Mahoning County officials launch pay study

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County officials launched a county employee compensation and classification study this morning with a public meeting attended by several dozen county officials from a broad range of departments at Oakhill Renaissance Place.

The meeting followed the county commissioners’ June 30 hiring of Evergreen Solutions LLC of Tallahassee, Fla., to perform the $65,000 study.

The study will compare Mahoning County employees’ compensation with that of their peers performing similar work in governments of counties of comparable size.

No pay raises can be promised to employees, but nobody’s pay will be reduced because of the study, Karen U’Halie, county human resources director, told county elected officials and department heads in her notice of the meeting.

“This doesn’t mean that every single position is going to get an increase,” in pay, Kevin S. Lundgren, Evergreen project manager, said of the pay study.

“If there are positions that are way above the market, we recommend leaving them where they are,” in salary, he told the audience.