Trumbull commissioners say no to 26.5% raises for deputies

WARREN

Trumbull County commissioners have rejected a fact-finder’s report that called for pay and benefits increases for deputy sheriffs of 26.5 percent over three years, or nearly $600,000.

Frank Fuda, Trumbull County commissioner, said commissioners aren’t willing to give those kinds of increases. “We have to live within our budget. Apparently the fact-finder’s not looking at that,” he said.

A union representative for the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, however, says the fact-finder correctly observed that the county has the money to give pay increases.

Atty. Randall Weltman, the union’s negotiator, said county officials “play all sorts of tricks” to hide its surplus revenue.

The fact-finder recommended a 50-cent-per-hour pay increase for 2014 and 2015 and 25-cent-per-hour increase for 2016, as well as additional “step” increases of 25 cents per hour at the end of yearS 7 and 10, according to the report.

The workers at issue are 49 deputies, their union supervisors, cooks, custodial workers and clerical workers.

The deputies and their supervisors currently make an average of $21.16 per hour, said Jim Keating, the county’s human resources director. Cooks earn about $13.83 per hour, and clerical workers make about $15.60 per hour, Keating said.

Read more about the matter in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.