The Board of County Commissioners agreed on Monday to give county employees a 4 percent raise next year. The raise will be effective for the first payroll in January. County employees got a 3 percent raise for 2018, a 4 percent raise for 2019 and a 4 percent raise for 2020.
The commissioners discussed the benefit package that Washington County employees have before granting the 2021 raise.
“The benefit package is above average here,” commissioner David Willbrant said.
He proposed a 4.6 percent raise.
Commissioner Raleigh Ordoyne said a cost of living increase would be 1.3 percent, according to October data.
Noxious Weed & Solid Waste
The board voted unanimously to provide a 4 percent raise to all positions including part-time and seasonal with exceptions for contract labor and the Appraiser 1 position, which recently received a 4.6 percent increase.
Ordoyne said he didn’t think county employees understood the value of the benefit package they had. He said he once figured up the value of the benefits he offers to the employees of his business. The value of those benefits was $5 to $9 an hour, and that was for employee-only health insurance. Washington County offers a family insurance plan and more benefits.
Last week the group discussed other county benefits including the number of paid holidays and the 8-to-10 hours of paid time off that employees receive every pay period, which is every two weeks.
The group said the upcoming 4 percent raise would amount to a 50-cent-an-hour raise for an employee currently making $12.49.
In 2019 the county had a gross payroll of $2.8 million with about 80 employees.
Orodoyne also told his fellow board members that someone contacted him after reading the newspaper article a few weeks ago when county clerk Diana Svanda told the board that low wages for courthouse employees was the reason for so much turnover in departments there. According to Ordoyne, the person who contacted him said she applied for a job in the courthouse and didn’t consider the pay to be low when the benefits were figured in. The environment in the courthouse and the experiences with department heads are what resulted in her choosing not to work in the courthouse.
Noxious Weed & Solid Waste Noxious Weed and Solid Waste director Duane Bruna told the commissioners that the money he wants to roll over to next year for his departments may look large, but he is saving up for a simple, low-cost, three-stall garage to house trucks and spraying equipment. Bruna said he would also like to purchase another truck so that his department can be spraying with two trucks “when the weather is decent.”
Bruna also reported on income from the one Saturday a month that the transfer station/landfill is open to the public. He said very little money comes in during the winter Saturdays; the summer Saturdays do better.
Bruna said Marshall County’s landfill is closed on Saturdays now, and Republic County’s construction and demolition pile is open to the public by appointment only.
“I’m asking you guys if you would entertain being closed on Saturdays?” Bruna asked the commissioners. Willbrant and commissioner Scott Zabokrtsky agreed that the landfill should remain open once a month on Saturdays as a service to the public.
Bruna also told the commissioners that discussions would need to take place next year between the county and a landowner whom the county is hoping to purchase land from for expansion of the landfill. Bruna said that the storms at Linn have considerably filled the cells at the landfill, and one more “bad” wind storm or tornado in the county and the construction and demolition pile will be full.
In other business:
• Willbrant said he had citizen contact about taxes going up year after year in considerable percentages. He said the citizen said that if the tax increases were originally the result of tax corrections [from years of the former appraiser not setting them correctly], the taxes shouldn’t continue to go up considerably every year. Willbrant said he also had contact from a business owner in Washington who was inquiring about assistance for constructing a new building. Willbrant said he referred the person to the economic development group.
• Road and Bridge supervisor Justin Novak told the commissioners about some purchases he wants to make. He said he wants to restock lots of metal including angle iron for bridge and shop use. He got one quote from Salina Steel for $6,327. Willbrant asked Novak about getting additional quotes.
Novak also said he wants to purchase bridge decking for about $7,000 and some gas pipe for about $4,000.
At the end of his report, Novak asked the commissioners if there was any decision on the mask mandates because the employees in his department are evenly split on their opinions of the mask policy. The commissioners had no answer for Novak.
• Sheriff Justin Cordry said many projects in his department were pushed back because of COVID. He told the commissioners that some of his bigger project goals for the near future include repairing or replacing some fencing at the range property and looking into a new roof at the law enforcement center. Cordry said the abandoned vehicles that are kept at the law enforcement center now look like clutter. He would like to move them out to the range property. A quote for fencing at the range, though, has come in at $18,000, and Cordry said he doesn’t want to pay that much for fencing.
He also told the commissioners that the law enforcement center building wasn’t built correctly and has had issues since the beginning. The roof always leaks but the source can’t be found. He said replacing the roof won’t be cheap, and he would like to get an estimate to tie together the two roofs between the jail and the law enforcement center. He said this isn’t necessarily a project for 2021; he is “just looking ahead.”