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County salary requests get mixed reception
With the county in the midst of a salary study, the Putnam County Council is seeking a direction on requests for salary changes in various county departments.
Four such requests were met with varied responses during the January meeting of the County Council recently.
Reorganizing her new office following the departure of a 31-year employee to another office, Clerk Tracy Bridges received unanimous approval in her request to redistribute the money previously made by chief deputy Debbie Ensor.
Bridges noted that she has no one in the office with nearly that level of experience, so she sought to give raises to the rest of the positions while bringing that salary more in line with the new person’s level of experience.
The request did not require the transfer of any money, simply the redistribution of salaries in the same fund.
With limited discussion, the council approved the measure 6-0, with Councilman Danny Wallace abstaining since he has a family member who works in the office.
The fate of a salary request by new Recorder Heather Gilbert was subject to more scrutiny, though.
Ensor had been Gilbert’s chief deputy in the Clerk’s Office, and followed her to the Recorder’s Office after the 2022 election. Gilbert hopes to compensate Ensor according to her years of service to the county.
“I want to encourage people to stay here for a long period of time,” Gilbert said. “For someone to dedicate that much of their life to this courthouse is a big deal.”
Gilbert noted that she was not requesting any money from county general, but wanted to use some unappropriated money from the recorder perpetuation fund. She said when Ensor came to her new position, it was with the promise that Gilbert would try to get her the same salary.
“I don’t necessarily want to take her money away,” new Council Vice President Jay Alcorn said. “I think you overpromised.”
“I didn’t promise,” Gilbert said.
“If we say no, we’re the ones who look bad,” Alcorn countered.
One point brought up by Councilman Phil Gick was that if the move was approved, the results of the salary study may have some positions not getting new raises for quite some time.
Councilman Larry Parker also noted that one of the goals of the salary study is to establish more uniform wages across the county’s various departments, saying that leaving salaries up to individual departments “really messed up everybody in the courthouse.”
Throughout the discussion, new Council President Stephanie Campbell – herself a former courthouse office holder as auditor – was insistent upon waiting on the salary study.
Ultimately, Alcorn made a motion for approval, noting he did not want to make a habit of it, and Parker seconded the motion.
The move passed 6-1, with Campbell’s dissent.
“And it’s nothing personal — I’m trying to stick to my guns,” Campbell said.
A request by the Putnam County Health Department met with a similar fate.
In this case, the department is looking to reorganize its nursing division following the recent resignation of public health nurse Sara Burnett.
Rather than trying to replace Burnett, a registered nurse, directly, the department plans to move forward with two licensed practitioner nurse positions as well as a newly-created medical office assistant/receptionist position. The hope is to take scheduling out of the hands of the nurses themselves and keep them focused on nursing.
The money for the new position will be drawn partially from the old RN position and a currently unfilled data entry clerk position.
Campbell noted that the proposed salary was more than EMTs make for Putnam County EMS, which she sees as a problem.
However, health department officials already have a specific person in mind with years of experience in a similar position.
Gick made a motion for approval, with a second from Keith Berry. The motion passed 6-1 with Campbell again dissenting.
A salary request by EMS Chief Kelly Russ was put on hold, though.
Russ noted that while she is the person in charge of the department, Deputy Chief Anthony Taylor also handles many duties which are just as important.
Russ’s request was that her five-percent raise instituted at the beginning of the year go to Taylor instead, on top of his own five-percent raise. She insisted that with there already being a gap between the two salaries, the percent raise only widened the gap.
“We have equal size headaches, just different ones,” Russ said.
On this matter, though, Parker made a motion to table the request until the salary study is complete, which was seconded by Gick. The motion passed 7-0.
In attendance at the meeting, Commissioner Rick Woodall noted that the first bids to conduct the study had begun coming in last week. The hope is that a bid can be chosen soon with the findings back in a few months.
With the differing decisions on the most recent salary requests and the pending study, it begs the question if Woodall and Putnam County Highway officials may come back before the council regarding raises for the two administrative positions in that department.
The request was made last summer as part of a reorganization at the highway department. However, while salaries were approved for County Engineer Jim Peck and Highway Director Clint Maddox, they were denied for the administrators.
A big objection at the time was that the administrators would have been making more than any courthouse deputy, with one courthouse official noting it would “open a can of worms.”
It remains unclear what light the salary study will shed upon such matters.
Campbell, Alcorn, Wallace, Berry, Gick and Parker were joined at the meeting by newly-elected Councilman Wayne Huffman, Auditor Kristina Berish and council attorney Trudy Selvia.