Elections board cuts clerk hours, payroll

By David Skolnick

The board would cut its annual costs by $175,000 to $200,000 when the plan is fully implemented.

YOUNGSTOWN — In an effort to reduce its expenses, the Mahoning County Board of Elections has made six of its 11 clerks nine-month employees and cut their pay 25 percent.

While not a popular move with the employees, board Director Thomas McCabe said the other option was layoffs.

“I didn’t want anyone to lose their jobs,” he said.

The six clerks are keeping their health-care benefits, and starting Friday, they saw their annual base-pay salaries drop from $35,600 to $26,700.

McCabe said the clerks can choose which three months they don’t want to work from among the six slowest months at the board — January, February, June, July, August and December.

The pay cut for the six clerks is part of a cost-cutting effort at the elections board, McCabe said.

When fully implemented, the board’s plan would reduce its costs by $175,000 to $200,000 annually, he said. The board’s budget was about $1.4 million last year though it was $2.7 million during the busy 2008 presidential election.

“The economic realities of the county and the work we do at the board means we can reduce our costs,” McCabe said.

The board has reduced the starting pay for full-time clerks to $21,800 rather than $35,600 and will reduce the number of part-time workers it uses during busy election periods, he said.

The board typically hires 24 to 36 part-time workers, who earn $9 an hour, McCabe said. The board won’t surpass 12 part-time workers at the same hourly salary unless it’s a situation similar to the 2008 presidential election, he said.

The board hasn’t made any cuts to the five full-time clerks as well as McCabe, Deputy Director Joyce Kale-Pesta, and Chris Rakocy, the board’s information-technology coordinator.

But board members are talking about requiring those staff members to take an unpaid day off every two weeks or increase the amount they contribute toward their health-care costs. Elections-board employees pay 10 percent of the cost of their health-insurance premiums.

The board plans to eliminate 25 to 40 voting precincts for the November general election, McCabe said.

There are 287 voting precincts.

The board reduced the number of precincts in 2001 from 412 to 209 and cut an additional 25 in 2006.

The elimination of each precinct reduces election costs by $500 for a primary election and $500 for a general election.

Also, the board is considering hiring a company to print, fold and mail absentee ballots rather than have it done by its employees, McCabe said. The change could save $50,000 to $70,000 annually, he said.

skolnick@vindy.com