At the Kewaunee County Board Meeting on Tu, Jan 21, the issue of Schedule II Employee salary increases will once again be placed in front of the board for consideration. I would suggest to those Kewaunee County Taxpayers who have been following this topic to contact their District Supervisors and make them aware of how you stand on this issue.
The Schedule II resolution that was placed before the board had request for approving $21,442 of salary increases for various Schedule II employees. No justification for these increases were provided to the board for these increases and therefore the resolution was tabled. On my blog, posted Jan 1, I laid out current salaries of those employees who were to be considered. My salary research results showed only four of the employees should be considered for increase at this time.
Political, Kewaunee County Board and General County Updates and Stories from the County
Monday, January 20, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Schedule II employee salary increases
The following letter was written to the members of the Kewaunee County Board in hopes they will get involved in this process rather than allowing certain committees to dictate to the Board.
At the December 17th Kewaunee County
Board Meeting a resolution titled “Resolution Approving Schedule II” was put
forward to the board for approval. The
personnel committee did not have that data available to the board until 3:30PM
on Dec 17th on the county website.
The first time board members saw this resolution was when you sat at your
desk for the county board meeting at 5PM.
As you know, that resolution was tabled by a vote of 10-9 with Ron
Paider not in attendance. The resolution
was tabled for one month and will, unless the Personnel Committee changes it’s
resolution, appear on the agenda in January for approval.
So,
it is up to us to let the Personnel Committee know the
resolution as submitted is not acceptable as presented to the board and needs
to be revised prior to the Jan board meeting.
The following table displays the salary increases as proposed by the
Personnel Committee.
|
Employee Name
|
Title
|
Current Salary
|
Salary
Increase
|
% of Increase
|
2014 Salary
|
|
Cornelius,
Dave
|
Chief
Deputy
|
$65,815
|
$4,500
|
6.83%
|
$70,315
|
|
Treml,
Joseph
|
Jail/Lt
|
$64,255
|
$3,000
|
4.66%
|
$67,255
|
|
Gulbrand,
Chris
|
Lt.
Sheriff Dept.
|
$64,255
|
$3,000
|
4.66%
|
$67,255
|
|
Wallander,
Andrew
|
County
Conservationist
|
$57,256
|
$1,500
|
2.61%
|
$58,755
|
|
Aulik,
Joe
|
Veterans
Service Officer
|
$48,565
|
$2,500
|
5.14%
|
$51,065
|
|
Halada,
Mary
|
Public
Health
|
$66,685
|
$1,500
|
2.24%
|
$68,185
|
|
Loining,
Ross
|
Dir.
Info Systems
|
$74,759
|
$1,500
|
2.00%
|
$76,258
|
|
Payette,
Matt
|
County
Parks
|
$56,869
|
$3,000
|
5.27%
|
$59,869
|
|
Hanson,
Steve
|
Land
Information Dir.
|
$55,058
|
$4,942
|
8.97%
|
$60,000
|
|
Wisnicky,
Jeff
|
Corporate
Council
|
$49,566
|
$1,000
|
2.29%
|
$50,566
|
|
TOTALS
|
$603,082
|
$25,942
|
|
$629,523
|
|
Important Note:
The
three highlighted employees each received a $1,500 bonus (included in table
above) as a result of the management contract the county entered into with the
city of Algoma for management of the Algoma City Police Force. There was no mention of bonus money in the
contract and it seems our Sheriff and his management team were confident they
could manage the Algoma force with existing staff. The proposed
bonuses were presented to the board on Dec 17th and passed the board by
a vote of 13 to 6 with the following board members voting in favor of these
bonuses: Barlow, Heidmann,
Abrahamson, Paphlam, Weidner, Wagner, Swoboda, Hutter, Mayer, Dax, Rueckelberg,
Koenig and Garfinkel.
Total increase in base salaries and
bonuses for this group of Schedule II employees totaled $25,942. But when you consider the fringe cost of retirement, workers comp, and SS, the
real cost of those increases is $30,984. And if one considers this over a period of,
let’s say ten years, it is $310,000 cost.
Let’s face it. Algoma will re-sign the management deal. So you can assume a request from the
Sheriff’s Department will be made to enure those bonuses will be continued
going forward. Given the
proposed salary increases for the lieutenants, perhaps this resolution should
be revisited.
So for these three Public Safety employees
combined, the increase in salary would be $10,500, (that includes base salary & bonus and does not consider increase
in fringe benefits). My salary
research supports the increase for the Chief Deputy, but nowhere can I find any
salary data that supports the increases for the other two lieutenants.
If
the resolution proposed by the Personnel Committee is left to stand, the
following table shows the results.
|
Employee Name
|
Title
|
Current Salary
|
Salary
Increase Includes Bonus
|
% of Increase
|
Salary Before
Fringe
|
% Cost of
Fringe Benefits
|
Cost of Fringe
|
TLL Cost of
2014 Salary
To County
|
|
Cornelius,
Dave
|
Chief Deputy
|
$65,815
|
$4,500
|
6.83%
|
$70,315
|
27.95%
|
$19,653
|
$89,968
|
|
Treml, Joseph
|
Jail/Lt
|
$64,255
|
$3,000
|
4.66%
|
$67,255
|
27.95%
|
$18,977
|
$86,232
|
|
Gulbrand,
Chris
|
Lt. Sheriff
Dept.
|
$64,255
|
$3,000
|
4.66%
|
$67,255
|
27.95%
|
$18,977
|
$86,232
|
Personnel
Committee Decision on these salaries
I was able to attend both personnel
committee meetings when the sub-committee, and then the full committee took up
the issue of these salary increases. Mr.
Weidner chaired both of these meetings and he was the only person at that
table, other than me, that had any salary research data.
Chairman Weidner elected to use the
August 2012 Carlson Dettmann study data to argue the salary increases for these
employees. Note: The following
table shows the counties that actually
participated in the Carlson Dettmann study that were compared against Kewaunee
County. Keep in mind, Kewaunee County
has an equalized value of $1.4B with a population of 20,500.
|
County
|
Equalized
value in Billions
|
Population
|
|
Calumet
|
$3.4
|
49,400
|
|
Door
|
$7.1
|
27,820
|
|
Manitowoc
|
$5.1
|
81,000
|
|
Marinette
|
$3.6
|
41,600
|
|
Oconto
|
$3.5
|
37,400
|
|
Shawano
|
$2.9
|
41,700
|
|
Waupaca
|
$3.7
|
52,600
|
|
Average of 7
Counties
|
$4.19
|
47,360
|
I called 10 counties during the week of Dec 3, 2013
to specifically query either the HR person or the County Clerks as to their
2014 salaries. I only considered those employees
who were to be considered for increase by our Personnel Committee. Following is a table of those counties I
called that displays their equalized values as well as populations. Note: I include Kewaunee, Door and
Manitowoc counties to arrive at my averages.
|
County
|
Equalized
value in Billions
|
Population
|
|
Ashland
|
$1.2
|
16,000
|
|
Door
|
$7.1
|
27,820
|
|
Jackson
|
$1.4
|
20,499
|
|
Vernon
|
$1.7
|
29,954
|
|
Clark
|
$1.7
|
33,557
|
|
Langlade
|
$1.6
|
19,997
|
|
Manitowoc
|
$5.1
|
81,000
|
|
Marquette
|
$1.6
|
15,404
|
|
Price
|
$1.4
|
14,159
|
|
Taylor
|
$1.2
|
20,689
|
|
Kewaunee
|
$1.4
|
20,500
|
|
Average of 11
Counties
|
$2.31
|
27,234
|
Compare the averages of the two tables. I would argue the data that I have assembled
for the 11 counties is much more in line with what Kewaunee County is than the data in the Carlson
Dettmann study. Carlson also had
included, for some positions, private sector jobs. But one could argue the job descriptions we
have for our public county employees are not comparable at all. For example, I am not aware of any private jail
lieutenants. Also, for the most part, the private sector jobs do not enjoy the
generous retirement program or the health insurance we provide the Kewaunee
County employees. Another
argument often heard is; “Our Kewaunee County employees are often times
multi-tasking, completing not only their assigned tasks but other assigned duties. In smaller
counties, this is the norm, not the exception!
So
what did my salary study show for these positions? The following table shows the average salary
for the 11 counties along with what should be a reasonable, fair salary
increase. (Lieutenant bonuses not
included in this table).
|
Employee Name
|
Title
|
Current Salary
Without Fringe
|
Ave. Salary
Eleven
Counties
|
Recommended
Increase?
Y0U DECIDE
|
2014 Salary
Without Fringe
|
|
Cornelius,
Dave
|
Chief
Deputy
|
$65,815
|
$72,562
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Treml,
Joseph
|
Jail/Lt
|
$64,255
|
$61,588
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Gulbrand,
Chris
|
Lt.
Sheriff Dept.
|
$64,255
|
$59,538
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Wallander,
Andrew
|
County
Conservationist
|
$57,256
|
$56,351
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Aulik,
Joe
|
Veterans
Service Officer
|
$48,565
|
$49,498
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Halada,
Mary
|
Public
Health
|
$66,685
|
$66,852
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Loining,
Ross
|
Dir.
Info Systems
|
$74,759
|
$66,564
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Payette,
Matt
|
County
Parks
|
$56,869
|
$63,418
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Hanson,
Steve
|
Land
Information Dir.
|
$55,058
|
$66,692
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
Wisnicky,
Jeff
|
Corporate
Council
|
$49,566
|
Not checked*
|
$ ?
|
$ ?
|
|
TOTALS
|
$603,082
|
|
$ ?
|
$?
|
|
*I did not check the Corp Council 2014 salaries with
other counties as this was originally not on the list, however in my 4/23/2013
salary study results, the Corp Council of Kewaunee Co was underpaid.
Now that you have “the rest of the story” and an
opportunity to compare, make your own decisions concerning these salary
increases and make recommendations to the Personnel Committee. Remember, the Personnel Committee is a
recommending body and they are not in place to dictate policy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)