For years, elected officials and department heads have consistently asked Wayne County’s commissioners for more pay for their staffs because they were tired of losing good people for what they viewed as just a little more money per hour.
Could changes be on the horizon? Clerk of Courts Tim Neal is hopeful that is the case because he has become frustrated with the countywide pay policy that establishes pay ranges for each job classification.
Neal met recently with the commissioners again pleading his case for more money “to get them where they should be.” He reworked the job descriptions and classifications because the new document management system requires workers have greater skills to operate the computerized imaging system hoping the money …show more content…
While elected officials have the latitude to run their offices as they see fit, they can only do so with the amount of money approved by the commissioners, who serve as the county’s fiscal agents. They have the final say on the county’s budget.
Recorder Jane Carmichael said she wished the commissioners would let each elected official determine what to pay their employees and reward them for length of service. “I wish we could all sit down and share ideas instead of them telling us what we can pay our workers,” she added.
Whether it is Jane Carmichael, Prosecutor Dan Lutz, former Board of Elections Director Peter James or others, wage surveys from neighboring and similar counties have been completed to show how county government workers here are paid less than other areas.
“We are never going to be the highest,” Obrecht said. “Our comparisons are not surrounding counties. We have to look at what we can do in Wayne County and be fair across the board.”
In the memo, the commissioners point out general fund revenue has grown by only 1.5 percent since 2007. Back then, it was nearly $24.4 million and at the end of 2015 it had grown to nearly $24.7
Could changes be on the horizon? Clerk of Courts Tim Neal is hopeful that is the case because he has become frustrated with the countywide pay policy that establishes pay ranges for each job classification.
Neal met recently with the commissioners again pleading his case for more money “to get them where they should be.” He reworked the job descriptions and classifications because the new document management system requires workers have greater skills to operate the computerized imaging system hoping the money …show more content…
While elected officials have the latitude to run their offices as they see fit, they can only do so with the amount of money approved by the commissioners, who serve as the county’s fiscal agents. They have the final say on the county’s budget.
Recorder Jane Carmichael said she wished the commissioners would let each elected official determine what to pay their employees and reward them for length of service. “I wish we could all sit down and share ideas instead of them telling us what we can pay our workers,” she added.
Whether it is Jane Carmichael, Prosecutor Dan Lutz, former Board of Elections Director Peter James or others, wage surveys from neighboring and similar counties have been completed to show how county government workers here are paid less than other areas.
“We are never going to be the highest,” Obrecht said. “Our comparisons are not surrounding counties. We have to look at what we can do in Wayne County and be fair across the board.”
In the memo, the commissioners point out general fund revenue has grown by only 1.5 percent since 2007. Back then, it was nearly $24.4 million and at the end of 2015 it had grown to nearly $24.7