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16 Mahoning CSB managers get pay raises
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Children Services Board has raised the salaries of 16 of its management employees by an average of about 3 percent, retroactive to Feb. 1.
The increases approved Tuesday range from 1.5 percent for fiscal officer Nikki Posterli, who was hired Feb. 24, 2014, and now earns $56,833 a year; to 9.87 percent for office manager Floree Stubbs, who was hired Nov. 26, 2001, and now earns $53,685 annually.
All other managers who got raises received a flat 2 percent or 3 percent increase.
“It was the recommendation that was presented by the executive director, and we felt [the raises] were justified,” the Rev. Lewis Macklin, board chairman, said without elaborating.
Randall Muth, the agency’s $100,000-a-year executive director, did not seek or receive any pay increase.
“We wanted to ensure that our staff was compensated at fair market value,” Muth said.
Stubbs got nearly a 10 percent raise because she assumed additional duties over the years as building manager and information-technology manager and now has 16 subordinates, Muth explained.
The increases for the nonunion staff follow the ratification of a new three-year labor contract for 98 members of Communications Workers of America Local 4300, who work at CSB.
Pay increases in that contract average 18.34 percent this year, 1.11 percent next year and 1.41 percent in 2017.
The union represents caseworkers, clerical workers and group-home staff.
Full-time Mahoning County Children Services caseworkers now earn between $32,718 and $44,824 annually.
State law requires caseworkers to have bachelor’s degrees in a social work related field.
The labor contract, retroactive to Feb. 1, raised minimum starting child welfare caseworker salaries here from last place to eighth place among 10 Ohio metropolitan county children services, Muth said.
The labor contract significantly improves the child welfare agency’s ability to attract and retain a well-qualified, experienced workforce and reduce turnover, Muth said.
In 2013, the agency lost 20 percent of its staff, he noted.
The management percentage increases were lower than the union average because the managers were not as underpaid as the union workers when compared to their peers in comparable Ohio children services, Muth said.
“Our union positions were vastly underpaid. When we did the math, it took us 18 percent [average pay raises] to get them to the 50th percentile” of their peers in comparable Ohio counties, Muth said.
“On average, it took us 3 percent to get our management where they should be,” he added.
The management pay increases raise combined managers’ salaries by $25,319 to $963,330 annually.
CSB could not have afforded the new union contract had it not passed last fall a real-estate tax levy that generates nearly $2.8 million more annually than the two levies it combined and replaced, Muth said.
The 1.85-mill, five-year levy approved last fall generates $7.3 million annually.
Union members’ salaries total $3,272,620 this year, up $461,956 from last year.
The union and nonunion raises fit within the budget the county commissioners approved for children services, Muth said.