43
Salaries, but not benefits, will be compared to other counties in Mahoning pay study
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County officials launched a county employee compensation and classification study Tuesday with a public meeting at Oakhill Renaissance Place, which was attended by several dozen officials from a broad range of county government departments.
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 Tuesday’s 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.
“We hope to make sure that all of the employees are paid appropriately for the area and for their position,” he said. “We’ll take a look at other counties across the state and compare them as far as size, geographic location, similar type of income levels, and things like that,” he said, adding that the comparison counties haven’t yet been selected.
The study will compare salaries, but not benefits, Lundgren said in response to a question from Ralph Meacham, county auditor.
Lundgren, however, did not elaborate in his answer to Meacham as to why benefit comparisons won’t be included in the study.
“It would make it too complicated,” Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the county commissioners, said of adding a benefit comparison component to this study.
“We need to start somewhere,” with a salary comparison, she said, adding that the county may do a benefits comparison in the future.
Lundgren said he doesn’t expect to compare Mahoning County workers’ pay to that of their private sector peers in the Mahoning Valley doing similar work.
“There are so many other different things that go into what you pay. Benefits are so much different,” as are retirement plans, he explained. “Oftentimes, it’s just not a good match,” he added.
U’Halie said the deadline for county department heads and elected officials to notify her in writing if their departments will participate in the study is Oct. 5.
Lundgren said Evergreen hopes to produce a preliminary report in January and a final study report in February.
Maj. Alki Santamas, county jail administrator, said he did not know yet whether the sheriff’s department will participate in the pay study.
Although he said sheriff’s department employees were underpaid in the past, he said: “I think we’re better now with the last few (labor) contracts getting us equal to our peers.”
Susan McGrew, Mahoning County law library director, said the county law library resources board has voted to participate in the pay study.
She and a library assistant are the only employees of the library, which is on the fourth floor of the county courthouse.
“I think it will give the public more confidence that county employees aren’t just taking money for doing nothing. It gives a very good impression that we are concerned that everybody’s making a fair wage and not making too much money,” McGrew said of the study.
In June 2006, the county commissioners hired the Archer Co. LLC of Westerville for $32,500 to perform a similar study.
Starting in August 2007, the commissioners awarded pay increases to department heads, supervisors and 911 emergency dispatchers, which they said were justified by the Archer study.