert E. Bush Jr. received a raise of more than 19 percent to $77,400 annually when promoted from assistant prosecutor to chief of the criminal division. Bush replaced Timothy E. Franken, who was appointed Mahoning County Common Pleas judge in September. Franken earned $75,000 a year in the prosecutor’s office.

Gains said his office minimizes the hiring of outside lawyers in civil matters and disposes of six criminal cases weekly in each of the five common pleas courtrooms.

“I hire good people that other people want,” he said.

Gains noted he has left two assistant prosecutor positions vacant in his criminal division and one vacant in his civil division.

Juvenile court

Juvenile court employees who got large pay increases earned them through promotions or going from part-time to full-time, said Judge Theresa Dellick.

All 120 juvenile court employees serve at the judge’s discretion. Compensation is also merit-based, said Anthony D’Apolito, a magistrate and the court’s administrator.

“When you come here, you’re looking for people who are trained, experienced and educated,” Dellick said. “You’re in crisis. You’re looking for a solution. You’re not looking for someone to cry with you.”

All of the double-digit pay increases stem from job title promotions, increases in duties, increases in work hours, or advancement on the longevity-based corrections officer pay scale, which was last adjusted in 2001, the judge said.

James M. Barkett got a 106 percent annual pay increase to $61,818 last year when he was promoted from corrections officer in the juvenile detention center to the newly created post of community relations officer. An ordained minister, he is the center’s religious service coordinator and is in charge of conflict resolution, the judge said. Barkett plays a vital role in giving troubled youth a sense of purpose and goals, D’Apolito said. The court administration promoted Barkett after becoming impressed with the excellent rapport he had established with the juveniles in detention while he was a corrections officer, D’Apolito said.

The court’s mediation coordinator, Marcie Lynn Patzak-Vendetti, received a 94 percent increase to $60,000 a year when she became a lawyer and a magistrate in addition to her mediation role last year. Before she became a lawyer, she had been with the juvenile court for six years as an intake officer and then as mediation coordinator.

In addition to her mediation duties, Patzak-Vendetti spends part of her time as a magistrate, helping to handle the overflow of work from the other magistrates. The juvenile court has three full-time and five part-time magistrates.

Patzak-Vendetti created the juvenile court’s mediation program, and has also acquired more than $75,000 in grants to fund additional staff and services for the six-day-a-week program, the judge said.

milliken@vindy.com