Deal freezes wages, extends pacts 1 year

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — With Trumbull County’s sales-tax revenues down about $1 million compared with 2008, county officials and employees have agreed to one-year wage freezes for most county workers.

County commissioners approved pay freezes for workers in several county departments Wednesday, including the Child Support Enforcement Agency, county clerk of courts and county treasurer.

The agreements complete the process of extending contracts for all workers under the supervision of elected county officials such as the commissioners and auditor, said Jim Keating, county personnel director.

Many of the contracts are now extended through July 31, 2010, though workers in the sheriff’s department and county 911 have contracts that will run through Dec. 31, 2009.

Extending the contracts one year allows county officials and workers to “take a step back” and see where the economy is heading before negotiating their next contract, Keating said.

The one-year extensions cover about 340 county employees.

One bargaining unit that is not on a wage freeze this year is Local 458 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, covering workers at the Department of Job and Family Services, formerly known as the welfare department.

Those workers have one year left on a three-year contract that included a 3 percent wage increase each year of the deal. That contract expires July 31, 2010.

JFS workers will make between $11.26 and $17.03 per hour plus between 20 cents and $1.45 per hour in longevity pay this year.

Workers at the Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities (Fairhaven) have one year left on a three-year contract that expires Aug. 31, 2010. They will receive a 3 percent pay increase this year and will earn between $8.60 and $29.01 per hour.

Employees at the county highway engineer’s office are working under a contract that expires next April, said David DeChristofaro, county engineer.

In Mahoning County this year, workers agreed to concessionary contracts. Sheriff’s employees, for example, approved a contract in the spring that runs through June 2010 that reduces each employee’s pay by about 20 percent. The concessions helped shave about $4.7 million from the county commissioners’ 2009 budget.

By contrast, Trumbull County commissioners approved a budget in February that was $1 million more than in 2008.

Adrian Biviano, Trumbull County auditor, projected in the spring that Trumbull County’s sales tax receipts would be about $19.3 million in 2009 — a drop of about 10 percent compared with 2008 sales tax receipts of $21.5 million.

Receipts received through July totaled $11.4 million, which is about $1 million below the total received through July of 2008 and on pace to reach Biviano’s projection of $19.3 million, Biviano said.

Those projections might be low, Biviano noted, depending on how much the federal government’s “cash for clunkers” program helps boost Trumbull County auto sales. The opening of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Liberty on Aug. 19 might also increase sales-tax revenue, Biviano said.

The county will be paying an additional $7 per month toward the dental plan for many county employees, Keating said, because the insurance company raised rates.

runyan@vindy.com