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Trumbull deputies to get pay raises
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Deputies, their supervisors, and support workers at the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office will get pay raises of nearly 40 cents per hour each of the next three years.
The county commissioners have not yet approved the raises, after a ruling by a conciliator, but are expected to do so in the coming weeks.
Each worker also will get additional 25-cent-per hour step increases at years seven and 10, something the attorney representing the workers said other county employees already had.
Conciliator Martin R. Fitts of Bay Village issued his decision Jan. 22, siding with the county and its contract offer. As conciliator, Fitts only had two options — to choose the county’s proposal or the union’s.
The agreement covers 44 road-commissioned deputies who work road patrol and courthouse security; 10 sergeants and lieutenants; and 11 secretaries, clerks, cooks and custodians. It is likely to cost the county about $51,827 more per year, excluding step-pay increases.
Most workers will get a retroactive pay raise for 2014 of 45 cents per hour, 45 cents per hour in 2015 and 25 cents per hour in 2016 — a total of $1.15 more per hour over the three years, or about $800 more per year for each worker.
That compares favorably with the roughly 30-cents-per-hour increase each of the next three years that workers in departments such as clerk of courts, treasurer’s office, building inspection and sanitary engineers received in their new contract last month.
But Atty. Randy Weltman of the Ohio Patrolman’s Benevolent Assocation, who represents the deputies, said the sheriff’s workers received more because they went one year longer without a pay increase than the other workers.
Sheriff’s workers had not received a pay raise since 2008, while other workers had a pay raise in 2009.
The biggest difference between the county’s contract proposal and the union’s proposal was that the union wanted the deputies and their supervisors to receive an additional 25 cents-per-hour hazardous-duty pay starting with 2014.
The union also wanted all workers covered by the contract to get pay increases of 50 cents per hour in the first and second years instead of 45 cents and wanted an additional step increase at five years.
The conciliator said one reason he did not choose the union’s proposal is because the county’s reserve fund has been decreasing for several years and is now below Government Finance Officers Association recommended levels.
“Certainly, the union was correct to point out some evidence of future economic growth,” Fitts said in his decision. But it would be improper to order pay increases based on “unrealized future economic possibilities, no matter how great the potential.”
Under the new contract, starting wages for deputies from 2014 to 2016 will be $16.83; excluding step increases, deputies after 10 years’ service will earn $21.56 in 2014 but $22.51 in 2016.
Lieutenants’ wages, excluding step increases, will be $24.65 in 2014 and rise to $28.24 in 2016.
Under the new contract, excluding step increases, a receptionist/clerk will make $10.59 per hour in 2014 and $11.24 in 2016; a cook will earn $15.01 in 2014 and $14.20 in 2016; a custodian and records clerk will earn $15.01 in 2014 and $15.71 in 2016; and a civil coordinator will earn $19.44 per hour in 2014 and $20.14 in 2016.